Mid-Missouri freezer conversion

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2puttbird

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Hi All ... it's snowing in mid-MO, so it's the perfect day to start a thread on my freezer conversion ... I've read so many, many threads on this forum and thank you all for posting your projects and giving me a lot of ideas and information.

The first photo shows the server that I'm using as my inspiration for color and general design, because the keezer will sit right next to it when complete (the stools will be relocated).

The second photo shows that Lowes must be listening to all of you who have received your freezer banged up ... I don't think I've ever received an appliance with the box wrapped in bubble wrap! However, while there were no dents or other obvious damage, the handle on my lid was not attached ... but that's of little consequence since I won't be using the lid anyway :D

1103 a Inspiration.jpg


1103 b packing.jpg


1103 c freezer.jpg


1103 c loose handle.jpg
 
My first step was to build a base, and I decided to include some trim to simulate the bottom of the server. Nothing fancy ... I used 2.5" swivel casters, a 2x4 frame, and a piece of CDX for the basic cart, then surrounded it with a 1/2 x 6 "skirt" and then attached the crown molding ... the dark pieces of wood are some hardwood scraps that I glued behind the crown molding to provide additional support. The entire base will be painted black.

1103 d base 1.jpg


1103 d base 2.jpg
 
Actually, the above was completed last weekend. Today I primed the base and began making the top.

The outer surface of the top is 1x6 oak, which will be stained a reddish mahagony color to match the top of the server and the kitchen cupboards. SWMBO and I decided today that we're going to install tile on the top, so I'm going to put a simple CDX top on it for starters. There will be a lip of wood around the inside of the bottom to accomodate the gasket, and a "plaque" of wood (probably painted black) in the middle of the front surface on which I will mount the faucets.

I'll have more time to work on it tomorrow and will try to post a few pics tomorrow night.

I'm planning for three faucets, but may only install two initially ... I'm getting prices on kits and hope to order them by Monday or Tuesday, after which I will be traveling for 10 days and won't have a chance to work on it anyway.

Comments and suggestions welcome ... :mug:
 
Made a bit of progress on the top. I cut and glued up the 1x6 frame last night ... used a couple of nails in each corner and a strap clamp (fashioned from a cargo ratchet strap and some cardboard corner pieces).

Attached the CDX to the top of the 1x6 frame.

Glued and nailed some strips of oak (scraps cut from 1x6 drop-offs, each with a cross-section of about 3/4" x 1 1/16") around the inside of the collar walls, flush with the bottom edge ... I need this extra material to create the gasket seat.

Using my table saw, I made eight cuts (2 along each edge) to remove the material required to create the gasket seat ... close-up in second photo ...

The trial fit of the gasket looks good ... you can see a bit more of the geometry in the fourth photo.

The idea is that the top will actually rest on the inner wood lip, at which point the gasket will be compressed about 30% ... thus, the gasket doesn't have to hold the weight of the relatively heavy top.

1103 e top 1.jpg


1103 e top 2.jpg


1103 e top 3.jpg


1103 e top 4.jpg
 
Looks great so far! You've got some skills.

Are you going to build false door and drawer front to make it look just like the server?

Not many skills, but I enjoy building stuff and am forunate enough to have a decent wood shop ... and luckily for me, having the right tools outweighs having skills.

Hadn't really considered adding false features to match the server, aside from teh colors and the trim around the bottom ... but I will give it some thought ... thanks for the idea. :mug:
 
Wow, it's been a while ... I've been traveling the last two weeks and didn't have time to do almost anything (plus I have a water feature project in front of th house that is going to demand some of my time in the next few weeks) ... I was trying to get my conversion kit ordered, but I can't believe how hard it is to do so, so I still haven't ordered it (but am hoping to do it this week) ... however, I did get a 12" SS drip tray and some hard drive magnets purchased off eBay, so I started working on the drip tray assembly today ... I have the initial piece cut, but need to go grab an oak board and some oak crown molding to finish it off ... will stain the wood reddish to match the upper part and create a (hopefully) nice contrast with the black freezer.
 
I have nearly completely recovered from perhaps the longest illness of my adult life ... and to think it all started with some allergies and a sinus infection! But I digress ...

My kit arrived this week ... a 3-tap kit with 525PC faucets ... I have no experience with this stuff, but everything seems to be in order.

I only had a couple hours to work on the project this weekend, but I did get a little bit done with the drip tray mount. I had previously cut a piece of 1-by pine to the same size as the drip tray. Today I trimmed it on three sides with 1/2" oak ripped to be flush on the top and bottom (1st photo), then trimmed out the underside with some crown molding and glued a few pieces of scrap 1-by underneath to provide an attachment base (2nd photo). The third photo shows it with the drip tray in place.

