Antique Radio Kegerator Build

Here's the deal. I found this for free on craigslist and emailed the guy. Taking inspiration from others on this forum, I look at it and see a kick ass co-vert kegarator.





I envision the cold box for 2 kegs where the radio and speaker is currently located and 2 recessed taps where the record player is currently located. That will leave me where the record storage racks are for the compressor and coils on the back. I will be leaving the doors "Functional" with the face of the radio and speaker grill left in place and fabing a couple of panels for the record player side to hide the compressor and to mount the faucets to.

Properly refinished, I think that it will look amazing. Dose anyone else see the same thing that I see in my head? If this comes through, I will be posting pictures of the build.

Here's to seeing if this comes through!

I see it.
Go forth and do it.

Wow, what brand of radio is that and how old do you think it is? There is a market for stuff like that, it may be worth enough to buy a kegerator. If you're interested look around in for HAM radio sites that may give you a link to someone who would buy that thing as is to restore for use as a radio. FWIW.

ButcherBoy said:

Wow, what brand of radio is that and how old do you think it is? There is a market for stuff like that, it may be worth enough to buy a kegerator. If you're interested look around in for HAM radio sites that may give you a link to someone who would buy that thing as is to restore for use as a radio. FWIW.

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I agree, this might be worth more than you think.

Holy cow that thing is great. I also agree you might want to look into what it's worth before gutting it.
Nice find!

Cool idea.

There is another old radio/phonograph thread around here somewhere. You might want see if you can find it to help you out.

Here it is

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/philco-keezer-project-antique-radio-343655/

I love how we home brewers look at things and wonder how we can make it yield our favorite beverage. I have to change my water heater tomorrow and I have been wondering if I can do anything brew related with it.

You might be able to turn the inside into a boil kettle. ( I think gas water heaters have the chimney running through the middle, though)

Just got an email back. Already Gone. So, the search continues......... old Radio, something else cool, Who knows? Back to the craigslist I go.......

Got one!! It's gonna cost me $50, but I think it will be worth it. It's a newer model, do I don't feel as bad about re-purposing it. I think if I do it right, I should be able to keep the radio portion functioning! I'll post picts tomorrow!

Here are the pictures off Craigslist. The Lady says that the dimensions are 32W X 30D X 36H. should be plenty of room for 2 kegs where the record storage is and 2 taps where the record player is now. If I am able to work it, I would like to keep the radio working and put the compressor down by the speaker. It has already been modified as there was originally a TV inside the cabinet that is no longer there. And, the maple cabinet seems to be in much better condition than the last one that I found. I will keep you all apprised of the progress of this endevor.

I picked it up this weekend. I looked closer after I got it home, It should fit 2 corny's no problem. My only question is what R-value should I look to acheive when insulating the cold box? I understand, the more the better, but what would be the minimum R-value to keep the compressor from running constantly? I plan to seal all the seams with Spray Foam and coating the entire inside with silver metal tape. Any sugestions?

And BTW, The radio portion has some life in it. I believe that there is a way to fit in the new components and keep the radio portion. Should be a learning experiance on many levels!

Awesome idea. When I was a kid my dad had a different model in his office. The lights worked, but the radio was shot so he just put a modern (at the time) boom box inside the old radio tuned to his favorite station. Everyone that came in was amazed at how well his antique radio worked.

Now I wish I had told him to keep it when he retired, would have made a great kegerator.

Got Started on teardown today. Took a few picts of what I envision the approximate layout to be. The only concession I think is that I think that I am going to be limited to 1" rigid foam for insulating the cold box.

I did manage to find a service manual with a schematic for the radio reciever.
So getting that working is another project for this summer. Should be really cool once finished!

And yes, the taps will be mounted to a matching piece of wood. They are currently attached to the board that the guy I got them from mounted them to. Brand new, never used, for $35.

I think it would be real sweet if you could some how get the taps to replace a couple of the tuner knobs leaving the radio look intact.

tugbucket said:

I think it would be real sweet if you could some how get the taps to replace a couple of the tuner knobs leaving the radio look intact.

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If I can get it working again, the original radio is going back in. If not (Cost/time effective), I plan to shearch craigslist and thrift stores to find one of the old looking CROSLEY radios to replace the radio while maintaining the vintage look.

Like one of these. Vintage look, modern parts. Easy enough to take apart and fit inside the existing space.

So it looks like I am going to have to strip the entire outside of the case. There was a huge watermark on the top and some of the veneer was damaged. So, I have been gently hand sanding the entire outside of the cabinet with the hopes of matching the doors. Hand sanding to ensure that I don't sand holes in the veneer, just enough to blend the color of the wood and remove the old varnish. I hope to be staining this weekend.

