Rockin' Kegerator!

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wedward

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I had a party at work last Saturday that included a battle of the bands and a brew competition. My team (band/work) wanted to go over the top, so a coworker and I planned out a portable kegerator to dispense beer for our band's grand beer garden/RV setup. Everyone else brought bottled beer, and we blew people away with the setup. Hopefully everyone here will like the results - it's a KEEPER that we'll use for every party at work, home, anywhere. It breaks down and fits in the trunk of my Honda Accord, and cleans up nicely.

This is made from scrounged samples of our current tube/valve amp lines. Most who play guitar may know of the brand - Line 6.

It's made from a 4x10 speaker cab and a 100 Watt Spider Valve Amp. It has two cornies and a CO2, fully insulated (cab and head) watertight, with guitar neck heads as tap handles. The handles here were dark for the Irish Red Ale, and light for the Munich Helles Lager.

I'll post build pics too - took about a month or so of weekend only to plan/build and last minute until the wire for the gig to finish.

Let me know what you think!

Cheers

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Waiting for the taste judges to start...

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Posing for the paparazzi... (note the wannabe BM Rolling Kegerator in the foreground - holding EdWort's Pale Haus Ale, a Dunkel Weizen and an Apfelschorle - apple soda for the kids).

No money shots - the brew was too shaken up from the ride and I was too buzzed to get a shot when they settled down.... but here's a shot of the first dead tap.... Irish went first (ladies choice).

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Notice the only cleanup issue is the spill from the tray - 409 will clean it up.
 
That is some expensive gear you turned into a keggerator! Please tell me all that stuff was broken beyond repair and you got it for free. My heart would ache if you gutted all that great gear!
 
That is some expensive gear you turned into a keggerator! Please tell me all that stuff was broken beyond repair and you got it for free. My heart would ache if you gutted all that great gear!

OP stated that it was built from sample parts and he's the manufacturer.
 
Thanks everyone. Yeah I work for the company and we scrounged some samples and stuff.

Here's some build pics:

Here's the gutted cab (came that way)
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Insulation and 40 Mil shower pan liner from Home Depot. I started with the idea of a pond liner, then perhaps an open plexi fish tank, but plexi was very $$. Liner cost around $24.

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Test fit of the kegs.
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We originally wanted 3 kegs and thought about an extended back panel, but the waterproofing with liner made that too difficult.

1 inch insulation on all sides
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Panel with front blacked out to cover the speaker holes
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Used 1/4 inch since space was running low...

Test fit with insulation and panel
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Sides all insulated
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Here the marks for the top panel to make a lid... The original plan was to open from the back, but again the liner method made that too hard.
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Access panel - not 100% perfect, and had to extend it. I'll be searching for another sample or anything with the same vinyl cover to cut a perfect panel top as a replacement. After all the insulation, everything fit, but once the liner went in, it was enough to make it a tight opening and the rubber on the keg bottoms did not play well sliding into the lined opening.

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Here's the lip for the access panel

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First fit and fix of the front side - the liner was all one sheet cut to size, and two slits each side where the bottom corners were. Kind of like a rubbery origami project!

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Here's the semi finished interior. I used the cement made for the liner (PVC) - almost choked to death trying to seal the insides where I had to lean inside and glue it.

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Everything was water tight except one corner each side where the cuts were not enough and there was some buckling. I then caulked it along each exposed seam (2) and the corners. Good to go...
 
Here's the feed tube - 1.5 inch ABS that the beer hoses feed through between the cab and head.

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Here's the make-shift faucet tower - we had bigger plans of a custom grown (3D model) unit, but it was too big and would have taken about 50 hours to produce. So for a whopping $5 at Radio Shack - a project box does the trick.
It has two new Perlick 525's and 2 inch shanks.

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I roughly insulated the top, sides, bottom and back of the amp interior. Here the electronics section had to be fitted. We wanted to show the tubes and do some lighting - we'll do that on the next version!

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Here you can see the insides - along with the Lowes ceiling light panel blacked out on the smooth side - diamond side left alone to show the texture. We fixed a back insulated panel with a handle so we could swap in frozen gel packs to keep the lines cool - worked very well and everyone loved how cold the brew was.

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After that - some inline quick disconnects for the beer hoses so the head can be removed. I then bent u-shaped flange and fixed it to the middle-front to hold the surface mount SS drip tray. The top has black fence hinges (wanted something rugged looking) to allow access to the inside.

For the maiden voyage - ice was still about 1/4 frozen after sitting outside for about 1PM to 5 PM with temps in the 90's here in So Cal. Beer was crisp and cold. I missed a couple of pics here and there, since I was up to 2AM finishing up before the party. So let me know of any details you want more on.

Prost!
 
Very nice work. Just need to add refrigeration now.

Yeah I wanted to do a glycol chiller or gut some of those thermo-electric car fridges, but we decided to keep it simple this time. We also planned to do a 2.5 gallon single keg version from a Bass amp to put the kids' soda in as well, but this was enough to do as it was.... Version 2 coming....
 
I love this board! That is a great looking project. Only surpassed by the innovated use of gear from another hobby. Congratulations. - Dwain
 
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