It's Keezer Time

I bought two of the Magic Chef 7.0 cu ft freezers at HD for $158 each. I've been sitting on them for about two weeks now. We've had a contractor in our basement taking out a wall and removing the Berber carpet. We're going to have some 6" wide hand scraped hickory flooring installed on Monday/Tuesday down there. I'm excited about that and it should look great. Today, my wife made my keezer build even easier by telling me she wants it to be painted wood instead of stained hardwood. So it will probably be an antique white to contrast with the dark hickory flooring. That means the outside cabinet surround will use cabinet panels from Home Depot and painted an antique white (maybe distressed). I still may at least try something exotic with the coffin. I have some Mahogany, Figured Makore, Tiger Striped Maple, Cherry and Ribbon Mahogany that I could use on the coffin. But, I'm not sure that would go with the painted/antiqued cabinet.

Progress and photos coming soon.

Subscribe. I just got one of these on Black Friday. I am in the process of getting all of my components. Good luck.

Today, I worked on a coffin box design. This is very close to what I'll wind up with. Again today, my wife confirmed that she would prefer it to be painted and antiqued or distressed. So, I can use stuff like pine, MDF and particle board and no expensive wood. But, I know others have painted theirs and still used some wood to trim it. Like the one at the bottom built by Reeg68bird. He went beyond a normal coffin box. I still think I'd like to use some natural wood and not have it all painted. Whatever I decide, this will be a good model for all the dimensions.

I put this together with a biscuit joiner and Titebond II wood glue. There is a front and rear view. The top is not on yet but when it is, there will be about a 1/2" overhang on the sides and front. I may use a nice piece of wood for the top. The tap panel or whatever it is called is 4-in high. I'll have to drill some holes in it and insert a shank to see if I can get my hand in there to tighten it.

My drip tray came today. This is the one from ebay and $27.00 shipped. I ordered this on Friday and it came today (Monday).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130732175995?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Tonight, I decided to keep this coffin box. I added the top and sealed the inside with black caulk. The black doesn't do anything, but it does help me see it better in all the joints. I also decided to go with some wood on the top and I used some of my leftover mahogany veneer from a speaker building project. Tomorrow, I'll get the three paint coats on (3 colors) to start the antique paint scheme. I also bought the glass tile panels that go on the front. I plan to cut out an opening for my controller and then add the glass tile around that. I think I'll use travertine or something dark to contrast with the paint.

In addition to painting, I think I'll go to Home Depot tomorrow and buy the lumber for my base, framing and outer skirt.

The big news for me is the new floor in the basement will be finished tomorrow and I can start working on sorting out everything down there.

I watched a lot of videos on antique white painting and I thought I could do it. I did not like the way it looked at all. So, I pulled out the mahogany veneer and I may go with this. The top has 4 coats of poly with two to go. The sides and front only have one coat and I plan 6 for those as well. There is still some work to do below the taps. There will be tile in there but the sides will not be tile.

My new flooring was finished in my basement yesterday and I need to make up my mind about the coffin and skirt. By this weekend, I plan to have a final plan.

This is the coffin with mahogany veneer:

After my experiment with the antique white finish, I decided to stick to wood. Here is the almost final result. I still need another 1-2 coats of urethane. The holes for the taps need to be drilled and I need to cut the hole out for the digital display and tile the backsplash. The front tap panel is African Mottled Mokore and the rest is African Mahogany. There is even a little bit of a crotch pattern in the mahogany. With 1-2 more coats, the mottled grain in the Makore will really pop...and the Perlicks will probably completely hide it.

I also finally took the freezer out of the box and experimented with some keg placement. I have 2ea 5-gal ball locks and 2ea 2.5-gal ball locks. I can place three 5-gal kegs on the floor, one 2.5 on the shelf and the other 2.5 would fit 1/2 on the shelf with something under it for support. The 2.5s are stackable, but too tall without a collar. I will only have three taps so a third 5-gal could just be something on deck conditioning or carbing.

Looks great. Subscribed...

I spent a couple of hours framing this thing tonight. My back hurts and my knees are sore and it's not from kissing ass at work. I still need two more pieces at the front, but I think I'm done for the day. I have a pretty big gap between the sides and the framing. I'm also going to use one of those wooden HVAC register covers on the side where the vent is on the freezer. The other thing I will have is a fan on the bottom. I'll cut a hole and then mount a 4-in fan. Instead of blowing air in, I'm going to mount it with the exhaust blowing down/out. I think it may be better to remove the warm air.

