Five tap keezer build - comments welcome

So with a recent bonus from work, I'm blowing part of it on a keezer build. I'm going with the GE 7 cf, and building an 8" collar. I plan on having up to five kegs (currently three), with external CO2 and Beergas tanks.

I already have a 5# CO2 with dual regulator and some MFL QDs, so I plan on running that into the 4-way secondary for most of the kegs. I decided to go with secondary regulators to have more control over each beer. The Beergas tank will have its own regulator and will be dedicated to whatever stout happens to be on tap at that time. I'm going to drill holes in the back of the collar for the gas lines. I don't want to modify the freezer in any permanent way.

1. Chest Freezer - http://tinyurl.com/mgelmst - $198
2. Perlick Combo - http://tinyurl.com/p73oubk x4 - $228
3. 4-way Secondary Regulator - http://tinyurl.com/p2xbdzj - $175
4. Kegco Line Cleaner - http://tinyurl.com/lb7b4jf - $50
5. Ball Lock MFL Coupler - http://tinyurl.com/n5hsyfv x4 - $64
6. Johnson A419 - http://tinyurl.com/m2vkh4o x2 - $150

Not included is a stout tap (Guinness from eBay, $30), recirc fan (eBay, $15), drip tray (eBay, $30 for 19" SS), hose line (McMaster Carr, $25), clamps, etc., as well as supplies for the collar. I estimate the total to be around $1200.

Any thoughts before I pull the trigger?

Why 2 temp controllers? I've found the ranco for a little over $50.....

Where are the pics? MUST HAVE PICS!@

Also....I'd be surprised if you needed 4 different regulators to serve 4 kegs. Most ales are served at the same pressure/carbonation. I you have the cash to blow go for it, but if you are trying to save some cash you could go with something less here.

CCBrewer said:

Where are the pics? MUST HAVE PICS!@

Click to expand...

Believe he's describing the target before putting a hole through the bullseye. Then he will be able to hang the pictures at the range for all to admire. (did I get the analogy right?)

fpweeks said:

Why 2 temp controllers? I've found the ranco for a little over $50.....

Click to expand...

Sorry, one of the regulators is for my mini-fridge, soon to be converted to a ferm chamber. As to the Ranco, yeah, I can also get the cord-less A419 for about the same. Figured by the time I buy an extension cord, chop it off, install it, etc., I'm looking at about the same cost.

Also....I'd be surprised if you needed 4 different regulators to serve 4 kegs. Most ales are served at the same pressure/carbonation. I you have the cash to blow go for it, but if you are trying to save some cash you could go with something less here.

Click to expand...

I also would be surprised, but why the hell not. The 3 reg model is only $50 less, so I'm not saving a ton. I couldn't find a 2 reg with check valves, which I'd prefer to have.

Pictures - this hasn't been built yet Fear not, I'll post 'em up once it's WIP and/or done.

Perlicks are the only way to go, nuff said.

Check the for sale forums or E-bay/CL for used regs and purchase a CO2 splitter with the check valves you need.

Forget the line cleaner kit, its a PITA to use. For that kind of money I would purchase an additional keg, add some cleaning solution and run it through the taps when they need it.

The Johnson temp controllers are way overpriced IMO. Check out the thread Aquarium Temp Controllers, wire them up yourself for a lot less than the Johnson models.

Don't forget to post pics!

I believe the Johnson controller is a single stage (only heats or cools, not both). It's not a great choice for a fermentation chamber controller, since you'll want both cooling and heating.

I use an A419 on my kegerator, and a STC-1000 for my fermentation freezer. I bought the A419 before I knew about the STC-1000, could've saved myself some $$.

purplehaze said:

Perlicks are the only way to go, nuff said.

Check the for sale forums or E-bay/CL for used regs and purchase a CO2 splitter with the check valves you need.

Forget the line cleaner kit, its a PITA to use. For that kind of money I would purchase an additional keg, add some cleaning solution and run it through the taps when they need it.

The Johnson temp controllers are way overpriced IMO. Check out the thread Aquarium Temp Controllers, wire them up yourself for a lot less than the Johnson models.

