Home built meat cooler ??

[Clint_S]

I'm thinking of trying to make my own personal meat cooler. My last deer (with 50lbs sausage) cost me $186 . Seems it's getting more expensive all the time and while I've cut several deer I've yet to try sausage making but don't see any challenges there. Certain times of year hanging a deer for a few days is no problem but early season kind of gives a fellow no choice but to take it to the meat cutter unless you want a really late night and cutting a fresh deer is pretty messy and more difficult before the meat "sets".
So.. anybody ever see a homebuilt or know how it worked. I'm thinking 4'w x 2'd x 6' h with two racks and 1' styro insulation, just enough for 1 elk or 2 deer to hang for a week. Thinking an old fridge compressor system should keep it at the desired temp. but don't know if you would need fans for air circulation or fresh air intakes??? Any ideas or plans out there?

[Farmer]

We built one on the farm here about 20 - 25 years ago. It is about 8ft by 10 ft by about 7.5 ft high inside. We used 2x6 studding and insulated between the studs with lots of fibreglass insulation and then covered that with 1.5 or 2 inch styrofoam insulation. We then covered that with plywood. I built tracks on the ceiling out of sliding door track and used rollers that allowed a hook to hang off them. this way we can slide quarters down each side of the room. We had a commercial cooling unit installed . It came from a small grocery store that was expanding. The door hardware came used from the refrigeration outfit as well. We built it in one of our machine sheds. The building has a cement floor but no heat and the compressor unit does not vent externally. The cooling unit inside the room has 2 fans that run continuously. The compressor is located on the top of the ceiling of the room and is controlled by a thermostat inside.
Once the meat is cool, the compressor runs about 5 minutes an hour - I think that the fans heat up the room enough to trip the thermostat.
We have held several critters at once in this cooler. From cows to moose elk and deer. Most of the winter it just keeps a few boxes of apples cool.
I don't think that you would want a fresh air intake as that air would be warmer than the desired cooling temperature.

[dukester]

How about a A/C unit?? build the cooler(portable so you can take it to camp with a generator) and mount the A/C unit like you would in a window. seal it up tight, plug it in. should be able to pick a couple at a garage sale this spring. have an extra for emergency. be alot cooler then a small fridge motor. plus i'm thinking that fridge motor may burn out trying to reach its temp.

[bighornbob]

Just take the meat to hang at the cooler then bring it home to cut up. We have done this a few times when temps are close to 30 degrees the first week of hunting. We skin the deer and then take them to the butcher. I think he charged 5 bucks a day. We left it there for 4 days and would then go pick it up and butcher it ourselves.

In regards to the sausage, when butchering just put all the meat scraps etc in large ziplocks and freeze till you are ready to make the sausage. If we dont have time we just take the ziplock bags to a sauage maker to get done. Never had a problem just taking clean meat to the butcher. Just show him a tag and he is good to go.

BHB

[BlacktailStalker]

In cranbrook 2 years ago it was $1.50 an hour for 7 days and there was NO where else to go.
To top it off the deep freeze kicked the bucket at the butcher and I was sent home with bloody meat on a 15 hour drive. I honestly wanted to tell him where to put it and leave but it was my first elk and I had to be on the road.
$260.
I was livid. Never again.
Cut/wrap, deepfreeze and a generator now.

[270WSMGB]

Wired one up for a guy. It had no external vents. 2 cooling fans. The room itself was about 4'wx8'lx7't. A small monorail down the center. The refrigeration unit was a commercial unit from Alberta. I think you have the right idea.

[freeman6]

A buddy that works as a power engineer in a hospital built one the front of a utility trailer using a portable A/C unit. The generator was mounted on the trailer hitch frame. Worked great, but you had to really watch and fine tune the thermostat to prevent freezing. It probably had something to do with where he had the sensor mounted.

Construction was 2X4 frame, pink styroboard between the studs, plywood interior, painted of course. Outside the frame was thin OSB sheeting, more pink styroboard, plywood outer walls covered with metal siding. Inside the refrigerator, there were 2 tracks with rollers on them for hanging the meat on hooks. At intervals along the tracks there were blocks that could be moved into place to keep the hanging meat spaced out even if the trailer was moved from one location to another.

Building or buying one like his is definitely on my to do list. Just as soon as I win the lottery and can afford to hire someone to take care of the "honey do" book.

[NEEHAMA]

buy a small inclosed trailer spray in the insulations. screw up plywood over top. buy a RV ac unit for the roof and bob's your uncle.

[25hunter]

This summer I will be building my own. I have a shed already that will work, just need the cooling unit. check out this site http://www.storeitcold.com/index.php

[Phil]

I have been looking in to doing the same thing. If you can get a hold of a cooling system from a pop/vending machine it apparently has all of the required components to do the job well.