So, today I got the veneer repaired and the last bit of hand sanding done. I wanted to leave as much of the original finish on as I could, but most of the outside was too far gone. At liest the doors were in good enough shape to not futz with. All I have to do now is match finish (or get close enough). I picked up the insulation and stain at the blue box store. I managed to get one coat of poly stain on and I am waiting for it to dry enough to apply a second and mabey a third coat to get the color that I want. I also got a small can of clear poly to put two or three additional coats on the top surface to protect it from water marks from the cold beers that it will be dispensing in the future. Here are a few pictures after sanding. I will post a few more after I get the stain and poly done and the doors back on.

Now the dubious task of emptying the keg that is currently inside the mini fridge that I intend to tear apart for my build! Good thing that the new episode of DR WHO is on tonite! I am such a geek.

So here's the last week.

Massive amountd of hand-wet sanding between many coats of finish.

I thought that I was going to save time with a poly and stain in one. Boy, was I wrong. It streaked and ran....needless to say, I will not be using it again. I finially got enough coats on where I could wet sand with a 120 grit sponge and sand down the peaks and streaks to get an almost even finish.

Once I got the finish as even as I could get it, I began the actual clear poly satin finish, Lightly sanding with 00 steel wool between each coat. Here it sits as of tonite. 3 coats of clear on the top and 2 on the sides. The doors have the original finish with 1 coat of the tinted polystain. Once completely dry, I will sand and clear.

Now for a beer. Still working on empting the keg in the fridge that i need to tear apart to use in this project.

And a shot of the bike as well. Cheers!

Just got done re-fitting the doors. I tell you she looks good! I started fitting and cutting the foam insulation to make sure that I did not miscalculate and will still have the room for the kegs and coling coils in the planed space. Hopefully I don't have to extend the back a few inches to gain the added clearance. As It sits right now, things are looking good. I don't plan to permanantly install any of the foam untill I have the fridge gutted and ready to fit so I can trim and fit as necessary. Pictures comming soon.

Cheers!

A productive couple of days. I got about 75% if the insulation cut and fitted. I figured out a way to mount the old record player drawer to utilize it as a kind of sliding coffin box for the taps. I took the original drawer slides and remounted them to the sides of the drawer and the case. I had to cut about an inch and a half off of them to gain the room to slide the drawer back into the cabinet about 3" so the taps will clear the closed door when not in use.

Next step is to build a foam drawer liner to house the tap hoses and keep them cold. With the minimal volume, I don't think it will be too dificult to keep cold.

Here are a few shots of the progress so far............


Cheers!

Finially have 95% of the various piece parts to finish the build. Go figure, the gas manifold hose barbs are 5/16 to match the hose, and the ball lock disconnects are 1/4 barbs. I managed to find some reinforced 1/4 ID hose at Lowes along with the apprioate size barb fittings to splice them to the 5/16 ID beer gas hose. Now, all I have left is to find a large enough scrap piece of aluminum at work to use as a heat sink for the hot side of the fridge guts and get the whole thing fitted into the radio case. Time for some backwoods engineering at it's best!

Looking good! Nice work on the finish.

Homercidal said:

Looking good! Nice work on the finish.

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Yeah, It took quite a bit of work. I will never use a poly-stain in one again! I have one small spot between the taps to fix. The masking tape I used when I drilled the holes for the taps pulled a small portion of clear off. Should be easy enough to fix though.

I found my sheet of aluminum for the coil heat sink today. Now it's all about putting it all together.

Cheers!

Tonites Project: A rolling insert fot the base. This is two fold, ease of movement and something to mount the compressor too. I have the plywood cut, now to add the wheels and get it solidly mounted. Picts posted later tonite.

This, my friend, is fantastic! Can't wait to see the final piece.

Looking GOOD!

Buell FTW! I had a '95 S2 Thunderbolt, Ice White Pearl, white Marchessini wheels, Supertrapp exhaust with an open end cap...sold it in '08 and kick myself every day for doing it. Was one of the first ones they produced, too. Was so early in the original production run the vents were all hand-cut plaster lath and the body panels were all hand-laid. Ah, nostalgia.

Nice kegerator build, too!

Daddo07 said:

Buell FTW! I had a '95 S2 Thunderbolt, Ice White Pearl, white Marchessini wheels, Supertrapp exhaust with an open end cap...sold it in '08 and kick myself every day for doing it. Was one of the first ones they produced, too. Was so early in the original production run the vents were all hand-cut plaster lath and the body panels were all hand-laid. Ah, nostalgia.

Nice kegerator build, too!

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Mine is an '04 XB9SL with a Jardine RT-1 exhaust, Buell race ECU, and an open airbox conversion with a dual air ram carbon fiber airbox cover. (I replaced the original cover because it was signed by Eric Buell and I did not want to screw it up!) Makes about 110 WHP and 98 FTLBS(?) of torque at the rear wheel. Above all, it sounds like a Harley motor should. I just got sick of being run off the road with the stock setup. Louder is better!

Howiedw said:

Mine is an '04 XB9SL with a Jardine RT-1 exhaust, Buell race ECU, and an open airbox conversion with a dual air ram carbon fiber airbox cover. (I replaced the original cover because it was signed by Eric Buell and I did not want to screw it up!) Makes about 110 WHP and 98 FTLBS(?) of torque at the rear wheel. Above all, it sounds like a Harley motor should. I just got sick of being run off the road with the stock setup. Louder is better!

