3-Tap Built-In Liquor Cabinet Build

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Mischief_Brewing

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Since I'm likely to be asking a couple dozen more random questions relating to this build, I figured I had better start a thread showing the progress.

The project:

Our house came with a random cubby/closet that the original owners used as a TV cabinet. It's located in the wall between the living room and what we're using as our dining room. It's an artifact of the layout of the house and the fact that the chimney runs right up the middle of the house.

Here's the cabinet closed:
IMG_8746.jpg


Here's what we've been using it for for the last year:
IMG_8747.jpg


The plan is to build in cabinets on the bottom and top, and a bar top with 3 taps hidden to the left side. We're going to put double doors on the front that will open 180 degrees and will have shelves for holding the liquor bottles. Similar to the doors on this (http://www.wineenthusiast.com/howard-miller-sonoma-armoire-wine-cabinet.asp?AfID=CJ). The taps will be fed from a scrap-wood built kegerator in the crawl-space basement. The kegerator is going to be an insulated wood box attached to a free little dorm fridge a friend gave me.

Here's the pic of the basement space:
IMG_8757.jpg


The wine cooler in the pic is my beer cellar fridge and will be moved to the side :)

Here are the pics of the first day's work on this, all demo and cleaning up:
IMG_8748.jpg

(my daughter posing for a picture, but she refused to pick up a hammer for this one)

IMG_8753.jpg

SWMBO doing some demo

IMG_8755.jpg


IMG_8756.jpg

There's already a hole to the crawl space!


More to come. I'm taking vacation from work next Friday and the following week to get this and some other home improvement projects moving, so hopefully I'll have some updates pretty soon!

Comments/criticisms always appreciated!
 
Started work on the dorm-fridge kegerator today. The fridge itself is too small to hold even a single corny, so I'm building an insulated box that I can attach and remove the fridge using the door's magnetic strips. Since this will be hidden in the basement, I'm not spending much time making it look nice. It's 100% utility at this point.

With the hinged lid open:
8c7e80fc.jpg


With the lid closed:
d32bd2a8.jpg


The square opening will have the dorm fridge's door magnets attached to it. I'll just need to pull the fridge back to break the seal and then open the hinged lid to gain easy access to the 3 kegs and the CO2.

The lid doesn't seem to want to sit flush, so I'll probably add a few strips of Velcro to make it lock in place.

Here's my reward for a hard day's work:
2c5df27b.jpg
 
Spent some time in the garage today gluing to counter top together, adding more insulation to the kegerator, sanding and staining the cabinets, and setting up the gas lines for this and my keezer build (coming soon). All I can say is I can't wait for winter to be over. It never got above 40 out there today, I had to take a break every 45 minutes to come inside and warm back up.

I should be able to seal the cabinets tomorrow and move the kegerator cooler box inside and see if my measurements were correct lining it up with the dorm fridge.

The only picture from today is the chaotic state of the garage right before I closed the door for the night:

fbdbb93e.jpg


2/22/11 Update: Once again in the mid 30s out in the garage today so I was only able to apply finish to the cabinets and sand, condition, and stain the counter/bar top. I think the red oak stain on red oak is turning out ok...

2bf2bdf4.jpg
 
Ok, first question on the kegerator build. Should I feed the lines through the top (fixed part, not the lid) or through the side? I'll be running about 24' of 1/4" poly line per tap, with the bulk of that coiled inside the kegerator keeping it cool.
 
I think you will have pretty bad foaming problems with that much line without a glycol or ice water circulation setup. Even if you only have a 5-6 foot run between the kegerator and taps it will be tough to cool with insulation alone.
 
I think you will have pretty bad foaming problems with that much line without a glycol or ice water circulation setup. Even if you only have a 5-6 foot run between the kegerator and taps it will be tough to cool with insulation alone.

I hear ya on that one. I'm running a copper tube for future chilling with the three beer lines but haven't finalized my decision on what to do yet. I'll have the return cooling line running outside through separate insulation. I've been keeping an eye on craig's list looking for an affordable solution.

There's a mini model refrigerator out there that would probably do the trick, it looks just like a regular refrigerator with a top freezer with its own door but the whole thing stands a hair over 4 feet tall. The beauty of the way I'm building the kegerator box is that I can pull the open side of it that attaches to the fridge off and rebuild to whatever size fridge I upgrade to...Cost is a big issue right now though...
 
Spent the first half of the day trekking to Brooklyn to pick up 250 pounds of grain, 7 cornies, a co2 container, and a keezer (thanks tcone!), but was able to get the garage cleaned up a bit and knock 3 inches off the back of the base cabinet and get in in the house for a test fit.

