4 Faucet PVC draft tower

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Brew-ta-sauraus

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Jumping in to home brewing with both feet, I decided I was going to convert my old Kenmore single tap kegerator to hold 4 Corney's of home brew and dispense all 4 brews at one time. Problem was I had a single draft tower and very little cash to spare.

Hence a home built tower out of 3" PVC pipe.
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I used a toilet ring for the base, I just cut it down with a jig saw and then sanded it smooth. If I could do it over I would have screwed the base under the particle board top you see and just cut a bigger hole in the particle board top and made the tower taller. But live & learn!

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First attempt. I bought a stick of 3" black sch 40 PVC pipe. My first attempt is below, just a basic 3 tap tower. Yes there are three staggered holes, one high on the left, one middle center, & one low on the right. I installed this & it worked fine, it just wasn't 4 taps, and I would never be able to get a drip pan to cover all three taps.

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So on to the next attempt. I decided a tee configuration was what I needed. It was smaller then a U configuration ( which I had seen on this forum out of PVC) but would still support 4 taps (or more if you needed). I laid out the holes on my first Tee attempt, although not very straight. I used a hole saw and a hand drill to drill the holes. I decided I could do a better job on the hole alignment so I scrapped the first attempt ( or so I thought). After a little more accurate measuring and marking I came up with 4 much better aligned holes in my second attempt. I then went on to tackle the leg of the tee which would fit into the toilet ring screwed to my kegerator counter top. I needed a way to attach the tee leg to the tee top as securely as possible. I decided to half circles into the leg, thinking the tee top would fit together with the leg. It didn't! I ended up cutting several half circles in a few pieces of pipe at different depths to see what would work. I ended up making a template in order to get both sides exactly the same depth and distance apart.

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Great job! Interesting look on the 3 tap even though you didn't use it. individual drip trays perhaps?:mug:
 
Now was the tough part getting the top to fit with the bottom. I tried using a vise and pressure fitting the two together. That didn't work. So I decided to heat up the base a bit knowing PVC is pretty flexible when hot. Took a heat gun to the base and I was a little too aggressive on the first attempt, and kind of melted the PVC pipe a bit. But what I learned was that the hot PVC would spread out allowing the top to snugly fit in between the notches.

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On to making another base. I pretty much used the below generic Harbor Freight $14.00 version of a roto zip to do most of the pipe cutting. And the below drum sanders in my hand drill for finish work. I suggest you practice in a few pieces of scrap pipe, but once you get the hang of it it's easy. Oh & cut outside!!! The cutting bit makes a huge mess of pvc chips. Add a little static electricity and can any one say sweep for an hour?

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So I chilled on the heat on and got the notches to spread out and fit perfect. The base came out great! I used regular PVC glue and fitted everything together in the vise. Remember the first tee top I cut holes in that were not aligned to great. Because my box was full of black pipe I mistakenly grabbed the crappy tee top, and glued it to the nice base. I didn't notice until it was all sanded, painted and I was installing the faucets
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So I used the crappy tower for a few weeks till I had time to make another base as I still had the tee top with holes perfectly aligned. It kind of worked out better because with my first attempt I not only used PVC glue but I also used a plastic epoxy around the outside seam. This was a PIA to sand down, I as I found out really wasn't necessary.

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Third attempt below. Holes lined up better, and seams were cleaner after sanding. Primed the whole thing and painted silver with 3 coats. I used a hole saw to cut the two large holes in the back to make it easier to plumb. My kegerator backs to a wall so you can't see the holes in the back. I used foam sleeping pad (the blue stuff) from Walmart to insulate the whole pipe. I used pipe insulation from inside the kegerator through the top into the base of the tower for insulation as well. I cut circles of some OD green foam mat for the big holes in the back of the tower. The leg of the tee is not glued into the base. It's dry fit after a little sanding. You can see I didn't paint the bottom where it fits into the base. It's easy to pull it out, and or turn it if necessary.

