timbudtwo

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My beloved gave me her old fridge from her days at college. I took a look at it and within 45 minutes I was able to remove the front plastic and bend the freezer compartment to fit in the back of the fridge .



Now I just need to find out where the coolant lines run so I can avoid those when I drill through the roof for the tower.

Should be getting a kit from keg connection in a month or two. Will update with finished project then.

timbudtwo

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Just got a Ranco ETC-111000 off the bay and it was delivered today. Used a cord rated for 15 amps (controller maxes out at 16) and wired it up. Took me a minute to decipher the schematic. Plus working in such a small area with fat fingers helps nothing. Cold garage and being tired makes brain slow.... However, it was nothing a pen and a kerosene heater couldn't fix.





My brother in-law is going to split cost for the rest of the parts, but in the mean time I am going to use the fridge to make a lager as it is something I haven't made yet, and it will be ready for summer

MoreBeerPlease

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I just picked one of these up off craigslist. After removing the front plastic I'm able to fit a 5-gallon better bottle for lagering. I'm looking forward to seeing your kegerator build!

__________________
On deck: Simcarrillo IPA, Deception Cream Stout
Primary: Chinnitra IPA
Secondary: 4 Corners APA
Secondary: Empty
Bottled: Oaked IPA, The Darkness Black IPA
- - I like hops.

dgoldb1

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Does anyone know if a 6 gallon carboy would fit in this fridge?

timbudtwo

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Give me the dimensions and I will go out and measure for you.

timbudtwo

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I have done moar! Good news, no coolant lines on the top of this bad boy!
Here is what tonight yielded:
I removed the temperature controller from the inside as I will no longer be needing that. Very simple device. Looks to be just a mechanical switch that flips after tension (from the knob) is overcome. Bimetallic strip maybe? Black + white = go.


If you look to the right, you can see a small square I cut out to make sure there were no coolant lines. I used the saw attachment for my dremel and made very shallow cuts just enough to go through the plastic. I removed it and saw a black line. OMGzors!
Thankfully it was just the power line that they strung willy nilly between the plastic case and the outer metal shell that they fill with insulating foam.


Next I marked center on the top of the metal shell and drilled just through that. I used a hex key to poke around and make sure there weren't any other lines in the way. Nope! Then I pushed the hex key into the plastic case to fatigue it so I would know where to cut. By fatigue, I mean give the plastic that light colored bruise that plastics get when stretched, or poked with a hex key.
VERY HIGH TECH


To make the hole on the top I figured I would try using a hole saw. I only have them for wood so I decided to just go at it slow. As long as it didn't heat up too bad I would probably be okay. Well, all it did was scratch off the enamel. A perfectly marked circle! So I switched over to my dremel again, used some red cut off wheels, and overcame the metal shell with gusto. Cleaned it up with a blue grinding wheel until it was dull and called it good for the night.
Outside


Inside

dgoldb1

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I really appreciate it timbudtwo.

Circumference = 34.5"
Diameter = 11.5"
Height = 22.5"

Thanks!

timbudtwo

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If the diameter is 11.5 then the circumference should be a couple inches larger (C= d*pi). However, being a circle its not that big of a deal. The diameter and height is all I need, as long as they are correct.
The interior dimensions of the fridge are 27" high, and front to back (at the base, so the pump hump bump takes away from total length) is 11.5". If your carboy is truly 11.5" it should just barely fit. That is only if you take the plastic off the front of the door. Also, you can take off some of the insulation inside from the front door and you could get another half inch of clearance or so. It would be a tight fit, but I think you could do it.

rasherb

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Any special trick to bending the freezer shelf? I have one of these as my ferm chamber. 6G plastic carboy fits perfectly but I had to cut some plastic off the inside of the door.

timbudtwo

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The trick I found is to be careful.
First, slide the freezer off its mounting points. Try to bend the main pipe as little as possible. But you will have to bend it some. Coax the freezer down towards the left so it is like a U, with its opening facing towards the left. I used two pieces of wood and some clamps to slowly and evenly bend the freezer flat. Wood on front and back, and then a clamp over that so you don't gouge anything. Think of it like steam bending wood in reverse.

Once you have it mostly flat (uber flat is not critical) make as large of bends in the pipe as you can. Some of the enamel will likely chip or crack, but as long as you don't hear any hissing, you are fine. If you do fracture the pipe, you will know right away.

The place to be careful of is where the pipe meets the freezer shelf. It seems to be soldered / tack welded and appears very fragile. You will need to put a little torque on this are to get it flat, but if you make a large U bend (see the OP) you should be able to distribute it enough to not cause a problem.