Mini fridge extension/conversion to kegerator buildd

Yesterday I ordered some parts to make a kegerator out of my mini fridge (3 gallon corny, hoses, lines, tap, co2 bottle etc). In preparation for Friday when all of my supplies come in. I went to home depot today and bought some supplies to prep my fridge for its transformation (bolts, nuts, washers, pine 1x4's, gate lock/latch, t braces, insulator foam, and caulk).

My plan was to add an extension to the front of the fridge to make it easier when i convert to 5 gallon kegs and multiple taps. So we took the door of the fridge off and bolted the extension to the front of the refrigerator and bolted the door hinges to the extension. I then filled the cracks with insulation foam and caulk and painted the refrigerator black with Duplicolor epoxy paint for appliances. For my own personal flare I am dying the pine with green rit dye(available at wall mart and is water based). Once I finish getting the color I want I will put a mixture of tongue oil and armor all to make a hard, shiny, quick drying, durable finish. I learned this trick from my Dad using it on one of his gun stocks; this dye is the left over mix from that stock.

Here is a few pictures of my progress so far, I will be sanding down spots with smudges/imperfections on the original refrigerator tomorrow so please don't criticize my terrible paint job. Cant Wait to get this unique piece up and running.:rockin:

Let me know what you think of the rit dye on the pine and the build in general.

having problems with the paint... went to add a second coat of black and I am getting little patches of bubbles. Anybody have a tip for fixing/preventing these

I am currently putting the tongue oil on the wood now and sealing it all. I will be caulking all of the cracks and putting foam down on the wood on the inner part of the fridge as a moisture barrier. I am ok but overly happy with the paint minus the door(had to strip it so I can repaint it). The paint is not working out as well as I had hoped. I guess in the end as long as the kegerator part works looks don't matter.

New pictures are soon to come

The problems with your paint are more than likely caused from the oil on your hands. Once you prep something for paint DON'T touch it with bare hands, wear rubber gloves.

I had the same problem when painting or applying a finish to wood. Just handling the piece momentarily with bare hands before painting was enough to make it bubble and crack.

What I do is let the paint dry, sand the area down and wipe it with a bit of solvent. Once its dry I reapply the finish.

Another reason could be cold temps while applying the paint. Paint has a minimum temp for application.


By the way I like the green dye on the collar.

you shouldn't put the fridge on its side, but since you already have, you should let it stand upright for at least 12 hours before turning it on. fyi. looking good though.

also how are you going to have the door seal to the collar, you either need a magnetic cover for the wood, or a latch...

gabejavitt said:

you shouldn't put the fridge on its side, but since you already have, you should let it stand upright for at least 12 hours before turning it on. fyi. looking good though.

also how are you going to have the door seal to the collar, you either need a magnetic cover for the wood, or a latch...

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I will stand it up for a while before turning it on. I have a gate latch to keep it closed with that twists and has a key lock

purplehaze said:

The problems with your paint are more than likely caused from the oil on your hands. Once you prep something for paint DON'T touch it with bare hands, wear rubber gloves.

I had the same problem when painting or applying a finish to wood. Just handling the piece momentarily with bare hands before painting was enough to make it bubble and crack.

What I do is let the paint dry, sand the area down and wipe it with a bit of solvent. Once its dry I reapply the finish.

Another reason could be cold temps while applying the paint. Paint has a minimum temp for application.


By the way I like the green dye on the collar.

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what kind of solvent do you Use?

It is very cold here so that could be the problem but the first coat worked fine. Seemed to be the second one that caused the bubbles. The door is being striped right now and the wood is about to get the last coat of tongue oil. I am going to bring the door inside and sand it/let it sit in the warm air then paint it in the garage and place a heater near it so hopefully it will dry will little to no flaws.

Finally could get outside and do some work on the door with aircraft stripper today due to the nice weather. I plan on sanding it down to bare metal with wet/dry automotive sandpaper and a sanding block. I may polish the door depending on how I think it will look.

I have now put about 6 coats of the tongue oil and armor-all mixture on the wood and it looks great.