Oh yeah, I got my basement reconfiguration completed. We had a a wall removed and some drywall replaced where we had a leak. That leak occurred over 3yrs ago and I had a hole cut in the drywall and a 10ft area of carpet cut out for that long. I remember spraying bleach every place that came close to being wet. I made damn sure there was no mold. Insurance does not pay for basement leaks if the water comes from outside. That leak repair cost us $5,500 out of pocket. So, I waited a while to be sure it would not leak again and then it just became part of the scenery...but now it's all repaired and even upgraded with 6-in hand scraped hickory flooring. We also have a 30ft x 16ft home cinema down there in another area with a D-ILA projector, 110"-in screen, two rows of tiered leather reclining home theater seats and a dedicated electric panel to handle the amps. The second picture is the room that the keezer will go in.

I got a lot more work done today. I decided to go with painted trim instead of stained. Of course, that could change. This is just primer...the color has not been decided yet. I also added my tile back splash and my temp controller to the coffin today. Now I need a top and I think it will be complete.

Looks awesome.

Still not sure what I'm going to do with the primed trim. I did grout my back splash today and started adding clear coat to the paneling.

I was away for business this week. But, tonight, I wired my ST-1000 controller and I must say it is one cool little device (pun intended). I'm no electrician, but I've built a lot of speakers and a wooden boat. So reading schematics and wiring was not intimidating to me and it was easy. *I'm not endorsing electrocution, but I found it easy. Tomorrow, I'm going to start on the top and I keep going from wood to tile to epoxy. I still don't know what the final result will be.

...oh yeah, this is the boat I built:

Sub'd

So I've flip flopped again on design. I have experimented a little with the top. Instead of tile, I may use some of my leftover basement flooring and put a layer of clear epoxy on it. This photo is the flooring as a top. It would need some 4" x 1/2" trim which would also act as a dam to hold the curing epoxy. This is dark hickory and my coffin is a combination of mahogany and makore. Back when I was building a few stereo speakers, there was a guy who was a master at mixing veneers on a speaker cabinet. They looked so good. I'm not sure how this looks together. I would probably just paint the surround cabinet (not the coffin) black if I go this way. I think the black tones in the hickory flooring and the hickory top would go well with a black cabinet. There is a TV/stereo cabinet in our basement now and it looks really good with the new dark hickory floors. If I go with the black cabinet, I'll use some epoxy or poly to add my new brewery logo to the two front panels, which is in the second photo below.

I also added some insulation to the coffin yesterday. I also let the freezer run for about 24hs using the STC-1000 controller. I have two 120mm fans that will be used to circulate air through the coffin. I used a blue outlet box to shield the backside of my STC-1000. It will be sealed with caulk to keep moisture out of the controller. You can see just a little white primer inside the coffin. That is Kilz which should help prevent things like mold and mildew from growing if it gets a little damp. I'll be using an Eva-Dry E-500 inside the keezer to control moisture.

Have the top assembled and test fit with the keezer. I still need to cut out the area for the coffin to sit and cut out the area for the drain. Then finish all the trim. BTW, the top is hickory floor boards left over from our basement. That entire top surface will be covered with a 2-part clear epoxy.

The garage stage is finished. I have attached the top to the freezer lid using Tee nuts and I have made the cutouts for the spill tray and the coffin. The two holes for tubing and the fan have be made through lid inside the coffin. I now need to disassemble the whole thing and move it to the basement where it can be reassembled and completed. That includes paint touch-up, final coats of poly, epoxy top, run final wires and all the little misc things I have missed.

Today, I moved the whole thing down to the basement. I still need to touch up a few areas and cover the top in clear epoxy. But I think the build process is about finished. Now I need to brew some beer. I plan to do that on Wed and Thurs. I'm about two weeks behind on this, but it happens. If I ever get tired of the black, it will be easy to build a new housing.

Photo 1 is inside the coffin. The fan sits on top of the box on the left and circulates cold air up and back down the second hole. The only thing I have not checked yet is the size of that second hole. It has to hold three beer lines and allow air to circulate back through it. I may have to drill a third hole. I'm sure that will be necessary since I failed to check the one that I already made.

Photo 2 & 3 are the front of the keezer. The chalkboard will be hung instead of propped against the wall.