Don't forget to post pics!

Click to expand...

After looking through eBay, classifieds, etc., I'm still going to go with the 4-way. I want the flexibility for whatever, plus just because.


After looking at the prices on the aquarium controllers and extension cords on Amazon, I opted to go with those - thanks for the advice. I was thinking I'd only be saving like $30, but it actually ended up being about $80. Well worth it.

Also thanks for the keg idea - I don't know why I didn't think of that.

I'm agreeing with TimL on the STC-1000, great little device for $20-30 and you can run a heater and your frig from it to maintain perfect temp control. Has a probe you can attach to your fermentation vessel and you are good to go. Here is a very nice thread on how to put together a full two channel control system: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ebay-fish-tank-controller-build-using-wal-mart-parts-261506/

As an update, the collar is currently assembled and glued; I'm going to be putting in splines to the miter joints, hopefully tonight. After that, it needs to drilled (I have a template made up), sanded, and coated.

I've taken tons of pictures along the way, so fear not, they're coming.

Interested to see how this turns out. Maybe even get a pour from it since we live so close by

glad you decided to go the STC-1000 route, much better choice for the money. There is a good thread on here for a DIY beer line cleaner that works great and only cost about $15 total in parts.

pannell77 said:

glad you decided to go the STC-1000 route, much better choice for the money. There is a good thread on here for a DIY beer line cleaner that works great and only cost about $15 total in parts.

Click to expand...

I found the thread; just need to make yet another trip to Home Depot to get the random fittings

Stephonovich said:

So with a recent bonus from work, I'm blowing part of it on a keezer build. I'm going with the GE 7 cf, and building an 8" collar. I plan on having up to five kegs (currently three), with external CO2 and Beergas tanks.

Any thoughts before I pull the trigger?

Click to expand...

Have you tried to fit 5 kegs in a 7 cu. ft. freezer yet? The reason I ask is because I have a 7 cu. ft. keezer with 8" collar that I'm almost done with that will hold 3 ball lock kegs on the bottom and a single shorter ball lock (9.5" dia x 22" ) on the hump. Granted your freezer might be set up different but I wouldn't want you to spend the money on making a 5 tap system if it will only fit 4.

The cardboard circles are 9" diameter. Even with w/o the CO2 inside the hump won't sit a second keg.

Stephonovich said:

After looking through eBay, classifieds, etc., I'm still going to go with the 4-way. I want the flexibility for whatever, plus just because. CO2 --> Primary Regulator --> 2 way manifold --> 4 way regulator --> Kegs --> Beergun Beergas --> Primary Regulator --> Stout Keg After looking at the prices on the aquarium controllers and extension cords on Amazon, I opted to go with those - thanks for the advice. I was thinking I'd only be saving like $30, but it actually ended up being about $80. Well worth it. Also thanks for the keg idea - I don't know why I didn't think of that.

Click to expand...

Stephonovich, can u post a pic of how you installed you beergun?

CooperBrew said:

Even with w/o the CO2 inside the hump won't sit a second keg.

Click to expand...

I have the 7cf GE and get 5 ball lock in there. Not 4 on the floor though. Two on the hump, one hangs off the edge a little. Better than trying to force it on the floor

The hump size must be a little different. I can't fit a standard ball lock on the hump even with a 6" collar (height wise). I bought a "shorty", 22" tall ball lock to fit up there that is a little larger diameter, 9.5" IIRC. If I made my collar higher it might be able to do 2 standards on the hump (hanging over a bit) too but at my age trying to lift a full 5 gal keg as high as it is now I'm glad I didn't make it any higher!

[QUOTE=" but at my age trying to lift a full 5 gal keg as high as it is now I'm glad I didn't make it any higher! [/QUOTE]


I guess it depends on how you attach the collar to the freezer or left it hinged. I left the hinges on the keezer and added door type hinges between the collar and the lid

CooperBrew said:

Have you tried to fit 5 kegs in a 7 cu. ft. freezer yet? The reason I ask is because I have a 7 cu. ft. keezer with 8" collar that I'm almost done with that will hold 3 ball lock kegs on the bottom and a single shorter ball lock (9.5" dia x 22" ) on the hump. Granted your freezer might be set up different but I wouldn't want you to spend the money on making a 5 tap system if it will only fit 4.

