my (hopefully) prrdy keezer build

Hey guys, after bottling for the past few years and lurking around about 100 different keezer build threads I decided to take the plunge (and hopefully pass on some of the entertainment these threads can provide). First of all, I want to warn everyone that before this I have had about 2 hours of woodworking experience and have never layed tile, stained wood, or cut miters before in my life—things are going relatively well so far but be warned. I started off by grabbing a 3 keg kit from kegcowboy (great prices, but they did take a while to ship everything out—only my personal experience) and a 7 cu.ft. GE freezer from sam’s club because I couldn't find anything on CL right away. After a bit more looking around, I decided on a collar design since I didn’t feel like trying to cool a coffin, and thus it began.
My initial design was pretty simple…your basic freezer with a collar and a tiled top (as you may have guessed, this didn’t last). First I realized that I had a white freezer and (IMHO) it wouldn’t look great against the dark stain I was planning on using on the collar so I grabbed some black rust-oleum appliance spray paint and fixed that issue (it took me 2 cans to coat all 4 sides but not the top). My next revision came when I thought about how I didn’t really like the idea of being able to see the side of the freezer top and the white weather stripping between the tile top and the collar so I added *another* collar which will overlap the original one (pics make this much clearer).


You can see the color of the pine before and after staining here (the raw wood is the stuff with the weights on it)

This is the tile frame (which sits on top of the freezer lid) on top of the second collar which will cover the sides of the freezer lid and come down about 1" over the larger collar (the one with the taps).


Another view of the tile frame--the lighting makes it look really dark but it is the same color as the rest of the stained wood
"
And here is how my first tiling job turned out (not grouted yet)


I decided to use some select pine 1x6’s for the collar and EDIT:1x4’s: for the tile frame and the “upper” collar. I initially bought some minwax polyshades at good ol' home depot but was really disapointed in how it looked on the test board I did (streaky, uneven, etc). It wasn’t until I did a little research on staining that I learned pine can be a bit finicky when it comes to staining unevenly . Fortunately I have a nice woodworking store here in Memphis and one of the guys there was able to point me in the right (and simple) direction. I ended up with some General Finishes water based rosewood stain and polyacrylic top coat (I also tried the wood dye that they sell and was very happy with how much of the grain it preserved but they didn’t have it in the color I wanted and I was too lazy to start mixing dyes). Just fyi I used a foam brush to apply everything.

I was able to get the color you see in the previous pics with 1 generous coat of stain wiped off after 1 minute and followed by 3 coats of the polyacrylic.

I'm going to end this post before it gets stupid long and go pick up some correctly sized screws for the next step on Mr. Keezer.

(PS--never posted images before so let me know how I can improve size/layout/etc)

I'll update with some more new pictures tonight but a quick post about where the plan is going from here...

After looking at quite a few keezer builds, I started thinking about how useful casters would be given how heavy this will be when filled with kegs. The decision to install casters makes it nessasary to install a collar/skirt around the bottom to hide them from view. This meant a trip to the depot and plans for a wooden base to support the casters/freezer.

A while later I got all the 2x4's cut...

Looking good. Can't wait to see it all done.

Cheers

Wow! Hope it never craps out on you.

cheezydemon3 Wow! Hope it never craps out on you.

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haha yeah...I doubt they will want to take the return if it dies on me right away



As promised...pictures!

Here is the base I put together to support the freezer.



I'm also toying around with the idea building a frame up off of the base and either doing some wood paneling or some tile on the sides (similar to the top). Going to think about it tonight and see what I come up with (suggestions welcome). The glue on the collar should be dry by now as well so I'll put together a mockup of how the lid is going to fit together tomorrow.

For never cutting a single miter cut in your life, you did really well. Great job!

Personally, I'd avoid biting off more than you can chew and just go with the wood collar and tile top. Leave the wood paneled sides for a future project. But if you're really unhappy with the paint job or you're really excited about getting into woodworking...then go for it.

LandoLincoln: For never cutting a single miter cut in your life, you did really well. Great job!

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Thanks...there was a *lot* of measuring done for each one of those cuts (and of course they still didn't come out exactly even after some sanding).

Hope everyone had a good mother's day today--I thought I would give a little update as to how everything is going on the keezer.

