Lorglath's ~19Ft^3 Oak Keezer Project with Cigar Band Top

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lorglath

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2011
Messages
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Location
Minneapolis
My goal for this project is two bring my two passions together, home brewing, and cigars. The three projects that I am basing this off of mostly are:

Ksanz Minimum Woodworking Keezer - Link
G8tor's Keezer - Link
Cigar Band Table - Link

Images below
Ksanz finished product:
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G8tor's finished product:
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Cigar band table:
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I figured this would be a good place to add the latest picture so you can keep up with just the top post if you wanted
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Post dedicated to the base of the cabinet's construction:

Basic chest freezer I got off of craigslist for $160
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Showing the tower that will be going on top, roughly in it's place
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Measured and drawn areas for hole locations for two tower tapper
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8 kegs pictured, it can hold 9, I think I'll have to put the CO2 tank on the outside and hose it in.
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working area
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drilling holes for the pocket screws
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base assembled
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showing a close up of the pocket screw holes
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I was contemplating making a similar top to ensure it was sturdy enough for the epoxy top, after talking with a co-worker, I am going to reinforce the 3/4" plywood with aluminum U channel to add rigidity to the top, and attach the board directly to the topper
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attaching the casters, pre-drilled all the holes, then ratcheted in the lag screws until nice and tight
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Attaching the uprights, again with pocket screws, they have an amazingly strong grip. I used 2x6 everywhere because I found a TON of 2x6's at the menards scrap bin for around $0.60 each, and they were long enough for my needs so I used them.
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Different angle
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adding uprights for the sides
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close-up of the inside corner. One thing to mention, I had to replace the left corner here because the first piece of wood I used was warped and didn't make a square corner. Make sure your boards are roughly true before you buy them or you will be re-doing your project in order to make it work
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Securing the corner pieces together with 1 pre-drilled wood screw
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Supports on. I was planning on putting them all the way to the top, but decided I would rather there be some air flow, so I put them down a little. I was glad I did, because the risers are about a cm too tall in some areas and I need to chop / sand it down. I am happy I only have a limited area I need to do that too.
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Freezer in!
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Mostly right on with the level
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cut the oak face board
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Another shot of the oak face board before it was attached
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Attached the oak face board, again, pre drilling before I screwed, measurements and cuts were almost dead on!
Pointer: make sure to measure the top and bottom, because the cube is likely not the same dimensions on the top as the bottom for width.
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Another shot from the other side
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Secured a board on the back to add structure and support to the frame
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Showing the gap around the freezer for air flow.
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I spent some time cleaning up the wiring in the back. Since it only pulls 4A, I just connected it directly to the controller rather than having the contactor in line with it.
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started adding the oak trim. I ripped the boards down from roughly 1x12's to about 2.5" each, miter cut the corners of the front at 45 degrees, sides are just butt joints
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there was some bowing in the front and sides at the top, which is why I used clamps and some liquid nails to keep them together before I used 2" finishing nails to tag them together.
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View from the front
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showing that I am using some liquid nails as additional support.
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started on the left side
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remember when I said to use true boards... apparently I didn't listen to my own advice. My corner piece is bowed and I had to put a shim inbetween the boards to ensure the outsides were together, I also had to cut the front a little longer to compensate for this.
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I also had to shim the vertical board, but no one will see from this angle so I am not concerned.
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made this piece a bit thinner so the total width would match up since a portion of the width is made up from the front board it is joining up to.
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finished base (before filler, sanding, staining and what-not)
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We tried taking the top off, but found that the inside had styrafoam inside instead of fiberglass insullation, therefore I didn't need to pop it off. We started drilling holes!
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We drilled from the top down, got through the metal, used a longer drill bit to break through the plastic, then cut up from the inside for clean cuts.
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A picture of the top piece of wood cut to size
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I also cut down the aluminum U channel and set on top board for illustration. I decided to use U channel to add rigidity to the board. Since I am planning on using an epoxy topper, I didn't want any flex in the top. I figure with lots of lag bolts attaching it to the top of the freezer, and U channel surrounding the device, there wouldn't be much room for the top board to flex and pop off the epoxy top.
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I realized this would be an easier way to attach, so I flipped the top board onto its back and started installing the Aluminum U Channel. To do this I pre-drilled holes for the lag bolts, cleaned up the mess, used some liquid nails, pre-drilled a sink hole on the opposite side so the heads would sink in, and started going to town.
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here is a shot of the sunk in heads
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attached the top to the lid
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To do this we drilled holes, then drilled a larger hole through the lid to allow for us to screw up the bolts. a few pics ago I showed that I had countersunk the bolts on the aluminum u channel, that proved to be unnecessary, as if using a drill to tighten the bolts, they sink in quite nice on their own
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top in place with wood surround cut to size, just tacked in place for the time to ensure a good fit
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We used more liquid nails to attache the top surround and perpendicular boards that hide the U channel. We also tacked with a finishing nailer.
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Gluing scrap boards together so we can make a riser for the tap system so it doesn't sit in the epoxy, glued 3 together in total
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We used a drill press to cut the larger circles out of our glued together scrap boards
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Then used the same pilot hole to cut the 3" circle out of the center
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Which left us with a nice riser to set the tap on
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here is a pic with the top mocked up on top of the risers
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we then started the finishing process: Had to sink the finishing nails and add wood filler
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then we sanded it with a belt sander (which I got carried away with in some areas and there are some gouges we couldn't get out, be careful with a belt sander! My advice, take it down most of the way with a belt sander, then use elbow grease and 100 grit to finish it off. after the belt sander we did 120 grit by hand, 220 grit, and 400 grit... after the 400 grit it was shining!
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There was some spacing where the side panels met up, filled it with wood filler, hope it turns out okay after the stain.
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Here it is after stain was applied. I went with this color "Red Mahogany" because it is the same as the other piece of woodwork in the man-cave, so it was fitting
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different angle, still wet
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3rd angle, still wet
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3rd angle again the next AM once it was dried
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Apparently I didn't take any pics of us putting 3 coats of oil based poly on it, but it is done, and looking good... now onto the top with cigar labels!

