My Jester Clone / Copycat keezer

First off thanks to Jester and many others for ideas & help during my project.

I started off with a Frigidaire 7.2 Cu ft freezer (I think like $188 @ Brandsmart) & installed a 6" (5.5" w/ 2X6 lumber) collar.




Attached the top of 5/8" plywood with liq nails & 4 bolts through the lid. Hit it with a antifracture membrane & mesh (yellow). I figure this may prevent any sagging in overhang.


Built the skin w/ 2X4 metal studs & a couple wood ones. (I'm no expert carpenter to say the least)


Attached cherry hard wood flooring to skin with liq nails.

Looks great. I'm planning on making my own keezer similar to Jester's model as well. Are you planning on ventilating the sides like he did? Keep sending in the pics.

ckwatkins said:

Looks great. I'm planning on making my own keezer similar to Jester's model as well. Are you planning on ventilating the sides like he did? Keep sending in the pics.

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I'm mounting a fan in the bottom. No duct work or anything. I have a lot of space (2X4 framing) between the freezer & my skin so i don't think it's really that necessary. But I bought the fan & I'm doing it just in case.

firefly765 said:

I'm mounting a fan in the bottom. No duct work or anything. I have a lot of space (2X4 framing) between the freezer & my skin so i don't think it's really that necessary. But I bought the fan & I'm doing it just in case.

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What kind of fan? Where did you get it?

ckwatkins said:

What kind of fan? Where did you get it?

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Its a computer type fan. I'll post the website. The guys there were very helpful. I a'so got a fan to vent the draftbox & accent lighting from there too. I'll post pics of that later. As far as wiring you just cut a 12V DC converter (old cell charger) & splice the wires to the red & black of the fan. Ignore the yellow(RPM). I'm no expert there either just read how to do on this forum.
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556091929.html

Looks good to me Thanks for the link

Here are some pics with the draftbox installed & granite tile down. I'm now insulating the draft box & dialing in my electrical connections.

Well, I made some progress:

insulated box w/fan


perlick 425's drilled in.



Is this bad luck? Haven't even pulled a brew yet and already broke a glass!!



More to come......

Lookin good!! :rockin:

I love the way the granite looks! I too am planning a four faucet keezer and can only hope it looks this cool. What did you use to insulate the box?

ckwatkins said:

I love the way the granite looks! I too am planning a four faucet keezer and can only hope it looks this cool. What did you use to insulate the box?

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Sorry for the delay. here's the stuff. Got it from Lowe's.




Nearly done, need tap handles. Stainless collars installed.

What are your plans for your drip tray?

ckwatkins said:

What are your plans for your drip tray?

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just a rubber mat. ordered it today.
http://www.kegworks.com/enlargeImag...ages/product-images/IITY-BARMAT-MadMat-b5.jpg

sa...weet!!!!!!!!

firefly765 said:

just a rubber mat. ordered it today.
http://www.kegworks.com/enlargeImag...ages/product-images/IITY-BARMAT-MadMat-b5.jpg

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Funny stuff, I love it. Looks a lot easier than cutting your granite for a ss drip tray.

I noticed you don't have casters. What are you using to move your keezer around?

ckwatkins said:

I noticed you don't have casters. What are you using to move your keezer around?

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I have those furnature mover sliding discs glued to the bottom. The room has tile with large grout lines & i didn't want caster getting caught up in the grout lines.

Nice! Love the dark tile

Looks really nice! Great build.

Looking real good.

On a side note, how big is that vent fan? Is it going to be able to move enough air to vent the sides of the freezer, especially with no duct work? Just a thought.

tomije87 said:

Looking real good.

On a side note, how big is that vent fan? Is it going to be able to move enough air to vent the sides of the freezer, especially with no duct work? Just a thought.

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120mm / 46 CFM. I figure there is nothing touching the freezer & there is a 4" gap, i probably don't even need it but i guess it should exchange all the air surrounding in 1 min at worst. It seems the coils are in the back anyway as that's where it warms up when the compressor kicks on.