It turns out that lightly bumping my new paint job with a big piece of backerboard is a good way to scratch up the freezer (oh well). I'm not too torn up about it though since I had pretty much decided to try the tiled surround anyway and this gives me a good excuse (per LandoLincoln's comments--yeah, probably a little more excited than I should be )

The design is pretty simple; it is going to have a 3 sided frame (back will be left open) with 1.5" clearance between the freezer and the backerboard on the front and ~2.5-3" of clearance on the sides for cooling. I am also leaving an opening for the vent on the side of the freezer and might end up installing a small cooling fan if it seems like I need it.
Here's a pic of the beginnings of the frame:


Next I scored and broke the backerboard (used 1/2" since it needs the extra rigidity) and mounted it onto the frame--the front piece didn't break cleanly but trim will cover the chipped area so I didn't worry about it. You can see the hole I left for the compressor vent. The bottom pieces of cement board on the near side will only be supporting trim (no tiles) so I didnt bother cutting them exactly to size.


I couldn't get the screws to sit flush with the cement board and I really didn't want to deal with any problems with uneven tiles that might arise from protruding screw heads so I did a little extra drilling around each hole so that everything would be flush/recessed.



Next up will be mounting the last of the cement board and measuring and cutting the trim...

Hmmmm..Good idea to make the frame separate! If it does need replacing, dimensions should be similar on a new freezer.

cheezydemon3 said:

Hmmmm..Good idea to make the frame separate! If it does need replacing, dimensions should be similar on a new freezer.

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Thanks...the only thing that is going to be attached to the freezer directly will be the collar (which I can probably break the glue on if I really set my mind to it). The tiles on the top and the upper collar are all attached directly to the freezer lid which I can take off and transfer over to another freezer (as long as it is the same size/model) if for some reason I need to.

I should have some time to work on measuring/cutting the trim later today so I'll see if I can post some more pics.

Cheers.

Well thought out! Update with pics.

cheezydemon3 said:

Well thought out! Update with pics.

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Haha sure seemed like it until today--then my first setbacks popped up.

Allow me to start my list of things that I really should have done better/thought through the first time so I didn't have to take them apart and do them again...perhaps anyone reading this thread who is planning a build can put them to use:

#1: Make sure your frame is square on all sides, both x and y rectangular measurements AND square to the base (i.e. perpendicular to the ground). One of the sides of my frame was not square to the base, a fact that I didnt figure out until I already had the side assembled and the backerboard screwed on. This meant that I had to undo all of this in order to fix it--pic below makes it clearer (the side that wasn't built yet in the pic is the one I had problems with after it was together).


#2: Take your time when breaking 1/2" backerboard and you really can't score too much beforehand. The scoring gods were not with me when I was trying to cut the cement board for the third side (yes, the same one that I had issues with in #1). After 3 ruined pieces I finally got everything done but it took me way longer than it should have.

I'm sure these won't be the last of the "lessons learned," but that's it for now.

On the plus side I was able to get the casters attached and all of the trim except for the bottom skirt measured and cut (I am all of 6" of lumber short for the bottom skirt...oh well, back to home depot tomorrow). I went back and fourth quite a bit on whether to stain the trim, tile the sides, then mount the trim or mount it, stain it, then tile. I decided to mount it first so that I can make sure it all fits exactly and sand it all flush before staining. This just means that i'll have to be a little more careful when tiling around the finished trim (although wet thinset should wipe right off the poly top coat). I would clamp all of the trim on to do the sanding then take it off to stain and tile but I just dont have enough clamps to do the job

I don't have my camera with me at the moment but I'll post a pic or two when I'm able. Cheers!

Got my camera back so here are the pics:

Casters are on:


First 3 pieces of trim are glued on:

Well I got a little work in on the keezer tonight--most of the trim is now attached but I had to stop since a few of the pieces must have warped either in the garage or before I bought them. I stuck a few weights on them and am just going to leave them on the floor overnight to hopefully straighten out. I'm going to put the freezer up into the frame tomorrow to check the fit on everything and measure out the trim that is going to go on the top of the frame (to cover the top of the 2x4's and backerboard from view when you look down on it). I'll take some pics when I get the trim on and the freezer up in the frame. After that its staining time.

I'm a little nervous about how the whole thing is going to look at this point since I pretty much designed the freezer collar/lid seperately from the freezer surround (+1 for not designing on the fly :cross. I'll see how it looks together tomorrow but if it just looks stupid (since the collar will be recessed from both the tiled top above it and the freezer surround below it) I guess i'll just make another collar that i'll fit around the first one (effectively making it a 2x6 collar instead of a 1x6).

Quick question: does anyone know of a good way to remove the lock from the front of the freezer? It can be seen in some of the first pics. It is making the trim job a little more difficult and I wanted to ask before I go hitting it with a hammer.

I got the freezer lock figured out after a bit more messing around...I posted this answer in another (dedicated) thread as well but I suppose it belongs here too:

I used a flat head screw driver (through the top of the lock mech) to gently pry the plastic cover away from one side of the metal lock plate. It took a bit of playing around but I popped one catch off and then the other. After that it is just the two screws and you are in the clear (really a pretty useless lock if you actually want to keep someone out of it ).




