DIY Coke Dispenser

If you find yourself thirsty while hard at work, you may have considered purchasing a mini fridge to keep by your desk. Unfortunately, your average mini fridge is clunky and cumbersome, and will "dorm" up your office's design scheme. Avoid the dorm room mini fridge look by "up-cycling" an old, unused computer tower into a DIY soda dispenser and cooler that will seamlessly blend into your home office or workplace decor. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

1

Remove the peltier from its housing inside the mini fridge by unscrewing any visible screws. Cut off any stubborn casing with a knife or tin snips. Remove the peltier from the aluminum pan by unscrewing any visible screws.

2

Clean the now-visible cold plate, which was located between the peltier and the aluminum pan, with a rag and cotton swab soaked in rubbing alcohol. Clean every visible spot and take care to remove any thermal grease.

3

Cut away the thermal resistor, located on the negative section of the peltier block.

4

Unscrew the bolts in the back of the computer tower or unlatch the appropriate release mechanism in order to open up the tower. Remove any fans, cables, and hard or floppy drives.

5

Drill out the rivets holding the internal structure of tower together and remove the internal structure. Your tower should now be completely empty except for the power supply, with two sections---upper and lower---that are divided by one metal shelf.

6

Saw a 4-inch diameter hole in the top of the case using the hole saw, towards the back and directly above the power supply. Using your small handsaw, cut away the bottom 3 inches from your tower's face.

7

Cut out sections of Styrofoam to fit into the walls of your tower and several more pieces to cover your power supply. Ensure that you leave the power supply's wires exposed. Place extra layers in the back wall of the tower. Seal any gaps with foam insulation. Avoid insulating the front side of the tower.

8

Cut an acrylic sheet with your handsaw to match the width of the short walls of your tower. Cut it again to match the length of the long sides, plus 3 inches. Cut another piece to the same width and half the length.

9

Lean the longer piece of acrylic sheet against the side of the tower with the bottom of the sheet hitting the bottom front of the tower's interior, creating a ramp. Fasten it in place with your foam insulation.

10

Glue the second, smaller piece of acrylic sheet to the underside of the metal shelf inside the tower, at the front, by the sheet's short edge. Allow the end of the sheet to droop down, creating another ramp which stops short of intersecting the first ramp by at least the width of a soda can.

11

Drill holes through the back of your tower and thread your peltier's wires through them. Heat up your hot glue gun. Hot glue the peltier to the back inside of the tower by the cold block, holding it in place until the glue is dry.

12

Strip the ends of the power supply wires and the peltier wires and connect them together by twisting. Remember to always connect positive to positive and negative to negative. Cover your work with electrical tape. Check everything for sturdiness.

13

Load sodas onto the top shelf, which is just wide enough to hold them, and then close up the tower. Plug in the tower's power supply and allow your DIY soda dispenser to begin cooling.