My 12.9 cu. ft. keezer build

I got a new 12.9 cu. ft. chest freezer on sale at Lowe's the other day, and now I am converting it to an 8 keg keezer. This will allow me to fit 6 kegs on the floor and 2 on the hump.



Note to self and anyone else trying this at home, pin your hinges before removing the lid!



I'm building the collar out of 2 x 6 pine. I already had the lumber lying around the garage.



The collar is tall enough that I will be able to fit kegs 7 and 8 on the hump.



Here it is with the collar sitting in place.



Here is the question I have. I have seen others who leave the hinges on the chest and lift the lid and collar. I would like to do that to make it easier to get at the kegs. Will these hinges be able to support the weight? I will use bolts through the lumber instead of the short screws that came with the freezer.

Looking good! I guess the hinges depend on the manufacture. Mine is a Frigidaire 7.2 with a 1x10 collar. The hinges hold it up with no problems. You'll probably be OK. Course there's only one way to know for sure.

I have a collar made of 2x10 pine boards on my 7.0 cu ft. GE and the stock hinges hold up fine. I put some 3" door hinges between the collar and the freezer lid to allow me to open the lid independently to make small adjustments to my secondary regs.

Good news is the hinges hold up fine with the collar. I used some silicone to attach and seal the gasket onto the collar. Needed some weight while it cured.



Holes drilled for the taps. Only four for now, but more will be coming. I did score a Guinness faucet on ebay!



I am attaching 1.5" foam insulation to the inside of the collar.



Here is the gas distribution block. The blue line is for the sanke connector. I figure I will keep a keg of something commercial on hand as well.



Installed a drip tray with shelf brackets and double sided tape. One faucet in just for looks.

Nice!

Nice work so far! I picked up the same freezer. We started our build sat and should be done today. (cold weather made it take longer for the stain to dry and unforunately we don't have a power saw or anything so we had to sand our wood down pretty good bc home depot and lowes cut most of the wood 1/4-3/8" too long). Ordered that same drip tray yesterday and should get it by friday or so. We did four taps too, but centered them rather than offset to the side. Can't wait to see your final build!

The freezer I used as the base of my bar has similar hinges and they're holding quite a bit more weight - 2x8 collar, OSB top, and irish coffin. It's been fine so far so I doubt you'll have any issues.

whatsleftofyou said:

The freezer I used as the base of my bar has similar hinges and they're holding quite a bit more weight - 2x8 collar, OSB top, and irish coffin. It's been fine so far so I doubt you'll have any issues.

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Comforting to know. After assembly it does seem quite sturdy.

The last couple of days have been busy, but I stained and polyurethaned the collar.

Not quite finished, but it made the big move into the game room.



One shank is awaiting the Guinness faucet. Scored some nice tap handles on Ebay.

Did you order a second seal for this build? It appears like you have the original seal on the lid, plus an added seal between the collar/freezer?

centex99 said:

Did you order a second seal for this build? It appears like you have the original seal on the lid, plus an added seal between the collar/freezer?

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No second seal. I used the seal from the lid and moved it to the bottom of the collar. The lid is now attached to the collar with construction adhesive.

I'll be converting this same freezer over the next couple weeks.

Freezer was just delivered this morning from Lowes, and I have already taken the seal and the plastic from the lid off.

I plan on making a collar from 1x8 wood, so that it sits flush in the existing opening, and I can keep the plastic lid with the light on the top of the freezer. Basically, with a thinner collar, I can keep the lid flush with the existing freezer dimensions, and still not have to cut the existing plastic lid that covers the insulation.

I plan on 5 taps, and I've ordered a digital temperature/humidity display. I'm going to integrate it into the collar by drilling a hole into the wood the size of the display, and holding it into place via foam insulation behind it.

I haven't quite decided how I want to paint/stain this guy. I'm torn between affixing whiteboards to the lid, so I can use dry erase markers, vs. painting the lid with chalkboard paint. Depending on which way I go with that, I will need to decide the color of the wood stain, and whether I want to paint the body of the freezer or leave it white.

I'm really looking forward to the DIY aspect of this project, and thanks to OP for his initial writeup on this model.

Forum etiquette question: I'm willing to post pictures of my keezer build using this same model. Is that something I should do in this thread, or in a new thread?

Or are there simply plenty of keezer threads at this point?

xeerohour said:

Forum etiquette question: I'm willing to post pictures of my keezer build using this same model. Is that something I should do in this thread, or in a new thread?

Or are there simply plenty of keezer threads at this point?

Click to expand...

There is no such thing as too many keezer threads.