Mounting drip tray on front of chest freezer

I made a "Keezer" from a Whirlpool 7.0 uc. ft. chest freezer. I added a 2x4 collar and mounted my taps. Everything came out just the way I was hoping. Now I need to mount the drip tray to the front of the freezer I plan on using very short sheet metal screws (1/2"). I am thinking that any coils would be toward the inside of the compartment and I will be safe with screwing in the short screws?

Is this foolish on my part, and are there better ways to mount a wall mount drip tray to the front of a chest freezer?

your assumptions are basically correct but if you can go shorter with the screws - like 3/8 or something, go shorter. just in case.

Also, you could drill a pilot hole just through the sheet metal and then probe around with a wire or something to make sure you aren't going to pierce coolant lines

I put mine on using strips of 2-sided foam tape. Sturdy, with no chance of poking lines, but it's permanent. I noticed a commercial for 3M's Command product line, and am going to pull my tray off this weekend and give those a shot.

magnets are an option too. right now i am just using some extract buckets held in place with a hard drive magnet. works great. sooner or later I will upgrade the buckets to a drip tray but I will prob still use magnets. I nicked a line on my last fermentation frig and I even did a pilot hole and poked around looking for the lines. the only saving grace for me was the frig was free. I replaced that with a chest freezer, cheap, but it did cost me some money. At this point I am very reluctant to drill any holes where there might be coolant lines, but that's just me, I guess I'm gun shy now, or maybe hole shy.

You can spray the insides of the freezer with a solution of water and starch and wait until you can see where the lines are. At that point you can then drill away as needed.

I don't know the exactly proportions of starch to water are, but this has been mentioned in a few other threads here in the forums.

I'm gonna do something similar but my idea is a 1x4 piece of red oak cut the same width of my tray and stained the same as my collar. Attach that to the freezer with double sided tape and put screws in the wood for the drip tray holes to attach to. That way the drip trays are easily removable if need be for cleaning and I won't have to detach the double side from the freezer ever.

Will post a pic if i get around to doing it soon.

MrWildcat2U said:

I put mine on using strips of 2-sided foam tape. Sturdy, with no chance of poking lines, but it's permanent. I noticed a commercial for 3M's Command product line, and am going to pull my tray off this weekend and give those a shot.

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pennztatelion said:

I'm gonna do something similar but my idea is a 1x4 piece of red oak cut the same width of my tray and stained the same as my collar. Attach that to the freezer with double sided tape and put screws in the wood for the drip tray holes to attach to. That way the drip trays are easily removable if need be for cleaning and I won't have to detach the double side from the freezer ever.

Will post a pic if i get around to doing it soon.

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This sounds like a nice finished look idea. I think I have read other people do it but I haven't seen a pic to this point that I can recall.
what about the 1x4 all the way across with the edges finished kinda decroative or just rounded off and then place your drip tray to that. Just spit balling here.
I like the idea, might have to use it if I ever get around to getting a real drip tray.

Steer away from screws. The risk isn't worth it, really! Rare-earth magnets are available all over the place, hard drive magnets aren't hard to find, even good adhesive caulks...

I epoxied mine to the front of my kegerator. Been holding strong for a long time now and has no problem holding a full pitcher if I want it to.
I basically just bought some loc-tite brand 2 part epoxy from Home Depot, taped off two spots where my L-brackets were going to be, gave it a good roughening up with some 80 grit sandpaper and epoxied the brackets to the fridge. Then I put velcro on the bottom of the drip tray and the top of the L-brackets.
I messed with the magnets for a bit, but even though they were strong, I still wanted something solid. The epoxy did that.

I'm using 3 round magnets that are about a quarter inch by 1 inch round and two very thin hard drive magnets. The drip tray is a stainless mud pan. Less than 10 bucks and is removable to clean out the drippings.

Magnets just didn't cut it for me. Always sliding down. I found some scrap metal at work and had a buddy bend it for me. Painted it black and mounted it using small screws to the lip of the freezer. Holds a glass no problem and very sturdy.

MrWildcat2U said:

I put mine on using strips of 2-sided foam tape. Sturdy, with no chance of poking lines, but it's permanent. I noticed a commercial for 3M's Command product line, and am going to pull my tray off this weekend and give those a shot.

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That's exactly what I use, plus some magnetic self adhesive tape, like I show in my tap handle thread, and 6 tiny rare earth magnets.

Here's mine.



I use three of the commander non-stick holders.





But I noticed that the driptray tilted downwards so I had some rare earth magnets that I originally bought to hold a smoker box drip tray which I realized looked like crap and led me to splurge on the 14" one I have now.

So I stacked two magnets on top of each other and stuck them on the commanders.



But since magnets don't sick to the drip tray, I just used some of the self adhesive magnetic tape I have lying around.





I also use the same setup to attach the cap catcher.

I used big welding magnets from harbor freight. They are cheap and easily removable. Just set the tray on top of them which makes it easy to take off and clean.

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-3-4-quarter-inch-multipurpose-magnet-holder-1938.html

Sorry to be off topic, but I really like your setup Revvy. I'm about to start building a keezer and I hope I can make something close to that.

I think I will stay away from drilling into the front of the freezer. My idea now is to take 2 strips of wood (like paint stir sticks) one for the top of the drip tray and one for the bottom, to keep it plumb. On the top one, I plan on counter sinking in 3 machine screws that will face out. I will epoxy those in to keep them from spinning, and use some double sided mounting tape to attach each strip to the freezer. Then I will use a crown nut to secure the tray to the 3 machine screws.

I want it to be removable to be able to clean the tray. I am also worried that if I use magnets, that there isn't enough steel in the freezer shell to keep it from sliding down the front.

Using my welding magnets I can set two full pints on mine and it won't move. Thought I've never tried three pints.

I found that I have the drip tray up flush against the fridge it only comes out just past the faucet. My setup looks the same as all keezers. Is this what everyone else is doing? Or do you adjust it on the brackets you make to stick out.

DubBrew said:

I used big welding magnets from harbor freight. They are cheap and easily removable. Just set the tray on top of them which makes it easy to take off and clean.

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-3-4-quarter-inch-multipurpose-magnet-holder-1938.html

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This is a pretty good idea. I have a few of these laying around the garage not doing anything for me... hmmm...

Fwiw, I drilled a chest freezer to put shanks through and hit a freon line that was right under the sheet metal shell of the freezer. I would say that some kind of magnets is the way to go.

I expoxied rare earth magnets to the back of L brackets. And then just stuck them to fridge. I then put the all weather Velcro to the top and stuck the tray on easy removal for cleaning the magnets don't slide down whatsoever.

I used about 8 earth magnets that I sunk and glued into a piece of wood then mounted my drip tray to it.

It can hold a full glass - two I'd get a bit leery. I'll probably add a bit of silicone to add some additional umphh.


photo 2 by brewerJP, on Flickr

I used chains attached to the collar and then L brackets with rubber post to stop the side to side movement. Making the holes at the front corners of the drip tray was a pain in the @$$ but it came out great!

I got the 16lb weight limit ones but there are others a little bigger that can handle 20lbs but if you have more than 20lbs on your drip tray, ...WTH do you have on your drip tray? Also, the 16lbs were the only ones that came in black too!

That's cool. Why didn't you post this 6 months ago when I was putting mine together.

My bad...