As for an update on the keezer: I was able to put in a bit more time tonight but mounting all of the trim is taking me longer than I thought. This is probably because I'm stubborn and using glue without any finishing nails to avoid having to deal with nail holes. I've also been running into some issues with warped pieces since I didn't think to check for any bowing before doing the cuts. Fortunately this has only claimed two pieces so after I get them recut and mounted it'll be time for some stain. I'll post pics of everything tomorrow.

I guess that makes #3 on my list of things to not suck at next time: Make sure to check for warping before you buy/cut your lumber (common sense when you actually remember to do it).

I was going to post these pics up yesterday but ended up staying at the Memphis BBQ fest a wee bit longer than expected

Anyway...all of the trim is mounted and sanded/ready to stain with the exception of 1 piece that was warped beyond repair. I'll have to go out to get another 1x3 today or tomorrow to replace it. I spent a while figuring out exactly what I was going to do about the compressor vent with respect to the freezer surround. If you guys remember, I had left a space the size of the vent open in the side of the surround, somehow thinking that the freezer would push flush up against it...I didn't consider that the freezer will be on the other side of a 2x4 with backerboard on top--oops. After a bit of tinkering I came up with this (the vent is the one that came off of the freezer):


The vent is mounted onto two 2x4 blocks which are screwed to the frame:


This is the whole side (I reused the stained 1x4 that I cut out of the back of the upper collar):




The last thing I needed to figure out was how to get the correct board width to cover the top cross section of the freezer surround. I needed something close to 4.5" but unfortunately none of the box stores around here carry 1x5s and I dont have a table saw to cut down a 1x6 (and honestly I don't trust myself enough with a circular saw to get a nice straight cut). Solution: glue 3 1x2s together side by side



The grain might come out a bit wonky but I'm pretty happy with it.

Hey all, so I got a few hours of work in yesterday and everything is now stained and has the first coat of poly on (of around 3-5 total). Sorry some of the pics are a little whited out:




Any my attempt at gluing 3 1x2s together actually came out pretty well...


If SWMBO doesn't kill me for working on the keezer instead of cleaning the house I'll be able to get another few coats of poly on today as well as starting to measure out the tile.

Have an update on this? I assume you don't plan to move it very often, this might be one of the heaviest ones on here

Yeah so of course I set out to do this one quickly after reading 99999999 different build posts that died out part way through.

I made the cardinal mistake of hooking up my kegs before getting all of the finishing work done and then kind of pushed this further down my list of things to do when I got busy with boring, non beer stuff (I mean what the hell--it still gives me yummy beer; why do I need to spend a day cutting out tile for it?).

All I have left to do is cut, stain, mount, and seal two more boards on the left side, and tile the front and sides of the surround. It actually moves quite well on the casters (as long as I don't have to move it up or down stairs of course) and if I do need to move it any large height, the freezer will lift out of the surround to lighten the load some.

I'm going to make a concerted effort to finish this baby off next week over thanksgiving. I'll take some more pics once I get the tile on and then maybe once SWMBO lets me bring it in out of the garage. She did promise it could come in out of the cold if it wasn't ugly as balls

Really cool!! Nice Job!!

jro238 said:

I'll take some more pics once I get the tile on and then maybe once SWMBO lets me bring it in out of the garage. She did promise it could come in out of the cold if it wasn't ugly as balls

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I snuck mine in while my SWMBO was out shopping. I thought it was a fair trade.

Alright! Kind of necroing my own thread here but **** it!

Finally have had a chance to put in some more work on the keezer over the last week or so. I cut the tile for and tiled both sections of the front and the right side of the surround. I need to stain/seal 2 more boards for the left side and then do the tiling there too.
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I also realized that I had a bit of a design flaw with the tiling that will go on the lid of the freezer. Unfortunately, the 'outer collar' that comes down off of the lid (not mounted yet) is going to hit the tap handles so I need to mount something to push the taps out another inch or two. SWMBO thinks I should put some small backspash tile under them but I really don't feel like dealing with that so I may just cut, stain, and glue a little more wood under them.

Next step for me is probably grouting the existing tile and staining the last few pieces of wood. From there it shouldn't take too long to finish this baby up (famous last words).

Try these guys for the taps:
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/bonnet-anglers-chrome.html

Howhownow said:

Try these guys for the taps:
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/bonnet-anglers-chrome.html

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Thanks for the suggestion...I didn't even know they made things like that (although I guess it isn't that surprising).