Pictures soon to come

update on the wood finish. Almost done... Maybe one or 2 coats

The Door needs a final wet-sanding before I re-spray it. I also plan on sanding/repainting a few spots on the top and sides of the fridge that are flawed. I will make sure I do a better job of wiping it down before I lay a coat of paint down after sanding this time.

still have to add my foam insulation to use as a moisture barrier and caulk/seal the inside. My lines and tap should arrive on Monday so that I can drill holes and do some final assembly.

Here are some pictures... Let me know what you think

I have decided to polish the door of the fridge. We shall see how it looks

Everything is installed... just need to turn my co2 tank in for a full one and keg one of the beers I have in the secondary. I could do some finishing touches on it but i kinda like the rough/antique look of it. I think that look goes well with the finish of the wood.

on second thought I will probably sand/polish the imperfections out of the fridge door. If I can't get it right I will most likely cover the door and the back of the fridge with truck bed liner.

Gotta love the location next to the big chair and the TV. If I only would have put the tap on the other side I would never have had to get up.

basementbrewbrad said:

Gotta love the location next to the big chair and the TV. If I only would have put the tap on the other side I would never have had to get up.

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The only thing to make that location more perfect would be for the faucet to be facing the chair...oh well.

Mcsuck said:

The only thing to make that location more perfect would be for the faucet to be facing the chair...oh well.

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Yea... I am working on making this thing not so uggly. The wood looks great but the rest of it I am very unhappy with. Tomorrow I plan on going to the auto parts store and getting some bedliner to cover it with.

Covered the door and the main body with duplicolor truck bed liner today. I like the way it turned out. Have not seen anybody do it so It is a little different.

The bedliner looks good...nice touch! Nice job...yours is the only mini-fridge with a collar I've seen...nice to know it can be done.

I like the look of the bedliner, too! I'm thinking of picking this model up off of craigslist for fifty bucks soon. Before I can convert it to a kegerator, I was going to use it as a fermentation chamber. Do you know if a 6.5 gallon carboy will fit in there without a collar?

no it will not, you will need the collar and to remove the plastic from the door

This bad boy came in handy over the holiday. I rushed to force carb 3 gallons of hazelnut brown ale for thanksgiving/redskins cowboys. It was almost finished... good thing that I have a batch of cherry wheat in the secondary . Has anybody else built one of these?

I know your probably not monitoring this thread often, but if you happen to catch this: Can you post some details on extending the width of the fridge? I am looking to do the same thing... by about 4-5 inches. I was probably just going to add a 2x4 or 2x6 frame and then somehow bolt it to the fridge. How did you attach yours to the fridge?

I used some flat t braces from Home Depot and bolted on 2x4s.

basementbrewbrad said:

I used some flat t braces from Home Depot and bolted on 2x4s.

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Please excuse my noviceness but did you just bolt it with some sheetmetal screws?

Lumpyyyyy said:

Please excuse my noviceness but did you just bolt it with some sheetmetal screws?

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I bolted it with some little 8th inch bolts I had after I lined everything up. Just make sure you drill pilot holes that are the correct size before you bolt it. Also might want to caulk/ spray insulate as you go so your fridge doesn't loose that cool air.

basementbrewbrad said:

I bolted it with some little 8th inch bolts I had after I lined everything up. Just make sure you drill pilot holes that are the correct size before you bolt it. Also might want to caulk/ spray insulate as you go so your fridge doesn't loose that cool air.

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I'm gonna go with caulking most likely and see if that is sufficient. Hopefully some regular bolts will work just fine.

I want to do this as well as need around 2-3" to be able to fit a Slim 1/4 keg in mine. It would open up more options when people are over and better deals.

So basically: remove door, I will need the wood to extend, cut to the right size if necessary, bolt wood to fridge, caulk/insulate inside (optional) to retain cold air, add door back on. And then obviously I'll have to figure a way to keep door shut if no metal for door to magnetize to.

Am I in the ballpark?

Yea you pretty much got the gist of it. I used a gate latch some people buy magnet strips but I couldn't find them when I built mine


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I think I'll end up using a gate latch too b/c my door is what is magnetize, so I'd have to get metal strips to make it work. I don't have the ability to customize metal strips.

Anybody have recommendation on a good gate latch to use? I want one that seals it pretty tight. I have the collar made and attached to the fridge, now its a matter of sealing up the cracks. If I can latch it tight that will take care of 3 of the 4 sides, and the door hinge side I just have to tinker with getting something that works with the door open and closing. The foam strip I put in pulls out, but think I have an idea that will work.

I used a latch that's turns and has a key. I would recommend 2(one on top and one on the bottom) so it seals really tight

Thanks! I'm definitely going to need minimum of 2 to get a tight seal on each end. I'm going to try a couple appliance baby latches first to see if that works, otherwise I'm going to go with the latch you mention. If I can get a tight seal that would be a big boon in getting a good seal.

Will minimal leaks be a huge deal? Its an older mini fridge (15 years) and intended for just over 3 cubic feet, so I don't want to burn the motor either. I added about a 3.5-4" collar.

If there is a decent size gap you will have significant ice buildup

I don't they'll amount to be big. It won't be pretty but if there are slight air gaps in the door seal, once the keg is in there I may just seal off outside with like aluminum tape. It wouldn't be pretty but think it make sure everything is sealed. Generally speaking once the keg is in there, I don't need to open until its gone.

Thanks for the information!

Any gaps (even if small) would allow air moisture in and you’ll eventually get ice build up.

One thing I thought of when I did my build was to build the collar slightly bigger than the fridge so that it would slide onto the fridge like a sleeve. You’d need wider pieces of wood though. If it were real tight you wouldn’t need to bolt but I would probably use some construction adhesive and then seal up the edges with silicone.

But OP’s build is probably a bit simpler. I like it.

So far, so good with mine. I basically put a light in the fridge and didn't notice many gaping holes. It seems to be holding the temperature well. I have the collar glued and caulked so hopefully that will be enough to hold the weight of like a 1/4 tall keg. I think it should. If so, looking like it will be successful. My fridge seal I wish was a little more eye pleasing but rather have the thing work.

What's the best way to do the door?

My door gasket has like a lip it's supposed to tuck under something.

What should I use to replace this or make it work when removing the shelving? It is an old fridge btw like 15-20 yr old

I have no idea what you are talking about without pictures

jbsilent said:

What's the best way to do the door?

My door gasket has like a lip it's supposed to tuck under something.

What should I use to replace this or make it work when removing the shelving? It is an old fridge btw like 15-20 yr old

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I just did this. I bought a length of screen cap like this and cut it into 4 pieces that could be put together in the same dimensions as the door. I taped them together with duct tape and laid the door insert over it on the floor to mark where the holes were. Drilled holes in plastic, put the seal around the makeshift frame, and reconnected it. It's not perfect (the rubber seal isn't held as tight against the door as it was with the insert but it seals fine). I'll take a picture when I get home from work and post it. Only thing I need to do is attach something to the door to hit the light switch - the light is staying on whenever the freezer kicks on at the moment.

The_Gerbil_Brewer said:

I just did this. I bought a length of screen cap like this and cut it into 4 pieces that could be put together in the same dimensions as the door. I taped them together with duct tape and laid the door insert over it on the floor to mark where the holes were. Drilled holes in plastic, put the seal around the makeshift frame, and reconnected it. It's not perfect (the rubber seal isn't held as tight against the door as it was with the insert but it seals fine). I'll take a picture when I get home from work and post it. Only thing I need to do is attach something to the door to hit the light switch - the light is staying on whenever the freezer kicks on at the moment.

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I'm getting ready to mod my mini fridge so that I can fit a sliding shelf for easier in/out with 5 gallon carboys. Can you post pictures of how you sealed yours?

narddawg314 said:

I'm getting ready to mod my mini fridge so that I can fit a sliding shelf for easier in/out with 5 gallon carboys. Can you post pictures of how you sealed yours?

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I sealed my mini fridge by simply cutting the plastic insert. It's more permanent, but easy and leaves seal as secure as the stock fridge. If you know you'll never use this fridge for anything else, I'd go that route (using a dremel to cut). That's the pic with the black plastic.

The other pics are my freezer that I'm hesitant to permanently modify. That's the second 2 pics and the process I described in my prior post. Hope that helps!