Third times a charm right? So now we'll actually get to the conversion process. This did not all come together nice, neat, and chronologically in order like its being laid out here. As pieces came in and new obstacles presented themselves the timetable of the build kind of had to go with the flow, but if you were forced to try an piece it together here the way my ADD-hurry-up-and-finish approach you might short circuit. Needless to say here's hoping your own build goes smoother but the battle can be pretty fun too.

Once again I'm going to recommend checking out this website for some of the particulars. Ben lays the wiring out very neatly and easy to follow. The first thing most fridge to curing chamber conversions need to address is how to hang the meat, but luckily for me a commercial fridge like mine is all set up with racks. All I need to do is add some hooks or tie directly to the rack. I removed all but the top racks but kept the others just in case I ever want more levels.

Here is another look at what we started with...

Just for curiosities sake I checked out VWR. I mean I wouldn't want it to be the largest semen storage facility on the West Coast. I'm sure those places maintain excellent facilities but it's not an image I want to crop up every time I hang a salami, nor do I want to even guess if or any effect this has on the curing process itself. As it turns out they are a huge international supplier of lab supplies, so while I can't be certain human liquids never entered the equation, chances are that it maintained a highly sterile existence before finding its way to me. The thing looked immaculate inside even before I cleaned the hell out of it. (More on that later)

The first real task at hand was to get some humidity control over this beast. Why you might ask? Because this is all about control, fates and providence be damned. You might as well call me captain Ahab and there be Moby Dick, the white whale of a fridge...

Well in order to properly cure we need a stable temperature and a stable humidity. Specifically we need humidity in the range of 50-70%, different cures specify slightly different humidity, plus by trial and error you'll come to find the idiosyncrasies of your particular climate and cabinet. To start we need to order a humidity controller, and an ultrasonic humidifier. You can buy a plug in humidity controller to cut down on install and difficulty but I went with Ben Starr's recommendation and wired a controller right in. Also my fridge already came with a temperature controller of the type he recommended (which I later switched out, but more on that in a bit) so I wanted it to match.  Here is more info on the whys, and more whys along with another nice build guide.

In examining the wiring to the temperature controller I noticed something I didn't recognize from any of the builds I'd read up on. namely my temp controller required three wires from its thermometer senor. Digging around I bit I realized this was a much more advanced setup that was in place then what I was prepared to get into. The fridge had previously been wired for sending its signal to a log program as well as uniformed control with other fridges. Very hive-minded stuff. While it sounded intriguing it also sounded like a lot of work I didn't need to do with other temperature controllers, so I ordered this one.

Here is an image of the old temp controller and accouterments.

Luckily all of the basic functions and inputs of the two controllers were the same. I cut a hole in the metal face plate for the humidity controller and set it aside. As with wiring anything I always recommend wiring it the first time in as easy a situation as possible, and jammed against the little pocket of space inside the compartment at the top of the fridge was not a place I could easily see what was going on. Again the wiring guide I used can be found here, and I'll only be referencing where I deviated from it.

Another benefit to this was it got me to thinking about the image of my project, so I kicked off on a little side project simultaneously. But back to the build.

I ran all of the sensors and wiring to the units back into the fridge. Now here is one of the great and worst things about mass production. When wiring is installed it is put in before the unit is sealed. When they seal the walls it isn't just with a couple screws, it also involves copious amounts of foam insulation. So once it's in, it's in for good, and nothing else is going in after it.

"Merde." (for that I really can say excuse my French) I still needed to power the humidity controller. I thought about wiring it into the temp controller power but I didn't really want to put a separate draw onto the two controllers. It would probably have been fine but the idea of the momentary power loss to one controller or the other, causing endless cycling of the two units they were controlling (the humidifier and fridge compressor) gave me pause.

Luckily here is where the magic of mass production helps us out. You see the fridge came with two options for this particular model. You could have a lighted sign installed as the temp control plate, or you didn't. Since they don't alter their manufacturing process for such a simple delineation as one light bar, they use the same wiring harness on both: meaning that there were two dead wires running the entire length of the fridge, directly back to the control unit. The two pink wires were like gifts on Christmas morning.

I would show you the control unit where I had to tie the line in at a point before the temp control cut in, but honestly I forgot and its kind of a pain in the butt to get back into once it is all sealed shut. So no.

Once everything was wired up top (again go here for specifics) I ran the humidifier wires down behind the rack bearing plate on the back wall of the fridge.

One of the reasons you use an ultrasonic humidifier is because they are filter-less, which in this case is a good thing because a filter is just waiting to grow some serious mold and spread it all over your meaty treats. But they do need to be cleaned. Removing the use of a filter just means that you are now the filter. You need to use filtered or better, distilled water in them. You need to clean them with vinegar or a light bleach solution every so often as well. Now the vinegar isn't so bad but every once in a while I really like the use of a chemical and I didn't want my love for carcinogens anywhere near something I had every intention of eating, but if I hard wired my humidifier that was exactly what I was going to be tempting. So I found this little guy on Amazon. It's a waterproof plug socket which I wired into my existing power between the humidifier and controller.

Well that's going to do it for now. At some point I need to do some school work. Tomorrow I'll post the rest of the humidifier wiring and the side project in aesthetics I undertook.

See Ya - Tyler