shogg
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- Jul 9, 2012
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Well here goes with my first post after a couple of months of lurking.
I'm posting a writeup (well mostly just pictures) of my bar build in the hope that it's useful for someone else out there. After a little Craigslist swapping (another story entirely) I ended up with a GE 5.0 cu. ft. chest freezer that I wanted to use as the basis for a keezer.
The design criteria for the keezer were:
I got the OK to proceed after showing the wife Jose's build here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/keezer-build-5-0-ge-fridge-wine-chiller-274938/ (cheers man, I owe you several).
Base frame
As you can see the basic structure is made from cheap 2x4 wall studs and 1x6 pine planks held together with right angle brackets and liquid nails. I put the whole thing on 2" casters (you can see 4 in the pictures, I added another 2 in the middle to make sure the frame didn't bend under load).
You can't see in any of the pictures but I also used some 1x6 wood to create a collar for the chest freezer. Since there are literally hundreds of excellent writeups of how to do this I'm going to save myself the typing.
Siding and staining
The side panels are all 1/4" oak faced plywood which is simply glued to the back of the frame making the frame a kind of exoskeleton (both structural and decorative). The bar top is 3/4" oak faced plywood and the shelf is 1/2" oak faced plywood.
Here's the materials laid out next to each other:
And here it is all assembled and with one coat of stain:
To stain I'm using General Finishes Java Gel Stain to match my kitchen cabinets. Two coats of stain followed by 5-6 coats of General Finishes high performance topcoat should give me a nice enough finish.
I'm posting a writeup (well mostly just pictures) of my bar build in the hope that it's useful for someone else out there. After a little Craigslist swapping (another story entirely) I ended up with a GE 5.0 cu. ft. chest freezer that I wanted to use as the basis for a keezer.
The design criteria for the keezer were:
- Has to be something the Mrs. will be ok with being in the kitchen/breakfast nook.
- Should provide extra counter space for preparing non-beer drinks
- Extra storage is always a plus
- Shouldn't require any major tool purchases (so circular saw, drill, and driver it is)
- No fancy material purchases (just what I can get at Home Depot fairly cheaply)
I got the OK to proceed after showing the wife Jose's build here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/keezer-build-5-0-ge-fridge-wine-chiller-274938/ (cheers man, I owe you several).
Base frame
As you can see the basic structure is made from cheap 2x4 wall studs and 1x6 pine planks held together with right angle brackets and liquid nails. I put the whole thing on 2" casters (you can see 4 in the pictures, I added another 2 in the middle to make sure the frame didn't bend under load).
You can't see in any of the pictures but I also used some 1x6 wood to create a collar for the chest freezer. Since there are literally hundreds of excellent writeups of how to do this I'm going to save myself the typing.
Siding and staining
The side panels are all 1/4" oak faced plywood which is simply glued to the back of the frame making the frame a kind of exoskeleton (both structural and decorative). The bar top is 3/4" oak faced plywood and the shelf is 1/2" oak faced plywood.
Here's the materials laid out next to each other:
And here it is all assembled and with one coat of stain:
To stain I'm using General Finishes Java Gel Stain to match my kitchen cabinets. Two coats of stain followed by 5-6 coats of General Finishes high performance topcoat should give me a nice enough finish.