Armoire Keezer Build

Well after lurking on this website for a few years and doing a few builds based off other peoples designs over the last few years, I figured I should submit my own build for the worlds review. After 3 years of bottling I've about had it and decided kegging and a keezer was in order, but SWMBO did not approve of tap handles in our living room, and I didn't approve of walking to the basement every time I wanted a fresh one. Thus, the Armoire Keezer was envisioned.

The Plan. As envisioned with Sketchup.


Build around a 7.2 Kenmore deep freeze. There is room for 4 ball lock kegs and a 5 pound CO2 tank.


The goal is to have a stationary armoire with a coffin keezer atop a dolly that rolls out of the armoire providing access to the inside of the keezer.

Work began with making the dolly.
2x6's with a half lap joint provides the straight with castors on the bottom for mobility.



Next came the cutting and assembling of the box for the armoire. I had hoped to use walnut wood for the project, but the local hardwood supplier had a 6 week lead time on it so I went with cherry. 3/4" ply make up the sides and back for the armoire box.


And after glueup.


Shelves were then cut and the tap tower pieces cut, clamped and glued.


Got the wife involved and picked out some stone and granite to use for the counter top and back splash.


Here's what the keezer looks like in its home in the armoire box. There will be room for some small shelves to hold many pint glasses above. Along with some under cabinet lights and maybe even a raspberrypints project in the future.


Here's a look at the brackets to hold he shelves in place.


I've got a few more pictures that I'll upload later of further progress. It's an ambitious project but coming along nicely. I'll take your comments, concerns and complaints. Be gentile.

cmpfly said:

gentile.

Click to expand...

Gentle.

Lol... anyway, looks awesome. I'm jealous.


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Wow. Impressive.

If SWMBO sees this I know what I will be doing this winter

Spell check... Works good. Doesn't always fix my bad grammer...

awesome work!

Looks great! Also great if you have kids you could put locks on the doors!

Thanks for the support, I don't have any kids as of yet, but maybe one day, and locks will definitely be a part of the design.

Here's the rest of the progress I've made so far.

I attached the 3/4' plywood for the base of the countertop, and attached some cherry molding around the edging as well as cut 2 holes through the top of the counter and freezer lid to allow for cold air from an ac fan to cool the tap tower and for the beer lines.


I also attached the shelves to the armoire box. These also serve as a support system to keep the sides of the armoire from bowing outward since there will not be any cross brace at the front to allow the freezer to roll out.


I also glued cherry trim to the face of the armoire box which should also help shore up the sides and stop them from bowing out some.


lastly, the drip tray arrived the other day in the mail. woot!
24" stainless with drain. couldn't find one for very cheap.... $111.00 plus shipping...


That's all the progress for now. I've got a couple days coming up to work on it so I hope to get a lot more done. Hopefully get started on the false drawers for the front and maybe get the tap tower insulated and ready for keg lines. I also ordered some gas springs to help lift the lid so I need to fashion some sort of support brackets for them. I think they are the same ones from this spectacular build. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/keezer-build-walnut-anigre-311530/

Great idea and beautiful work...can't wait to see more pictures

Wow! Just...Wow!!!

Admiring your skills.

I saw a thread where i said that was the best looking keezer ive ever seen. This has the potential to top that. GL with your build.

I have been thinking of doing something similar. I have an old Fine Woodworking magazine with a armoire I have been wanting to build forever. Figured I could blend my 2 hobbies together. I am really looking forward to following this thread. Nice work!

Awesome, I've always wanted to so something like this, or convert an antique ice cabinet. However, to ensure I didn't loose any fingers I had to go with a simple collar. Can't wait to see how this turns out

Will be watching this one. Look like an awesome concept. Notes shall be taken.....

Nice work!

Awesome. I retro-fitted some fold-out taps into the old ironing-board cabinet in my kitchen for the same reason. Who needs an ironing board?

This makes me wish I had the woodworking skills that I don't have. Also, a bigger house...

Looking really great! I'm in the process of doing something similar, just a fermkeezer with a large cooled box ontop of my keezer that I will eventually make look like a piece of furniture. Did you think yet about fans under the freezer to pull the hot air away from the freezer once you box it in with the false doors?

I got a lot out of seeing how Jester did it here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/keezer-project-31221/


You progress makes me pine for the time we didn't have a kid and I had all the time in the world and my projects would go faster. Enjoy it while you can!

That for the words of encouragement. I've seen jester's thread also tons of great info. I think with my build fans are a must. The entire front and sides will be completely closed off. I've left the back open partly because it would have cost me another piece of expensive cherry plywood, partly for ventilation. I've also added two games under the freezer to help blow air up past the front and sides and then out the back. Hopefully it does the trick.

Nice! I think I bought those same fans for my build. I liked that it came with the 120V-USB adapter for $14 from amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G05A2MU/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

More updates. I had a few days off and managed to get some work done on the keezer. for starters I got the back panel of the keezer coffin attached and insulated.


