Son of a....

I spent all last week cleaning out a freezer I was given (15cuft!), built a collar and tap handles which I stained and poly'd, and bought my external thermostat. I transferred all of the hardware off of my existing fridge and all that was left to attach the lid, move into place, plug in, add beer. 20 minutes to cold beer. I decided to not only mount the hinges on the collar but to the unit as well for good measure. PPPPPPPPPPPFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTT FRIGGIN REFRIGERANT LINE! I almost cried as my face was blasted with freon. I was within a half inch of the old screw hole and center-punched the line. I could not have hit more dead center if I tried. I fixed it ~40% and found a repair man to finish the job of silver soldering and refilling it for $60. Phew! I'll be up and running tomorrow night! I just had to tell someone, anyone, who may understand what was taken from me in an instant. I was crushed

Unrelated to beer, but I did this to a customer's car once when I was a mechanic. Drilling a broken bolt for the radiator, broke through and directly into the A/C line. pppppffftttttt.

I guess I did go out and drink a whole bunch of beer after that, so maybe it is related???

Seriously, I feel for ya man. You gotta watch out for that Murphy guy!

Freon. Friend and foe.

Well, I haven't driven a screw into coolant line before, but just wanted to let you know that I would have been just as frustrated. With as much work that you put into your project, I would have gone Rambo on that fridge...

But you could always RDWHAHB!

Almost did the same thing with a hammer drill, concrete slab, and in floor heating. Dodged a fairly massive bullet on that one

Sucks it wasn't summertime. I would kill for a face full of Freon in my house with no A/C sometimes...

Done! I called the ac/ refrigeration guy for my restaurant( I'm a chef) $30 and I made him lunch. Refrigeration line is repaired and full of freon... Buddies came over and we enjoyed the inaugural pour. Now time to take in the next steps.

Congrats. We have been afraid of screwing through something we shouldn't be but have been lucky so far. Glad it wasn't too much to get it fixed.