Jester369 said:

Nice! Love the dark tile

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Thanks for the inspiration. I'm not very creative. More of a "copy & paster"!

Just wanted to plug a couple websites that were extremely helpful during my build:
http://www.coolerguys.com/
when i finally got in touch with one of ther customer reps, he spent a lot of time explaining to me what i needed & how it would work. It took a couple calls but they have a lot of cool things on their site.

http://stores.kegconnection.com/StoreFront.bok

Todd at Keg Connection was especially helpful. I received some shanks from them with slight imperfections in the plastic collars & he sent me stainless ones free of charge. He also spent a lot of time troubleshooting some keg & poppet valve problems I was having. If you ever need any keg accessories that they carry, their customer support is top notch!

Wood flooring - brilliant!

Much cheaper than buying a big hunk of nice wood for the exterior and relatively easy to install.

here's some more semi-finished pics:

Looks Awesome! Where did you run the cord for your rope lighting?

Very nice work. I have started a jester type build w/coffin as well. 6 perlicks and 10 cuft freezer.

How did you secure the top? Hinges, etc? I always like to see how guys deal with this...

ckwatkins said:

Looks Awesome! Where did you run the cord for your rope lighting?

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All electric (CCFL lights, temp controller, comp fan) runs through the rear of the coffin box.

shroomzofdoom said:

Very nice work. I have started a jester type build w/coffin as well. 6 perlicks and 10 cuft freezer.

How did you secure the top? Hinges, etc? I always like to see how guys deal with this...

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The top has 4 bolts drilled through the plywood into the lid w/ fender washers & 1 entire tube of Liquid Nails heavy duty adhesive.

The hinges are attached to the top as they were stock & 4 bolts are drilled through the collar on each hinge. It's holding up nicely but I make sure to "baby" it because that sucker is HEAVY!

Jester369 said:

Nice! Love the dark tile

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Thanks brotha'....if I'm going to copycat......might as well go all the way:

and now my favorite:

your version:

my version:


I couldn't talk her into going "red" though. That would have been over the top!

firefly765 said:

and now my favorite:

my version:

I couldn't talk her into going "red" though. That would have been over the top!

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Why is she using your beer as ear-wax remover? Not a ringing endorsement, but any stretch...

jpc said:

Why is she using your beer as ear-wax remover? Not a ringing endorsement, but any stretch...

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just drunk....I guess.

firefly765 said:

and now my favorite:

your version:

my version:

I couldn't talk her into going "red" though. That would have been over the top!

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Nice!!

firefly765 said:

and now my favorite:
my version:

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Am I the only one that wonders what beer tastes like when it's drunk from a human head?

Very nice keezer build!! You guys have me all motivated---but with about 25% of the woodwordking skills and tools. This should be fun.

grrr...you beat me to this photo shoot! I am building my Jester clone right now and I was going to do the exact same thing. Anyway, I will still post mine when its ready Though my Keezer won't be nearly as pretty since this is my first wood working project, but it will be functional darn it!

Hmmm...Maybe we should start a new thread dedicated to Jester! Where we take photos of our SWMBO with our Keezers in these same two poses! Hmmm... I think I will need to start something like that!

btw...Nice looking ladies you got there!

cheers!

Ciliorozo said:

grrr...you beat me to this photo shoot! I am building my Jester clone right now and I was going to do the exact same thing. Anyway, I will still post mine when its ready Though my Keezer won't be nearly as pretty since this is my first wood working project, but it will be functional darn it!

Hmmm...Maybe we should start a new thread dedicated to Jester! Where we take photos of our SWMBO with our Keezers in these same two poses! Hmmm... I think I will need to start something like that!

btw...Nice looking ladies you got there!

cheers!

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Good idea. A "ladies of Homebrewtalk.com" calandar shoot to follow!

firefly765 said:

Good idea. A "ladies of Homebrewtalk.com" calandar shoot to follow!

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I will keep my eye out for that one!:rockin: