Mounting tower on top of chest freezer help!

i need some help mounting my tower conversion kit. its 3 inches in diameter but i don't know what screws to use for it. do i use metal self tapper screws or do i have to put a piece of wood beneath the top of the chest freezer top and then screw it in. Can someone please tell me what to do. i know i am going to make the hole with a 3 inch whole saw but what screws and how to mount it i need the help

Self tapping screws should work. Might be best to drill holes for some wood screws and use a wooden ring around the hole to be more secure, or nuts and bolts for that matter.

yeah your probably right i think the wood ring would work great! how thick of a wood ring do you think i need to buy?

Half inch

Hi

Which freezer are you mounting this on? Some of them have tops that are *very* thin...

Bob

i am mounting it on a frigidaire 7.2 cu ft chest freezer. oh yea can i take off the inside plastic on the top of the chest freezer or is that some kind of insulation? there is no light. i need to put a hole in it anyway so the beer tubes go down from the tower to the keg. but do i need the whole plastic or no

If you use a wood ring on the inside of the freezer I would coat it very well with a polyurethane or some other coating. Coat all sides of it before installing it. If not I would be concerned with it absorbing moisture and rotting.

I was concerned about the weight of my tower warping the thin metal lid when it was open and the tower was basically hanging by its mounting flange. I decided to install a backing board to the inside of the lid, then use through bolts to fender washers and nuts to bolt the tower down.

fwiw, here's a blow-by-blow. I had all of the pics already on the interwebs.

After removing the plastic lid liner I positioned the 1" wood backer board and used it as a guide when cutting through the foam insulation.


I removed all the foam right down to the glue line.


I used a two-part epoxy to glue the board to the sheet metal.


I cut a piece of closed cell foam sheet to fill up the space above the backing board.


Next, I cut the big hole for the tower


Then I drilled the four clearance holes for the mounting flange bolts, positioned the tower and ran the bolts through fender washers and nuts. All stainless hardware, of course.


Put the foam filler piece in place.


Liner reinstalled and lid put in place.


All done. I regularly swing the lid open and let the tower hang there, but there's not a hint of any warpage in the lid...


Cheers!

That is a hilarious picture. Zoidberg!

how thick and what kind of wood is that? i have some 1 by 6 in the back yard will that work? what would i have to spray it with to protect it from molding

The backing board I used was a cut-off from a shelving project. It was melamine coated particle board, 11.5" wide and not quite an inch thick. I made it as long as possible without interfering with the lid lock area, so it was 18 inches long. I coated the cut end with epoxy, the other five sides had the melamine coating intact.

The foam was just random packing material I had in my shop.

I think a 6" wide board would probably work just fine. I tend towards "overkill" when I design pretty much anything. I would definitely try to seal it up with something that can handle moisture, which rules out anything water-based, imo...

Cheers!

fur shure i don't have a lock on mine. i don't have to make it 11 inches long right? that was just your preference right? i will probley use 5 inches long . as long as the tower will mount onto the wood i think i will be fine. i will use some kind of seal like thompsons and then use that foam that you did. if i put the seal do you think i really must put the foam on or no?. one more question did you epoxy the foam to the board?

brewskiman said:

fur shure i don't have a lock on mine. i don't have to make it 11 inches long right? that was just your preference right? i will probley use 5 inches long . as long as the tower will mount onto the wood i think i will be fine. i will use some kind of seal like thompsons and then use that foam that you did. if i put the seal do you think i really must put the foam on or no?. one more question did you epoxy the foam to the board?

Click to expand...

My backing board was 11.5x18, crossing the lid of my keezer front to back was the long dimension. You don't need that wide a board, and the length will be dictated by your keezer lid depth. I'd opt for the longest piece you can easily install.

I would fill the dead space above the backing board with foam. It will provide at least some insulation, can't hurt.

I didn't glue the foam down. I cut it so it was basically a press-fit, no glue needed...

Cheers!

what do you mean by opt the longest piece??? that would be better to install a piece of wood like you did from front to back length on the lid. i was thinking of doing 5 by 5 inch square and doing everything else with the foam you know. so that the wood just overlaps the tower space by 2 inches so it would mount good and not be that long. you think that would be good? thanks for helping me day trippr


oh yeah is that a soft squishy foam like for shipping packages??

As I said earlier, I tend towards killing a problem as hard as I can within the limits of practicality, so I would go with something bigger than 5x5. As the tower can only "hang" straight out the back perpendicular to the hinge line, the front-to-back dimension of the backing board has a far greater effect on avoiding lid warpage than the width of the board.

The closed cell foam is actually rather solid, pretty much the opposite of squishy. It was indeed salvaged from a shipping carton...

Cheers!

fur shire now i know what you mean by the wood. i will use a 1by 6 and cut it so it fits in the lid from front to back. its not styrafoam right. because when i bought my chest freezer it came with some packaging styrafoam is that what you have? i think its styrafoam

Not styrofoam, some kind of poly-something-or-other that is more compliant...

Cheers!

i bought the foam and its 2 inches thick. the wood i bought was 10 in wide and 1 inch thick. and also some polyurethane to seal the wood. how thick was your foam?

The foam was an inch thick. If you look back at my pics, it ended up slightly proud of the surrounding foam. But there was plenty of room under the lid liner, the foam probably could have been another 1/2" thick without causing any problems.

Once you carve out the foam and plant the backing board, you'll know how thin to slice your foam piece...

Cheers!

Hi

That freezer has a *very* thin lid. I have converted several of that family to keezers. I went with a full sheet of plywood on top of the cover. Probably overkill, but it's not going to fail in the future.

Bob

fur shure thanks for the advice. what do you mean by a full sheet??? you covered the whole top with wood or what?

Hi

Yup, go over to Lowes with the dimensions of the lid, let them cut a piece of 1/2" plywood to fit it ($10 to $20). Glue that down on the lid with Gorilla Glue ($10). Put some 1" corner molding around it so it does not look ugly (another $20). Paint it the color of your choice (another $20). For a *very* neat look, put a sheet of stainless steel on top of the plywood ($40 or so).

Yes it does cost something, but you don't have to worry about people setting stuff on top of the keezer when you are done..

Bob