The cardboard circles are 9" diameter. Even with w/o the CO2 inside the hump won't sit a second keg.

Click to expand...

I have not, and completely trusted the Keezer Dimensions thread. Probably should check on that, especially considering how the other measurements wound up. For those who are interested, despite the reported measurements being 37" W x 22" D, mine was actually 36 31/32" W x 20 5/8" D. I'll give them 1/32" on the width, but over 1.5" off on the depth?! Yeesh.

To ensure I'd be good either way, though, I made my collar 9.75" (true height - I started with a 12" board) high, which should be more than enough to clear kegs.

As to the Beergun, I don't have a picture, but it'll just be one of the two taps off the primary regular from the CO2 tank.

So, the long awaited pictures. More will be posted as I get around to editing them/taking them.

All pictures with some exceptions that will be noted were taken with a Canon Rebel T4i in RAW; lens is Canon 18-135 IS STM. Lightroom 5 used to process them into JPEG.

First and foremost, you'll notice the person doing the majority of the work is not me. That would be Philip Greene, a local craftsman and creator of fine things. That's actually quite unfair to say, phenomenal is more like it. Mods, delete this if it's too plugg-y Woodsong Canoes is his business, if you're ever in the market for canoes, paddles, or furniture that double as works of art. Oh yeah, so how do I know him? He's my GF's dad:rockin: I mentioned I wanted to build a collar, described what I wanted, and he slowly took it over from me. I asked a lot of questions, learned a lot, and helped out wherever he'd let me.



The wood is Cherry. It was a 121" L x 12" H x 1" D (true cut, not processed) slightly blemished piece at a local lumber store. I got it for $121. Pricier than Oak, certainly, but I wanted something kinda unique. Cherry darkens up nicely with time. Anyway, I had the store cut it into roughly appropriate sizes, and brought them over to the shop.






As it turns out, the biggest part of woodworking, like brewing, is prep. The tablesaw and blade were meticulously cleaned and waxed. Yes, waxed. Makes the wood glide easier. Also of note, the blade was a 1/16" Micro-Kerf blade. Takes less of a bite out than your standard 1/8", and also, I gather it's a really nice blade. Sure cut well.



We trimmed the edges of the wood off to get only the heartwood in the board. I wanted a 9.75" total finished height, so we left a little room left for sanding and the like.



Belt sanders rock, turns out.



A word on them, though - the surface that the belt rolls around may not be perfectly flat. When you press a relatively flat surface like a piece of wood against it, the tiny imperfections in the sander surface may then catch the belt more and cause other parts to bulge. The result is the possibility of your sanding surface not being perfectly level. The solution is to spray water inside the belt every pass. This lubricates and cools the belt, keeping it from catching.



Checking the plane.



Oh noes, it's not flat! What to do?!



Step 1 - make shims. Step 2, insert under the edge repeatedly until it's well supported. Use superglue and accelerant to attach.





Step 3, run them through a drum sander type planer. What, you don't have one? Neither do I, but luckily he did. So, turns out you only have to get one side perfectly level. The sanding drum, after many passes, will level the other side off to whatever true you have the other side set at. A giant belt sander called a joiner apparently lets you just throw the whole board up at once and get the sides flat, but barring that (he didn't have one), this method works well.



Next, we wanted to secure the knots. The board, as I mentioned, was slightly blemished. This included a few knots of varying size and tightness. I personally like them, because I think they add character, but I was worried about the looser ones falling out. The solution was to make up a mixture of superglue and wood dust (we used Ebony as an accent), fill in the gaps, and sand them down.







Rather than deal with mitering angles in, we built a jig and used the belt sander to set our angles.



Worked like a champion, although we found that the belt wanted to catch the wood and throw it slightly, so we inserted shims on one side to keep everything perfectly flat. Any imperfections following that were fixed by eye.



The result, fitted up before gluing.





I've no idea where you get these, but rollers for wood glue work WAY better than beads.



Lightly tapping all corners true after gluing.



Turns out you can totally break wood braces in half with a ratchet strap.



New brace.

That's it for now! I've got some more pictures, but I also have Calculus homework, so you'll have to wait.

VERY impressive. I'm jealous. Can't wait to see more!

Wow! Great pictures, awesome tools, and fine craftsmanship.

Enough of homework, on with the rest of the photos!

So, miter joints aren't terrifically strong. While probably fine for the minimal stress I'm putting them under, why help them out? Spline miter joints add a ton of surface area for more glue, and look cool to boot. This link succinctly shows how to do them.


I opted to use Curly Maple for my splines, because it's beautiful, and Philip had some laying around. Highly polished versions have a huge depth to them that's breathtaking. While the visible portions of mine will be end grain, hopefully some of the pattern still shows through.



Using a pusher to run a chunk of it through.



This stuff is gorgeous. Ignore the shape; it's just scrap he had.



I ended up choosing two equally offset 1/2" splines in the center, followed by 1/4", and then 1/8". Additionally, the distance between splines halves along with their width as you move outward from center. I like symmetry and interesting patterns, what can I say.

The grooves were cut with a Dado (a dado is a groove that's not parallel with the wood grain; also a proper name for the tool) blade set, which is basically a choose-your-own blade width package. The slightly unfortunate part is it you end up with a tiny amount of chunks taken out of the wood. The good part is one pass cuts the entire thing, and due to the blade design, the bottoms are completely flat, not scooped. That said, it was still 24 cuts, with re-positioning between each one, and changing out blades for the different cuts. Took awhile.

As to depth, you want to get as deep as you can without going through the mitered corner - we left about 1/16" margin. Alternately, you can go through if you want, using a bigger chunk of wood, and have it visible on both sides. As I'm putting foam insulation on the inside, I didn't care about interior aesthetics, and opted to save wood.



Test-fitting the 1/8" spline into the groove. They need to fit tightly, as in within a few mils.



We used the table saw to cut everything to roughly shaped triangles to make less work later on.



Test fitting a 1/2" spline.



Gluing splines in.



All done, drying in a temperature controlled room. Also, there's some paddles in the background. If ya'll are curious, here's some pictures I took awhile ago of some paddles, chairs, and tools.



Glue's dry! Time to sand. If the splines had a larger margin, you'd use a Japanese saw, or maybe a Coping saw to take them down. As it was, we used a random orbital with 60 grit to knock them down to the surface, then started the smoothing process (of the entire surface area) with 120 grit. I had the pleasure of doing this. A lot. Still not done.





This is what it looks like right now. The plan is to sand with 120 (DONE) --> 220 --> 400 --> 800 --> 1000 --> 1500. Sandpaper of choice, according to Philip, is Klingspor. German stuff. That will be followed up by his own personal concoction of oils to give it a nice deep vibrancy.

Unfortunately, I probably won't work on this until after the Thanksgiving holiday. Sorry all.

I got my 7 cuft freezer from Menards and built a 10 inch collar and can fit 6 ball lock kegs in it. 4 on the floor and 2 on the hump. I do have my 20lbs CO2 tank outside the keezer though.

DBbrewing said:

I got my 7 cuft freezer from Menards and built a 10 inch collar and can fit 6 ball lock kegs in it. 4 on the floor and 2 on the hump. I do have my 20lbs CO2 tank outside the keezer though.

Click to expand...

What make / model is the freezer? I have the same model as the OP, and I doubt 6 will fit in there... 4 on the floor is a tight squeeze, let alone 2 on the hump.

So, update on the build - we decided when trying to test fit everything that it would be easier/better looking to basically build some inserts, drill all the holes for equipment in those, and flush mount them into the cherry. Also, did I mention the inserts are made of ebony? Yeah, I'm baller like that:rockin:



So, here's the shank test-fitting into the ebony board. I accidentally drilled 7/8" holes, as the internet (which is never wrong) had stated to use 1" holes for these shanks. That is grossly incorrect. 7/8", with a good bit, (I used American made Forstners) is precisely right.