I will sand it, fill the nail holes, and stain the oak the same reddish color as the top, which I hope will look good against the black freezer.

But now my inexperience is showing ... as you can see, I built the mount so that the edge of the drip tray will be against the freezer wall ... that seemed intuituve to me, and I never considered another design ... but now that I have my kit, I can see that the faucet is going to stick out about 3.5" from the collar ... and I'm a bit worried that my 5" drip tray will not extend far enough from the freezer to catch all of the "drips". Is there a rule of thumb for how far past the end of the faucet I should place the drip tray?

1104 a drip tray 1.jpg


1104 a drip tray 2.jpg


1104 a drip tray 3.jpg
 
Too many spring projects going on this weekend to get a lot done on the keezer, but we did purchase the tile for the top ... we found some really cool sheets of 3/4 x 3/4 glass tile, wicked expensive but we decided that we would use just two sheets, with black tile around the border ... I took a few minutes to dry fit it, and we think it will look great with the reddish stain on the oak and the black freezer.

I'm comfortable with wood, not so much with tile ... and this will test my abilities, because the glass tile is thinner than the black ceramic tile, so I'll have to spread the adhesive a bit thicker to try and even everything out.

I've got some oak corner molding that I will rip to fit and install around the edges.

We're still trying to decide what color of grout to use ... almost certainly we want to use black with the black tile, but we're not sure that will look good with the glass tile.

1105 a tile dry fit.jpg
 
Okay ... so I messed up ... I was just double-checking in internal layout of the keezer and I accidentally noticed that I can't get 3 commercial 1/6 barrel kegs on the floor of this freezer ... [heavy sigh]

In retrospect, this should have been the first thing I checked before buying the freezer, but I had two things working against me: (1) you guys were getting three (but they were corny kegs ... duh), and (2) my initial design was for two taps, and I added the third later, figuring that I might want it later, so I may as well do it all now. Given the number of threads I've read here, you'd think I would have noted that fact, because I'm sure somebody has stated it (probably more than once), but somehow it slipped by me.

Fortunately, I haven't drilled the holes for the faucets yet ... so I'll just re-tool for a two-tap unit ... and if I ever get the urge for a third tap in the future, I'll just have to re-build the top to create more space so that I can put one on the hump.

In other news, I cut up a few black tiles, performed a final dry fit-up, and installed all of the tiles, using a couple of vinyl commercial floor tiles under the glass tile to make everything the same thickness.

I also built and tested my "eBay" temperature controller.

I painted the base black, and took it upstairs to verify placement and fit in the intended location.

So except for me failing to do my due diligence before deciding to install three taps, things are finally starting to shape up ... at least I will have plenty of space in the keezer for glasses and bottles of adult beverage when I'm done!

[Edit: it looks like I will be able to fit a slim quarter and a sixth, along with the CO2 and fan.)
 
[fast forward 10 weeks]

The cabinet maker finally showed up this week and installed the two projects we had hired him for, and he came through with some extra stain for me to use on my keezer. So it's time to kick this thing back into gear!

My top is structurally complete, but I still need to final-sand, stain, finish, and attach the gasket. I used SS t-nuts for the hinge attachments, which make it very easy to attach the lid.

My drip tray assembly is also structurally complete, but the four magnets that I used are not sufficient to hold it onto the front of the freezer ... it keeps wanting to slide down ... so I will probably remove the magnets and go with the heavy duty double-sided tape instead.

I swiped the fan-on-a-standpipe idea that several others have used.

My plan is to finish it this weekend and fire it up to make sure it's running smoothly, then order the kegs and hope for my first pour by Tuesday! :mug:

1107 a top.jpg


1107 a tnuts.jpg


1107 a drip tray.jpg


1107 a fan.jpg
 
Really looks great man. You've got quite a few ideas that I think I might incorporate into my future keezer build.

One question though.... How did you attach the drip tray to the side of the freezer? I think I read something about rare earth magnets. Are you just using them to stick it to the side and also support the weight of the tray?
 
Thanks. I tried the rare earth magnets, but like so many other things, I overbuilt the drip tray structure and it was just too heavy, so I'm going to use the 3M heavy duty double-stick tape instead.
 
Thanks. I tried the rare earth magnets, but like so many other things, I overbuilt the drip tray structure and it was just too heavy, so I'm going to use the 3M heavy duty double-stick tape instead.

Just make sure you position the tape pieces vertically, it will have more strength this way. I I I I vs =======
 
Just make sure you position the tape pieces vertically, it will have more strength this way. I I I I vs =======

Really? I'm suprised that the orientation matters ... intuitively it seems like square inches would be the primary key since it's all going to be loaded in shear. Thanks for the tip!