we started with a pretty thin smattering. We used Elmers glue and added a bit of water to thin it down. We would use a paint brush to apply over an area, say 8"x8" and then put the labels down once the glue tacked up a bit. Some edges came up, but we just kept pushing them down or added glue on top until they stayed put... This part of the project is going to take a while.
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About 1/2 done, with the 1st pass of the 1st layer
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So I had to ask for some help from some fellow BOTLs (Brothers of the leaf) and boy did they deliver on extra bands!
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I decided to do a solid first layer now that I had plenty of bands, the 2nd and 3rd layer of bands will be much less dense.

View from the right
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View from the left
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Top view... starting to look up!!! Now I just have to wait until my 4 gallons of epoxy come in!
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More to come soon!
 
The epoxy came in and I have more pictures to share! I didn’t end up taking a lot of pictures between the layers of epoxy, but you get the idea of it. Below is a small sampling of the pictures I took while creating it that tell the story…

First off you need to make sure the top is level
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One last pic of the first layer before epoxy
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Carefully stirring the epoxy as to not add bubbles, you can see the slight swirls in it, it is good to go when you can no longer see em.
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Dumped the contents on top the top, and spread them around with a piece of plastic
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Use heat gun to pop bubbles and smooth out layer
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First layer done and smooth
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Close up after the first layer
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Skip to the final layer of cigar labels
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Here is a lesson to you… when using epoxy, don’t try to pop bubbles after it has start to set up, I ended up causing a ton of ripples in what could have been the last layer, had to do all 4 layers of expoxy because of this… notice the reflections on the bottom part of the light
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You can really see the depth between the layers
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Shameless plug for the CRA
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First label laid surrounded by his brothers
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Top done
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Tap installed
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Went with a heavier gauge screw
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Taps on, starting to run line
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Left most tap will be a stout tap, in shipping right now
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Pouring beer!
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Me and the guys that helped along the way!
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ripped some 1x12 oak boards into ~2.5" yesterday, and sanded down the posts so they were level with the top, I'll post more pics tomorrow.
 
updated with more pics! I have been working almost every evening on this sucker trying to get it done post-haste!
 
Looks awesome! I covered a small end table with the two-part bar top epoxy and multiple layers of cigar bands and it looks great. That is going to be a sweet keezer!
 
Thanks! I love the comments, and I'll be having one of my friends stop by soon and do some higher quality shots to really show off the bar top.
 
any suggestions for improvements from anyone? Things that you did differently that would be advantageous?
 
I like the top. Has given me an idea of what to use these stupid hockey cards I've been holding onto since forever...

belt sander = the devil. ROS (random orbital sander) is the way to go!
 
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