This is a toy I got for Christmas - digital calipers are AWESOME. Get some good ones if you're going to; reviews said that the cheaper ones will run their battery down in a matter of weeks. Mitutoyo makes nice stuff. Buy good tools once, and you'll never buy them again. Anyway, I'm measuring the dimensions of the LCDs for this ladder arrangement we're doing. Basically, there's two strips of ebony, with the LCDs between them. Blocks of wood, as spacers, will go in between them, and everything will be glued together.



This kind of shows what I'm talking about, along with the keg tap board above it.



After all my hard work on creating the ebony spacers, they were measured and determined to be inadequate. I was off by about 1mm on some of them, before having sanded the edges. Learned two things - you have to sand an edge after using the saw in order to rough up the surface enough to glue it. Also, never count on a saw blade precisely cutting something, even if you account for the kerf it will remove. Turns out especially in dense woods, e.g. ebony, the blade oscillates, and may remove more than it's actual thickness. It did. So, I made some very precise wooden blocks to mimic the LCDs (three of them are 39.7mm tall, and two are 39.8 mm tall - yes, there were variances. Never trust manufacturer dimensions) to mock up the whole shebang.



The temperature LCD, which I may or may not use, is a *****. Since it's smaller, I had to make shims to fit it into the blocks. I needed two shims that were 40x12x5.5 mm (LWD), which is harder than it sounds. Small pieces tend to rotate on the belt sander, no matter how careful you think you're being. I ended up getting them within a couple mm, and then turned to the sanding block to get them within 0.1mm. Precision, precision, precision.

Still looking good. I like the idea of the LCD panels.

Any updates? This is looking like a well built and documented project.

Sorry for the long hiatus, I moved and got married.

I was stuck on trying to build a tiny frame for the OLED that will serve as the temperature indicator - if you look back, you'll see a previous attempt, noting that the glass on the screen isn't square with the PCB, and other such problems. Anyway, I was about half-way done with one, when the ebony shattered. It's very brittle, and when you're dealing with tiny parts, it can break. I finally figured designed something that worked, and then just shimmed it to fit.



This is the two pieces of ebony test-fitted. The bottom one is scalloped out on the inside (I've a picture of it in a previous post) to fit the ribbon cable, and the top one is scooped out for PCB pins (again, see previous).



Showing the backside. I opted to use superglue. A lot of it. Seems to be holding up pretty well.



Always use scrap wood to protect the wood. In this case, I'm using some pine cut-offs in prep for sawing.



At this point the pictures get blurry; sorry. Low light + camera phone. The saw is a Japanese-style one, and it works marvelously. Razor sharp, and can be very carefully manipulated to follow whatever line you want.



Here's the final result. I made two other small pieces for the sides, glued them in place, and sanded everything down to 1500. The seam on the right isn't visible anymore.

After this, all that remains is doing a dry-fit of all the pieces, then gluing, clamping, cutting, gluing, clamping...

Awesome. Still can't wait to see the rest of the build.

Got some more work done...

This is the ladder-style screen frame glued and clamped.



Closeup of the end.



Getting the OLED and it's tiny frame flush with the rest was not easy, to say the least.



Eyeballing the placement of the screen frame and the tap frame.



I measured the distance from each end of the collar to the frame, and distance between two of the dado inserts to ensure it was centered.



Did a test fit of all the screens; perfect. Absolutely perfect, snug fit. Like < 0.25 mm perfect. I was thrilled, and Philip was pretty impressed.



Front side view of the fitment.



To get a perfect cutout of the cherry, we're building a jig that will be a reverse of the frame. We'll mount it underneath the cherry face, and use a jigsaw to roughly cut out the cherry. Then we'll use a router to clean it up (going to round the corners on the ebony frames), and sand for final fitment.



Doing a test run with the drill press to make sure everything will work together.



It hurt seeing it get drilled... all for the better, though. It'll be gorgeous.



Finally, using the jigsaw to cut out the traced pattern. We stopped there, as it was getting late. More to follow over Memorial Day weekend.

