Thoughts and Ideas for this wine cabinet

[sipp]

Good evening all,
I ran across this wine cabinet in a local craigslist post and with the price he was asking, I could not pass it up. So, here I am asking thoughts and opninions on converting. It is a 220 bottle cabinet with a compressor for the cooling. The interior lighting and compressor works good, it just don't quite cool like it did before the previous owner stated. I have ran it and it holds 64*F on the high end with no problem. The door seals are in good shape and comes with twelve flat wire racks. The inside is a black plactic material and total cubic feet comes out to 19.04, rounded out. I have read the threads about compressors, the pro's and con's and the threads concerning active and passive humidification. I have some thoughts of what I may do, remove the compressor and panel it with Spanish Cedar plywood, hard to come by here in the Raleigh area but have found African Mahogany plywood with ease, keep the compressor in and look into a controller for the compressor to bypass the internal temp settings and keeping the interior as it is. As for humidification, Heartfelt beads and rigging computer fans or looking into an active system like Accumonitor, Hydra or Humi-Care Pro system with extra fans. I want to keep the shelving since they are flat and are an open design allowing for good air flow. The cabinet will be placed in the wife's home office, temp's on par with the downstairs living area when vents are opened in there. Since this is the first time converting something like this I'm looking for some ideas and opinions so I don't screw it up. Thanks again to everyone here and I look forward to the replies.
Sip

 

[SuprHasan]

The interior lighting and compressor works good

That compressor may be sucking the humidity out of the unit. You'll want to check a couple of things.
1. Vibration
--On compressor startup
--while the unit is running
--on shutdown
2. Humidity levels during the on and off cycles of the cooling.

If the humidity is dropping during the cooling, I don't think it's going to work well for you.
You might have to go for an active humidification (also given the size of the unit). RonC @ Cigar Solutions will be able to recommend something that'll be perfect for you. Check out the Sponsors section in the forum for his details.

Good luck and keep us informed!

 

[twenty5]

If I were you, I would pull the compressor out and treat it more like an non-cooled cabinet. Line it with cedar, pick a humidification system and store it in a place that stays 62-72 all year long and you are golden. Good luck with it!

 

[dpricenator]

Sweet looking box.

1. Ditch the current cooling system. The temp may be right, but that compressor is going to cause condensation and terrible humidity spikes.

2. Line it with Spanish Cedar or mahagiony. It's ok to do a floating box, so it can swell when it is seasoned

3. Shelving. My thoughts are to make the shelve adjustable, just like a book shelf. That way as you grow, you can move the shelves to fit different boxes etc. Also maybe some display shelves that could sit at an angle to show off your fancy boxes. That woiuld only require a ledge at the front of the shelve, and the two back pins to be raised a few holes. (did I explain this right?)

3. NO BEADS. the box is too big You need the accumonitior with at least 2 canisters and fans, but 4 would be sweet.

4. Take pics along the way so you can show us how it cam out.

 

[RonC]

i agree about getting rid of the cooling

 

[drob03]

Sweet unit. Once you get it set up I wanna see pictures and have fun filling it.

 

[danthebugman]

Sweet find :thumbsup:. If it were me, I'd junk the cooling also. Line that sucker with some Spanish Cedar. Do like Dave suggested and go for adustable shelves (should be able to drill some holes and put those little metal pieces in there that support a shelf I'd think). Then fill that puppy up!

Dan

 

[carl609]

That is going to make a great humidor. I agree with ditching the compressor. Line it with spanish cedar. The prices here are pretty good for 4x8 sheets.

http://www.publiclumber.com/store/pc/Spanish-Cedar-c42.htm

 

[onlydominican]

That is a bad unit and will make a great humidor. As other have said, get rid of the compressor. Definitely try to put some spanish cedar in there and use active humidification. And of course, let us see the pictures as you do it. Congrats and good luck. I recently did my first project and itwas extremely satisfying !

 

[violin33]

That will be a very nice unit ,good luck,go slow and think it out you wont be sorry that way....

 

[r3db4r0n]

Sweet looking box.

1. Ditch the current cooling system. The temp may be right, but that compressor is going to cause condensation and terrible humidity spikes.

2. Line it with Spanish Cedar or mahagiony. It's ok to do a floating box, so it can swell when it is seasoned

3. Shelving. My thoughts are to make the shelve adjustable, just like a book shelf. That way as you grow, you can move the shelves to fit different boxes etc. Also maybe some display shelves that could sit at an angle to show off your fancy boxes. That woiuld only require a ledge at the front of the shelve, and the two back pins to be raised a few holes. (did I explain this right?)

3. NO BEADS. the box is too big You need the accumonitior with at least 2 canisters and fans, but 4 would be sweet.

4. Take pics along the way so you can show us how it cam out.

Not sure you can get much more solid advice than this

 

[Zedman05]

If that unit came with a compressor for cooling, then it must have a fan on the evaperator inside the unit to move air around for cooling. If you disconnected the power going to the compressor terminals, you could essentially have yourself a fan at the top of that box that circulates air for your humdification without the system actually cooling. It might be a gravity feed type system in which you will need another type of fan set up for moving air around that box, but I doubt it.
Like the others have stated; if you use the compressor to keep the box temp. down, you are going to pull humidity out of the air (just like in A/C, the evaperator will pull humidity out of the air before it starts cooling that air first). Just my 2 cents as a fridgie