My Keezer - The Documentary

I read the thread, looked at all of the different designs, learned the ins and outs of sketchup, and began my quest.

Thanks to everyone on HomeBrewtalk.com for the "keezer" ideas...

I started with the sketchup file jeezer was kind enough to send me, but quickly realized I need to make numerous modifications so I started a brand new sketchup file and put the major components in place (virtually).

Here is a picture of my original file:


As I build I am making modifications and will periodically update the model.

You can download the entire model from the sketchup model warehouse here:
http://tinyurl.com/7ynx6ys

Build pictures coming soon!

Here is the cart of African mahogany I picked each board from the local lumber yard. One was almost 20" wide! I originally thought about using it as the bar top, but have decided to go with tile or stone.

I start all of my woodworking projects with a rough draft on paper. I now add those drawings into sketchup for accuracy.

I started with 50 BF of lumber and two full sheets of 1/4" mahogany plywood.

Next I laid out the parts from my cut list onto the lumber and picked the best grain to show. I also had a homebrew before I dimensioned the boards into the proper thickness and width and cut the panels from the plywood.

I can't say enough good things about my Festool saw - it makes cutting plywood much less stressful (and accurate). I book matched the front and side panels of the skirt and cut the rails and stiles on the tablesaw.

I cut the rails and stiles to size and used Kreg Pocket Screws to fasten the parts and hold the panels. I'm a novice woodworker, but have usually done all of my joinery using more traditional joints, like mortise and tenon, lap joints, dovetails, etc...but the speed and ease of this pocket hole system is hard to beat. I used some wood glue, but for the most part you can just screw everything together.

Panels installed

Next I focus my attention on building the rolling base to set the freezer on.

I initially put the swivel casters on one side and the fixed casters opposite, allowing the base to roll length-wise. I should have put the fixed casters the other direction allowing the keezer to move in and out away from the wall.

I ordered 4 of these 80mm case fans from Amazon for $1.99 each with free shipping - (I love Prime). I wired them to a 15v wart charger I had laying around; drilled holes in the base to direct the air on the sides of the freezer.

the freezer manual calls for 3" of clearance on each side and front, but my skirt is only 2" away from the sides hence the reason I opted to put the fans in the base.

Last picture shows the skirt on the base and with the freezer in place.

At this point I was thinking about using the wide board for the bar top. After I wet it with denatured alcohol to bring out the grain, I noticed there was really no way to make a nice flowing grain pattern work on the bar top.

Next I started getting the parts together to split my dual manifold to feed four kegs. The 7.7cuft freezer will only hold four cornies with a co2 bottle. I next milled the southern yellow pine lumber into boards that will eventually become the "keezer collar".

I enjoyed a Red Hook ESB clone here before forming the 2" thick collar.

I'm too anal to just screw the boards together, so I had to countersink and plug the holes on the collar.

I revisited my Festool saw again to size the 1/2" plywood top. Then enjoyed another RH ESB clone, before moving on to sizing the apron and lid top from the mahogany boards.

With the apron and top lumber milled up, I layout the plywood and attach it to the 2" thick by 3" tall collar.

The best part is that your keezer will smell of rich mahogany.
Perhaps some leather books to go with it...

After some quick 45 miters and some pocket screws on the bottom the top is coming together.

Raenon said:

The best part is that your keezer will smell of rich mahogany.
Perhaps some leather books to go with it...

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LOL! Stay classy.

WOW! I can't wait the see the finished result on this one!! WAY too pretty for any beer I make....

Looking more like a keezer than a pile of boards at this point.

Beautiful wood choice, cant wait to see the finished product.

I decided to use the big 20" board to make the coffin top. No one else will probably notice, but the grain will match all the way across the sides and top.

This is a thing of beauty, I wish I had a fraction of the woodworking ability you appear to have. LoL

Now the math lesson begins. The good part is it was much harder and took me longer to get these angles right in sketchup. All of the angles are actually 10.6 degrees.

purplehaze said:

Beautiful wood choice, cant wait to see the finished product.

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Thanks, I can't wait either...my goal is to have it finished by March 31st!

paparker21 said:

This is a thing of beauty, I wish I had a fraction of the woodworking ability you appear to have. LoL

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Well thanks, but I give most credit to you guys on this forum that provide the endless ideas and the rest to my equipment! I'm sure you could do the same thing with the right tools.

The holes in the tap face board are 7/8" and the perlicks barely fit. I had to "waller" them out just a little. More pocket screws to hold everything in place. I actually had a few problems with the boards splitting on this piece, but I was able to glue the damage and will hide it with some sanding and finishing....

Awesome! I'll be watching this thread.

More views of the coffin and I couldn't resist test fitting the perlicks and the tap board handles. (which I would not buy for $40 - again)

Oh that's nice! I wish I had the time to do woodworking like that.

I removed the hinges and the lid from the freezer and screwed on my new collar. I could only find 1.5" wide insulation to seal the collar to the freezer. It seems to work, and didn't compress like I though it would.

Oh, I noticed it's only 1.25" wide weatherstrip. I was in HD today and saw some 2" wide stuff on clearance, but passed it up.

This is the lid and it's holding pretty good temperatures like this, but I am still going to put some 3/4" insulation inside the "wooden" lid, because I can feel that is is cool to the touch.

Today I picked up a bathroom exhaust fan I plan on using to keep the air moving and to cool the coffin.

Well, I'm all caught up on my build post...I hope to get more done this weekend. Enjoy and feel free to post questions or PM me... I'll post more pics as I get them.

I have some pretty good scraps left over too.

Enjoying the build. And the pics of your wood shop. :rockin: I saw on another post where someone took a bilge blower fan and some pvc to circulate the air in the keezer. I thought that was a pretty cool idea and didn't take up much space at all.

Very epic build! You have some real skill... I wish I had the talent and the tools. In the meantime I'll Prost!

Awesome job so far. Being a woodworker myself, I love it when I get to see both of these hobbies converge like this.

Can't wait to see the finished product!

That is looking fantastic! Maybe I'll hire you to do the woodwork on Keezer v2!!

Jester369 said:

That is looking fantastic! Maybe I'll hire you to do the woodwork on Keezer v2!!

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Lol! Thanks and I would love to do this stuff for a living! Offices are just not for me.

Markd27 said:

Awesome job so far. Being a woodworker myself, I love it when I get to see both of these hobbies converge like this.

Can't wait to see the finished product!

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Thanks Markd27, I hope to finish the keezer portion in a week or two, but I'm also planning to build a shelving unit "shrunk" around the keezer. Shrunk is a term I learned in Germany to describe a wall unit type furniture piece. I haven't heard it used in many years now! Maybe the flat screens killed it?

Epic photo posting!

There goes my afternoon!