Looks like you're getting close. I can't wait to see this in person since I'm in your area (If you'll have me of course). I'll bring beer!

Sounds like a fair trade, although the Arduino coding will probably not be done yet. I'm about half-way there on that. Still, the pretty parts will be installed.

Looks amazing! Can't wait to see more pictures &#55356;&#57211;&#55356;&#57211;&#55356;&#57211;

And now... it's done-ish. The collar is currently sitting on top of my kegerator, in stages of being oiled. It's all sanded to 1500, and looks ah-freaking-mazing. I've started the coding, and it's taking a bit. Also remaining is swapping out hinges, mounting taps, and running lines.

I'm so happy this project is coming to a close. It's been a long time in the making, and I've learned a lot about woodworking. As the project progressed, also, I did more and more of the work without help.

Sanding out the router to ensure it clamps the bit well.



This is the jig screwed onto the collar. BTW, this was nerve-wracking. There was about 1/16" clearance with the screw fully seated until it burst out through the other side. Philip re-assured me that it would be fine, but cautioned repeatedly, "Don't counter-sink them." Luckily, nothing came through.



This shows how the jig and the router work together. The bearing spins on the jig, and the bit hogs out the cherry.



This is a 90 degree sanding block to finish out the hole cut by the router. Took. An. Incredibly. Long. Time. Fitment of stuff into other stuff sucks.



For the corners, this was actually the best method. PROTIP, ensure you don't use an octagonal pencil. Must be round. Whoops.



The goal was to get the ebony seated with extremely tight tolerances before gluing. I had to use a rubber mallet to get it in there. You don't want it too tight, because then the cherry will be stressed internally; who knows what effect that will have long-term. Also, the corners had some gaps from a couple of drilling errors (see previous post with the drill press/jig saw). Had to fill it.



Close-up of the ebony insert. The corners aren't THAT bad, I suppose; looked worse to me.



Mixing epoxy resin and hardener. 2:1 resin:hardener ratio. I used slow hardener, which according to the chart at MAS needed about four days to fully cure at our average temperature.

So, this is really cool. If you mix acrylic paint into the epoxy (amount: some), after a lot of stirring, it turns into something like a polymer. It makes it really easy to coat large parts with, and is very sticky. Cure time remains about the same, to boot. Also, duh, color.



Showing the mixed goop.



Painting the inside of the cherry frame for the ebony insert.



With a glove, more goop was applied to the top of the joints to further cement it.



Aluminum tape was applied to all the joints. It sticks well, removes easily, and doesn't degrade from the epoxy.



After much sanding, everything was down to about this level. Also of note, my lovely front was back down to 80 grit. So sad. Anyway, you can see the gaps in the corners where the goop didn't fill. I mixed some, re-applied, and waited another week.



After another attempt, the gaps were small enough to tackle the rest with superglue. This involves using a needle to push the glue into the tiny holes - otherwise the surface tension will keep them from being filled. Spray frequently with accelerant, sand, inspect, repeat. So many times.



Whole lotta holes. Mind-numbing work.



All done!



The moment of truth - I was paranoid that it wouldn't fit. If you recall, my kegerator was 36 31/32" W x 20 5/8" D, compared to the kegerator dimension claims of 37" W x 22" D. The 1/32" is alright, but the other is huge. I measured that sucker five times before I ever cut the boards. Turns out I was right, and it fits like a glove. The angle on this picture makes the right side look offset; trust me, it's not.



Started oiling it. This is after one coat. I'm using Sam Maloof Oil/Wax Finish, which according to the interwebs is 1/3 boiled linseed oil, 1/3 raw tung oil, and 1/3 semi-gloss urethane varnish. It's thick, smelly, and apparently great. At the recommendation of Philip, I applied a coat, which I'll let sit for 4-5 days. Then, more coats, with a day in-between. Repeat until OMG IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL. I really like how the maple popped out from the cherry.

Looking good!

Wow. Cant wait to see after the final coat!

Bumping just to see if there's a final picture with the taps, and displays all working - Because I'm sure it looks awesome.

Just came across this while searching for my own keezer ideas. Any pics of the finished product?