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I had an early prototype HD racing ECU (gotta have people). I knew Eric from way WAY back when he was still at HD. Super nice guy. My dad retired from HD and my sister works there. My aunt and uncle own Uke's HD in Kenosha, WI, which my grandfather started back in 1930. It's a whole family thing.

I never got sick of that exhaust sound. Was quiet enough at low throttle openings that I wasn't embarrassed when I'd get home late, but open her up and they'd know you were there. Did wonders for the power curve, too. Never got to ride an XB9 or 12, but I did take an XB1125 out for an hour. Holy balls that bike was fast! Too small for me at 6' 2", but I sure managed to stay well above the posted speed limit most of the time I was on it. Also rode a Ulysses, X1, S3, Blast, and WAY back when an RS1200. Probably my favorite was the S1 White Lightening. You just couldn't keep that front wheel on the ground!

Sorry to take this so far off topic but its always good to see one of the old machines still around.

Daddo07, No problem. I invited the diversion by posting the picts.

This afternoons project, stuffing the guts of the mini fridge into the future "Kegeradio". And I was sucessfull!!

After mounting the rolling base plate to the underside of the radio chassis, I measured and cut the aluminum plate for the heatsink. I had a few plastic spacers left over from a few flatscreen tv mounts so I used the 1/2 inch spacers and some 1-1/4 inch screws to attach the plate to the back. After shoehorning the compressor and screwing it to the base came the fun part of taping all the copper coils to the plate. See picture. I used a metal tape to do this for heat contuctivity. (Actual duct tape, not the plastic stuff from wallyworld)

Them mounting the cold plate to the top of the chamber and hard mounting the foam panels. All of these seams were taped up as well. The thermostat was mounted to the inside in the cold box and then the moment of truth......

I plugged it in, the compressor started humming and the cold plate started getting cold. IT WORKS!!!!!!:rockin:

Here are the picts of todays progress......

And yes, Toe Shoes. I finished a 3.5 mile run pushing the baby in her jogging stroller before I got started!

Cheers!

Next up - Plumbing for gas and beer!

I got the door insulated and weather stripped today. I am completely out of CO2, so I added a fitting to connect my air compressor to it and pressure tested the system to 30 PSI. No leaks so far. I ran a gallon of BLC through both lines and now I have both kegs full of clean water sitting in it with the refer runing to test the stock temp control. I'll post pictures later tonite of the door. Now all I need to do is find a retro looking radio to put in the hole left by the original one. And wait for the yeasties to finish their work on the two batches in the closet to christen it.

Yesterday I filled two empty kegs with tap water and put them inside. Plugged it in, and walked away. Today it's at about 34 deg and holding. I do have one question. There is a cold spot on the top of the outside of the case. It's right where the cold plate is screwed through the insulation into the underside of the top to hold it in place. Any suggestions to remedy this? Should I remove the screws, unplug it, wait for it to completely dry and just metal tape it to the inside with a foam spacer? What are your thoughts?

great work man! but aren't the tap handles kinda low? are you planning to raise the whole thing? might be difficult to pour a beer at knee height.

elmito said:

great work man! but aren't the tap handles kinda low? are you planning to raise the whole thing? might be difficult to pour a beer at knee height.

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I thought about that. Astheticly though, it works. This arrangement, I can retract the taps inside and lock the two doors with a vintage looking lock to keep the kiddos out of it. Another condition from the SWMBO.

1) It dosen't look like a kegorator
2) Must be able to keep kids out.

So, it turns out that the CO2 cylinder I had was an "Old style" 5# cylinder. The replacement I got is a new style 2.5#. It's much shorter, so I think that it may stand upright inside. I'll test it this afternoon to find out. If not, It may have to sit outsite the kegarator. But, reguardless, I have gas now. Just waiting on the beer to finish.

Howiedw said:

Yesterday I filled two empty kegs with tap water and put them inside. Plugged it in, and walked away. Today it's at about 34 deg and holding. I do have one question. There is a cold spot on the top of the outside of the case. It's right where the cold plate is screwed through the insulation into the underside of the top to hold it in place. Any suggestions to remedy this? Should I remove the screws, unplug it, wait for it to completely dry and just metal tape it to the inside with a foam spacer? What are your thoughts?

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The screw is probably acting as a heatsink. Unless its cold enough to be causing condensation I probably wouldn't worry about it.

It Fits! The new smaller 2.5# cylinder fits into the space below the drawer upright! This will be a fully self contained unit! Here are some picts of the cylinder and gas arrangement. I built the manifold myself with parts "Aquired" from work. The only part I had to buy was the shutof valves with the barbs. Still, $20 in valves is better than $40 for a manifold!

As for the other issue, the cold spot is causing condensation, so I think I will remove the 2 screws and try just metal taping it to the top with another small square of insulation to act as a spacer. We'll see if that fixes it.