Looks great! My Eva dri 500 doesn't dry a damn thing in my keezer though. Is yours working well?

You have to plug them into a wall outlet to dry out every so often, I need a larger one maybe after Christmas.

milesvdustin said:

Looks great! My Eva dri 500 doesn't dry a damn thing in my keezer though. Is yours working well?

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Mine wasn't doing to well keeping the moisture out either. Mounted a computer fan to one side with velcro. Cleared it in a few days and has kept it dry since.

Oh, and nice keezer limulus.

I have not tried the Eva-Dry E-500 yet. I've seen a few others here who do use them. it does need a charge. If I have a problem with condensation, I will just stick with Damp Rid. I also have two fans that I can use inside the coffin to move air around. I have not decided on how I want them to run. They are meant to be used in the coffin box.
1. I could have them run when the compressor comes on
2. I use the STC-1000 as a controller. I've noticed that it overshoots the temp by a couple of degrees and the controller will attempt to activate a heating device. I saw one guy here who uses that to control his fan which pulls the extra chill up into his coffin. I like that idea and may do that.
3. I also have a second STC-1000 that I have not built yet and I could use it as a separate controller in the coffin.
4. Let them run constantly.

My wife gave me a set of Imperial Pint glasses today. I'm going to buy a couple of pub mats to sit them on, but for now, I have them right on the bar surface.

I seem to name everything after Hog Mtn. Our Home Theater is also named The Hog Mountain Bijou

My Taprite 3-body secondary regulator came today. My main regulator is a two gauge type with a wye splitter and two shutoffs. So, I could run 4 different kegs off this system now. I just have to figure out where I'm going to mount this thing. Inside the coffin would make adjusting easier. I'll have to get the hole saw out again and make another hole for all the gas lines if I do.

I like it alot. Rich looking finish. And I want your christmas story lamp. Were did you find that?

I read somewhere that a freezer needs to have a few inches of air space around it or it will not cool properly. I bought my wife a wine chiller for Christmas and I had it in a spare bedroom covered up with a sheet plugged in and running and the sides of it got very hot. Once I uncovered it the problem went away.

+HopSpunge+ said:

I like it alot. Rich looking finish. And I want your christmas story lamp. Were did you find that?

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You can find them at multiple sites online. Mine is a small. They make a mini, small large and XL size in the leg lamps.

StroudCreek said:

I read somewhere that a freezer needs to have a few inches of air space around it or it will not cool properly. I bought my wife a wine chiller for Christmas and I had it in a spare bedroom covered up with a sheet plugged in and running and the sides of it got very hot. Once I uncovered it the problem went away.

Click to expand...

I believe this is true. Mine wound up with several inches of airspace on each side and the back is completely open. I also added a vent on the side and I have another 120mm fan that can circulate air around the freezer.

limulus I see your from Atlanta, I am just down I85 from you in LaGrange

Well Lads, I now have full kegs in my keezer. I have a Vienna Blonde Ale in the 2.5gal kegs and Ed Wort's Haus Pale Ale in one of my 5-gal kegs. I'll soon have another 5-gal keg filled with Dunkelweizen and I also have an American Wheat ready to brew for the third 5-gal keg.

The Vienna Blonde is ready now and I've knocked down several pints. The Haus Pale Ale will be ready this weekend.

I keep the STC-1000 set at 4.5C. I use a 120mm fan in the coffin and it stays within a couple of degrees of 45F. I use a Coralife aquarium thermometer to monitor the coffin (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002DI4TO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20). I moved my STC-1000 probe to a 500mL plastic bottle filled with water inside the keezer. I was using a small glass vial that was maybe 15mL. I now use that vial in the coffin to hold the probe for that thermometer. With the thermal mass of the kegs, I like the larger 500mL bottle better for the STC-1000 probe. My compressor only runs about every 2hrs. The downside to that is it runs at least 20min. I moved the temperature differential down to 1-degree from 2 so it kicks on at 5.5C and runs a shorter amount of time. After shutoff, the temp continues to drop all the way down to about 3.4C. Then the slow 2-hr climb back to 5.5C.

With my combo immersion chiller and 40-plate chiller with circulating ice water, I can cool my wort very fast. I also crash cooled it after primary and then kegged it. I think that paid off with a beer that is pretty darn clear.

Just bought one at HD, on sale for $158. I read the reviews after purchasing and they're horrible. Are yours still kicking?