Thank you for all the tips, especially about the stainless steel & beer gun.
What I would ideally like is to have a 2 tap system with 2 corny kegs. I would ideally like to get my 2 keg system with all the equipment including the kegs for ~600$ if at all possible. I've been looking into chest freezers and been trying to decide whether or not I could get one off CL or should buy new. I've heard the new chest freezers go bad in ~ 10 years... so I'm hesitant to buy used.
I would like to put this in my basement and my doors are narrow so I think the biggest chest freezer I can get in is 5-6 cu. ft. ALSO I'm in the military and will have frequent moves... so I think a chest freezer/kegerator would be more readily able to be moved. From what I've read most chest freezers that are 5 CU ft can fit 2 kegs with a collar - do you agree?
Problem is I'm not the most handy guy, but from what I've read keezers are pretty easy to build in terms of the collar etc.
I would rather spend more money and have something that would last then spend less and have to buy new stuff in 2 years. I have been bottling my beer so far and with kegging I would probably brew even more since I would save time from bottling. I would anticipate brewing 2x per month 5-6.5 gallon batches for my use.
With that budget, I would say to get a used chest freezer. I am trying to work out some numbers, and with the new chest freezer being around $200, that limits the other areas.
Depending on how quickly you drink, you may need more than just two kegs. The general recommendation is to have twice as many kegs as you have faucets. This typically allows you to keep your faucets flowing, have kegs on deck aging and ready to be tapped, and possibly an available keg, or keg to clean (depends on total number of kegs).
So for your setup, I would typically recommend getting 4 kegs, and trying to find a chest freezer that can hold 4 kegs, this way, when one keg goes empty, you have another immediately available that is chilled and carbed and you can just swap the disconnect over to it and be good to go without interruptions. The only thing is, kegs are an expensive part of kegging now, and for four kegs, you are looking at around $200 typically. Though there have been some good sales that happened recently, so you may try to see if you can find good deals on kegs.
If you can gradually acquire some parts used, you can save a good amount of money, and put it towards the items that will be best to buy new.
Here would be my personal list of things to buy new:
stainless faucets
stainless shanks
tubing and other disposables (clamps, barbed fittings, etc.)
keg lube
my list of things to buy used:
chest freezer
regulator
co2 tank
kegs
Now, you also have some other options with things that you may want to consider. If you are sensitive to plastic taint, you may want to consider going with bev seal ultra 235 tubing and John Guest fittings, at least for the liquid side (this will add some to your costs, as well as increase the complexity a bit, but if you have questions, I can help, or others who have made the switch). If you want to keep things simple, regular PVC line will do just fine, and I used it for many years before switching to the bev seal ultra.
With a chest freezer, if you don't want to build a collar, you can just use a tower mounted on top of the chest freezer, but you may put a hole through your wall if you have the chest freezer mounted too close to a wall, and open the lid a bit too forcefully. Also, it may not be possible to use the bev seal ultra tubing with the short shanks and 90 degree fitting, and most towers don't come with stainless short shanks. A collar is fairly simple to build and use, the only thing to be careful of is your back, as you have to be able to lift full kegs over the height of the collar regularly (I built a winch system on casters to save my back when I was using chest freezers). Chest freezers will also be easier to find used compared to workable freezer options, though a regular upright fridge may be even easier and cheaper to source, if it can fit through your narrow doors, plus you won't need a temperature controller then.
For CO2, I would recommend getting a decent branded regulator, used or new, I've seen too many problems with cheap regulators (I bought all my regulators used, and have a mix of tapright, norgren, and perlick, which are all decent, though I am now thinking of replacing the gauges with new ones that will have higher accuracy and can be rezeroed). Try to get a large used CO2 tank off craigslist, if it will fit with your space. 20# tanks should be pretty easy to come by if you are patient, or you can go to your local airgas or CO2 distributor to see what they can offer you (it will definitely be more expensive going this route).
If you balance your lines properly (this means to get the correct amount of tubing to reduce the flow to reasonable speeds at the faucets), Perlick 630SS faucets are good, vent-matics would be great if they are in stock; if you don't balance your lines, look in to perlick 650ss faucets, as they will allow you to restrict the flow at the faucet. If you decide to balance your lines, add a foot or two of line to whatever the calculators tell you, and then cut back if the flow is too slow (I started with lines that were too short when I first started kegging...). Any of these forward sealing faucets have growler filling adapters - get one.
When you get your shanks, check the bore through the center and make sure it is smooth. I have received shanks that were bored from each end at different angles, and there was a ledge in the center, and had I used them, it would've caused a lot of foaming issues.
Please use check valves and check your gas system for leaks when you get things set up. You can search for options with this, there are a lot of threads, we can also help you here in this thread when you get to that point.
Keg lube is great for o-rings.
If you ever need to replace post poppets, look into universal poppets, they are a great recent invention (I used to keep dozens of brand specific poppets on hand).
That is about all I can think of right now, I hope it helps!
It sounds like a lot, and there is a good amount to consider up front, but like another response said, you will learn as you go what fits with your preferences, budget, space limitations, etc. As you become more familiar with your own setup, things will seem much more natural, and the things that are foreign to you now, will make a lot more sense.
Best of luck!