The big effort was making the false drawer panel for the front of the keezer.
I used a 3/4" sheet of cheery plywood and cut out some dados to accept a thin strip of cherry that will be used to define the drawers. took forever to get the layout right and it still is a bit off but not really noticeable.


In the end it came out looking pretty good once the cherry strips were put in.


Next came attaching the panel to the dolly. Poplar brackets make the upper supports


Here's where it stands right now.


Lastly I made a cross piece to stabilize the bottom half of the keezer. It wobbled pretty badly from side to side because the bottom had little support so a quick cross brace made out of poplar shored it up. now its nice and stable.


That's it so far. Next up is making the doors for the front and then some trim pieces.

Superb!


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Very nice work, can't wait to see the end result.


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So....Its been two months since I last posted and that's not cool. I got a ton of work done on the keezer though and have it basically finished and in working order. Bear with me here, I've got a bunch of pictures to post.

Its been a ton and a half of work to get this far but I'm happy with the results.
At this point with most of the basic construction of the shell complete, I turned to working on the trim pieces. This pic shows the sample idea of the base board pieces to accent the bottom of the armoire.


I don't have any pictures of the construction process of the two doors that will close the front of the armoire, but here is a pictures of one of the completed doors set in place.


Its hard to see, but the taped up stick is two pieces of premade cherry molding glued together to make a half round piece that will get put at chair rail height in the center of the armoire.


This picture shows the chair rail piece glued in place and the crown molding beginning to take shape.


And here she is, woodworking complete!! Crown molding is done, base board pieces glued in place. On to staining and tile work.




Just before I did the staining I cut the piece of granite tile to be used for the counter top.


This is the counter top after the staining is complete. I set the tile in thin-set as well as cut and place the backsplash stone tiles. Then grouted the whole thing.

These next two pictures are of the finished keezer in my basement. Staining complete tile finished and most of the electrical work complete. I don't have any pictures of the electrical work(i'll try and post those later), but it's basically a stc-1000 controller and a bunch of outlets. It's all most certainly UL approval worthy....




And finally the BIG REVEAL!!!
It was a pain in the royal pain in the A$$ to get the thing upstairs, but it went. Only minor damage caused and I had to take half my basement and stairway apart to make it happen, but it went. OK, more pictures, less words.






We got the first keg of beer, a two hearted clone, tapped and tasting wonderful. I couldn't be happier with the results and here's to many good nights of tap beer at house.

Things I still may do include,

Some more work on sealing the coffin for air leaks around the door. I don't think I did a good job with that.

Finding a better way to lift the lid. I had purchased some gas lifts that upon further inspection won't work, because I don't have enough clearance on the sides of the lid. The gas lifts hit the lowest shelf of the armoire....anybody have any other/better suggestions? The damn thing is really heavy and one day I will probably crush a finger.



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Very nice work!

That's one classy looking keezer.

Very nice.

Maybe I missed it, but can we get a pic or two of how you open it up to get to the kegs?

Man... beer just got super classy. The lighting is a brilliant addition to make it really look awesome. Now you just need a mounted screen with one of those fancy beer quantity apps on it.

Looks like it belongs in a hunting lodge in the Rockies or a trophy room.

top notch work. well done.

Thanks people. Here's the pics on how to get to the kegs. The chest freezer sits on a dolly that rolls out from the armoire.

Ah!

I really want to get the rasperrypints running on it, but SWMBO has me on a spending hiatus for a while. I did plan ahead and have an extra outlet available to plug in a monitor. One day...one day.

Here's that pic of the electrical work

Forgot to attach the pic...

Too cool! :rockin: Nice job, it looks fantastic.

Better nail that thing down, I might steal it!

The way you designed it is pretty sweet!

Very nice build and if I didn't know, I'd never suspect it was a keezer. You might want to consider a folding leg to hold up the lid if you haven't found a way to make the gas shocks work. Something like this, maybe?
http://www.rockler.com/posi-lock-folding-leg-bracket

For the electrical, I'm curious about the lighting under the taps. Did you use the modular LEDs and did the width of strip vs spacing of the taps all work out correctly? I've got a portable keezer-like setup for parties and wanted to do something like this that would run on batteries for the night. That or just put a large glow in the dark stick in the space, but like the idea of rotating lights.

That is awesome! Great looking build!

Thanks for the tip on the folding leg. I might have to try that. I never did find a way to make the gas shocks to work, they are just too wide...

As for the lights, there is a small one inch gap that runs the length of the tap housing. I wish I used LEDs, but started coughing at the $50 for lights so I ended up going low tech. Got 6 feet of rope lights that I cut down to 3 feet. I used 2 feet for under the taps and the rest feeds through a hole back into the tap housing. It's not as nice as I would have liked and it would have been nice to have the color changing LEDs, but it works and for now looks okay. Maybe one day I'll change it.