I'm definitely still in the very early stages here, but it feels like I'm finally make some progress.

Pics from today:
0bb2e8bf.jpg

test fit

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Gap where the lines will come up, and the pint glasses/mug shelves will be

198af025.jpg

Not so pretty gap on the side. I'll probably tear out the paneling that's been painted over and install drywall to the edge of the cabinet.

I'm brewing tomorrow so I won't be doing much if any work on this, but next weekend I plan to get the electrical outlet and light switch moved and installed (with help from my electrician neighbor), the top wall cabinets installed, and the countertop cut to size.
 
Looks like a great project.. can't wait to see the progress.

You said you plan on hiding the taps on the left side? Are you going to build a coffin box, use a tower, what's the plan?
 
CAustin919 said:
Looks like a great project.. can't wait to see the progress.

You said you plan on hiding the taps on the left side? Are you going to build a coffin box, use a tower, what's the plan?

It'll be a coffin box, just haven't decided exactly how I'm going to design it yet.
 
I was finally able to get some work done on this today.

I had my neighbor come over and do some electrical work for me (he's the best neighbor in the world, bar none):
81a8942d.jpg

Note: the torn up wall was all me. He bitched at me about all the damage I did until I told him that it was all going to be hidden behind a cabinet and oak paneling.

We installed a new grounded outlet (back bottom), a dimmer switch (right side), and a single grounded outlet that's hooked into the dimmer for the lights (back top):
518cfc2d.jpg


I put the drywall bartop base in place, secured the base cabinet into it's final position, and put up the wood that will hold up the cabinets up top, but ran out of energy and L-brackets (it's got a nice bend to it huh?):
d9582ad8.jpg


I sanded, stained and finished a bunch of the wood that will be going up, and still have a bunch more to do. The stemware holder got stained but no finish yet. I think I'm in trouble with SWMBO though since I neglected a ton of other small projects I said I'd do today. Tomorrow will probably be filled with those and not so much of this...
 
Looking good so far. I wish I had a cubby in my house with convenient access to the basement. It's almost like it was built just for a tap!
 
I'm curious how your going to get the fridge to work, I've been thinking about something simular for a project I'm working on.
 
bambam190 said:
I'm curious how your going to get the fridge to work, I've been thinking about something simular for a project I'm working on.

It'll be pure luck if I actually pull that part of it off. It's a tiny dorm fridge that I'll have attached to the insulated cooler box I'm building. I'm going to make sure there's an airtight seal and put an always-on computer fan in it.

I have a feeling it'll run 24/7 until it burns up trying to cool a space three times as big as it's built for.

As a precaution, I'm building the cooler box so that I can use other size fridges that can (hopefully) handle the load without much modification. I browse craigs list daily just to see if that sweet deal pops up...
 
I was able to spend a little more time on the cabinet today. It was about 34 degrees out so my plans of spending the day in the garage brewing and staining, sanding, and finishing the wood for this were put on hold. I did what I could inside with what I had ready. Here's some pictures of the progress:

ed167719.jpg

Test fitting the top cabinet. Damn cats are everywhere!

08d1b165.jpg

Installed the lights

2bf4b78d.jpg

Better shot of the lighting

17c7044d.jpg

Stemware holders are in

2e764a14.jpg

Testing them out with the lighting behind them. I think this will look really nice once the mirror is in and all of our stemware is organized and up.

635b9dcb.jpg

Installed the top cabinet. What a pain in the butt that damn thing proved to be. Luckily SWMBO woke up and helped screw it in while I held it in place. I have an oak strip that will cover the gap between the shelf and the bottom of the cabinet, I just need to cut it and glue it in place.

98d090ed.jpg

Stopping point for the day.

Hopefully I kick this damn chest cold and the weather warms up soon. It's colder than what the specs for the stain and sealer recommend so I'm likely not going to be posting any more progress on this for a week or two...
 
I was able to spend a little more time on the cabinet today. It was about 34 degrees out so my plans of spending the day in the garage brewing and staining, sanding, and finishing the wood for this were put on hold. I did what I could inside with what I had ready. Here's some pictures of the progress:

ed167719.jpg

Test fitting the top cabinet. Damn cats are everywhere!

08d1b165.jpg

Installed the lights

2bf4b78d.jpg

Better shot of the lighting

17c7044d.jpg

Stemware holders are in

2e764a14.jpg

Testing them out with the lighting behind them. I think this will look really nice once the mirror is in and all of our stemware is organized and up.