The other thing I'm worried about is getting it on straight ... I've got a pretty serious OCD thing, and it would drive me crazy if I missed even by a little bit ... so I'm planning to cut a piece of wood the right size and have it sitting on the floor so that I can use it as a brace for the bottom of the assembly as I press it into place. If anyone has a better method, please post it ... thanks!
 
nice build, wish I had done my tile work like yours....

Thanks ... it's a matter of taste I guess ... yours was was one of the threads that I went through when looking for design ideas, and I like how you embedded the tile into the wood top, but then SWMBO and I started looking at border tiles, and ultimately at plain black bathroom tiles to surround the glass tiles, and that's what we settled on.

This was my first tiling effort ... I did okay, I guess, but I learned that I definitely don't have the patience to tackle anything bigger than that!
 
Really? I'm suprised that the orientation matters ... intuitively it seems like square inches would be the primary key since it's all going to be loaded in shear. Thanks for the tip!

I just know from previous experience. I originally attached mine in the horizontal format and was having issues with the drip tray sagging. When i moved to the vertical format, it held much better and when i eventually removed them to convert the freezer from a kegerator to a fermentation chamber, i almost couldnt remove them. For a point of reference, i would put a filled glass pitcher of beer on the drip tray when the tape was in the vertical configuration.
 
Thanks. I custom-cut the trim to fit the gaps that I left with the tile around the edges (which aren't the same all around ... as I've noted before, I'm much more comfortable with wood than tile!), but it's not really noticable to anyone but me, and I'll get over it after a few beers.

I stained the wood Sunday, and was pretty disappointed at how the color turned out, which seemed to be a bit more "purplish" than I would like ... I'm no designer, but I don't think it looks nearly as good with the glass tiles as we had hoped ... the stain is the exact stain that the cabinet maker used on my kitchen cabinets ... he didn't use oak, so I expected some difference, but this was a bit more than I would like ... hopefully it will come around a little when I apply the finish ... and I'm really glad to have the border of black tiles, which will provide a bit of a buffer zone visually.
 
It's finally done!

The color in the pics is not very good ... too much red in the room ... no talent in the photographer ... but I didn't want to miss a photo of the first pour, so I'll take better photos of the keezer (or adjust these properly) this weekend.

I actually completed the build Sunday and fired it up, but didn't get a keg until today. They didn't deliver what I ordered, but what they delivered is good, so what the heck ... another reason to brew my own someday, huh? :D

Only one keg in it right now ... call it rookie lack of confidence, but I figured I would give it a trial run before adding the second keg.

As I had hoped, the color of the wood came out good once I put on the poly. As I mentioned earlier, I bought some mounting tape for the drip tray.

My lid ended up being 49 lb, before I assembled the shanks, faucets, and lines ... unfortunately, the latter added just enough weight that I will need a support rod to hold up the lid when I'm changing kegs or working on something inside. But I'm happy enough with the design that I'm fine with that trade-off.

SWMBO is very pleased ... the keezer matches the server that is right next to it, as well as the cabinets in the adjacent kitchen (the pantry is just to the right of the keezer in the photos). And I, of course, am very pleased that I now have beer on tap within about 12' of my couch ... life is good!

Many thanks to all who've posted builds, ideas, answers, etc. in this forum ... no way could I pull this off without all of that information ... what a great community! :mug:

110817 keezer a.jpg


110817 keezer b.jpg


110817 keezer c.jpg
 
Nice build... Also your pics are off due to your white balance your camera should have settings for indoor light. ;)

I need to get around to doing this.
 
Took a couple more pics today ... white balance is still off just a bit, but it's obviously beyond my ability to fix it ... :confused:

At the very least, I wanted to post a pic that show a bit of the server on the left and the pantry cabinet on the right.

We've got Ultra and AmberBock on tap right now ... shifting to a couple of seasonal fall beers (probably Sam Adams Octoberfest and one other TBD) when we finish these ... and perhaps someday I'll be able to shed a few hobbies and other time requirements and have some time to brew my own! :mug:

110918 Kegerator a.jpg


110918 Kegerator b.jpg
 
Hi All ... I thought I would upload a photo showing the new tap handles that my sister got us for Christmas ... they really jazz up the keezer!

Cheers, all! :mug:

111223 New Tap Handles (800).jpg
 
Everytime I have seen this thread in the topic list in the DIY section I misread it to say "Mid-Missouri Freezer Convention" and I think to myself "Wow they have conventions for EVERYTHING nowadays"
 
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