635b9dcb.jpg

Installed the top cabinet. What a pain in the butt that damn thing proved to be. Luckily SWMBO woke up and helped screw it in while I held it in place. I have an oak strip that will cover the gap between the shelf and the bottom of the cabinet, I just need to cut it and glue it in place.

98d090ed.jpg

Stopping point for the day.

Hopefully I kick this damn chest cold and the weather warms up soon. It's colder than what the specs for the stain and sealer recommend so I'm likely not going to be posting any more progress on this for a week or two...



So far it looks pretty good! Keep up the work! I was out staining in the 34 degree weather... I stained and then moved the work into my basement to dry up... Yesterday I was out with Polyurethane sealing my Keezer up... It was damn cold... :rockin:
 
So far it looks pretty good! Keep up the work! I was out staining in the 34 degree weather... I stained and then moved the work into my basement to dry up... Yesterday I was out with Polyurethane sealing my Keezer up... It was damn cold... :rockin:

Nobody told the weather it was spring...

I ended up kegging 10 gallons of victory prima pils-ale and 5 gallons of ed wort's apfelwein sweetened with raspberry syrup and starting yet another batch of apfelwein just to keep busy and avoid going out to the cold garage to work with the wood today...
 
I found this thread because you mentioned it on my wet bar thread. This is a GREAT PROJECT!! What made you stop posting updates? I can't believe the last post was back in March.

Lets see some forward PROGRESS!!
 
Believe it or not (I choose to ignore it), I have not done a stitch of work on this project since May. My wife hates that we have a half finished construction project in the middle of the dining room.

I really have not much left to do on the cabinet side of things, but a giant mountain to climb to figure out the beer side of it. I have all the wood I need, but still need to sand, stain and finish it so I can cut it and put it in place. I've let myself get distrated with a thousand other projects...

...like building a wall in front of my second garage door so I can have a door to use instead of opening the garage to get a beer:
f1a95de1.jpg


It's likely to be November before I get a chance to work on this again though. I'm starting a new job, have friends from Australia visiting for a month, and am throwing one hell of a huge 40th b-day party for me and my friend.

I can guarantee that my wife won't let this one stay dead too much longer though...
 
Well, I finally got the woodworking tools back out and decided to work more on this eyesore in the middle of my dining room...

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Tore the paneling down and glued the oak counter top to the drywall counter base

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Insulated the accessway from the crawlspace basement

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Glued in the facing in front of the counter (this will act as the barrier as I pour the resin top)

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Ended up with a bit of a gap due to the cheapness of the cabinets that I bought on sale from HD. This will be fixed with woodglue and clamps :)

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A different angle. The side here will be closed up with a floor to ceiling oak board that will eventually serve as the left side base for the doors. I should have that up by this weekend along with new paneling that fits right up to the edge of the cabinets if beer brewing doesn't get in the way.
 
Got some more done this weekend!

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Fixed the bar top gap

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Test fit the side panel/board

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View of the test fit from the other side

2e1f1280.jpg

Realized I had an unfortunate gap, so I glued in a little piece of stained wood and held it up with one of the kid's superballs

de099db1.jpg

Secured the side board and installed the wall paneling

47da0721.jpg

Alternate view of the new wall paneling

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Test fitting the side backsplash. There will be a mirror above this and in the back.

Busy at work this week so I probably won't get much else done until the three day weekend next weekend. Might hit up Home Depot/Lowes in between and start pricing the mirrors...
 
Too cold out to do any wood working outside, so I was only able to do some painting. I wish I could open some windows now though...

8372c299.jpg


I'm trying to figure out where to move the light switch to now. I've determined that cutting a hold in a mirror is going to be way too difficult...
 
It's almost warm enough out to start staining/finishing wood again, so I decided to pay attention to this woefully unfinished project again.

I realized that it would be difficult/impossible to cut a mirror to put around the light switch, which wasn't planned to have a mirror on that side until SWMBO took notice to the project again, so I decided to move it.

Took the switch out of the wall and saw this:
25bb3a4a.jpg


The path to the spot I want was blocked by a 2X4.

So I hacked the drywall around the 2X4 only to find another one facing the other way. Nothing a paddle bit on the ole Dewalt can't fix.

About 30 minutes worth of work and I'm ready to measure and order the mirrors!
1c46e8b5.jpg



I need to keep the motivation up and get this thing done!

On a related note, I found a 5cf chest freezer for $60 on CL and brought it home thinking I was going to use it for the basement feed to the taps on this project. Unfortunately SWMBO had different plans. Apparently since I'm already using 2 chest freezers and an upright in the garage, this one's dedicated to food...

Not that I can complain much:
b9591806.jpg
 
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