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Overall dimensions are 12" tall from bottom to top of notch or where top tee meets. 15" total height. 11 1/2 " wide. Shank holes are 3/4" sanded out to fit shanks. Rear holes are 2 1/4"
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Very nicely done. Looks great.

Sorry about posting in your thread so quickly, didn't realize you were still updating it.
 
Almost forgot I have my first two towers sitting in my garage if anyone wants them. Not perfect but free minus shipping. Glad to help out the home brewers out there.

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If you build another, you may consider cutting the base close to diameter, then sand it down by using spray adhesive to adhere a sheet of sandpaper to another 3" diameter tube. Then you could sand away any excess in the bottom tube and not have to bust out the heat gun at all. It does mean more PVC mess though.

~M~
 
Faucets are $12.95 got them here - http://www.wholesaledraft.com/catalog.php?styleID=8&brandID=8

The short shanks were $30.00 ea, but I already had two. They have them here - http://www.wholesaledraft.com/catalog.php?styleID=66&brandID=10 but I would not recommend the soldered ones. Look around for the same shank but the stainless tube that connects to your tubing that is not soldered to the shank. They make them screw on. MY LHBS had them in stock. These make it easier to plumb the tower, or I would think any tower for that matter.
 
very nice. how's it work? any flex in the top T? looks like you need a wider drip tray now.

Works great! No flex of any kind in the top Tee (I worried about that as well). Yes I do need a wider drain pan, been shopping for one but they are $$$. Probably sell the one I have as soon as I buy a wider one. The one I have has a recessed drain with a tube that runs down into my kegerator into a catch container. Would like a wider one just like it, but again $$$:mug:
 
If you build another, you may consider cutting the base close to diameter, then sand it down by using spray adhesive to adhere a sheet of sandpaper to another 3" diameter tube. Then you could sand away any excess in the bottom tube and not have to bust out the heat gun at all. It does mean more PVC mess though.

~M~


Well it took me a min. but I get what your saying here. By gluing a piece of sand paper to another 3" piece of PVC, you could sand the notches in the base piece to the exact same diameter as the Tee top. Would be alot of sanding, but yes it would work well.
 
bought 6' of 4" PVC today, I'm going to try to do a 5 faucet, and hook one into either water or something else..

Just thought of this.. will I run into problems finding a toilet ring @ 4 inches?

Any ideas how i can affix this to the Kegerator if there are no 4" toilet rings?
 
I am assuming he has his temperature probe suspended in there to attain more accurate temperature control of the liquid in the space as opposed to the air temp. I could be wrong though...
 
Works great! No flex of any kind in the top Tee (I worried about that as well). Yes I do need a wider drain pan, been shopping for one but they are $$$. Probably sell the one I have as soon as I buy a wider one. The one I have has a recessed drain with a tube that runs down into my kegerator into a catch container. Would like a wider one just like it, but again $$$:mug:

$21.90 for a 19" stainless drip tray at Williams Brewing, just ordered one yesterday.
 
Cool tower. Did you use krylon fusion paint or just regular spray?

That's a great use for a yeast vial, though. I'll be doing the same in my kegerator now.
B
 
I love this project!

I've got a single tap tower on my kegerator with a capacity for 3 kegs and a commercial double/triple tower is just too expensive. I had resigned myself to the notion of just putting picnic taps on the 2 "spares" and having to open the door when necessary.

You sir, have inspired me!

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Thanks glad I could help. It's the least I could do for this forum with all the info I have taken away from this site. Let me know if you have questions be glad to help out if I can.
 
Did you have to put a collar on to have that mini fridge fit 4 kegs? Approximately how large of a collar in order to fit them? Looking to jump into kegging without having a giant freezer sitting next to my TV.
 
No my mini fridge has a front door, not a top door like a chest freezer. My kegerator is an old Kenmore unit. It has the compressor on the top ( under the top panel) as opposed to most of the new ones that have the compressor on the bottom. Thus there is no hump inside my unit. No mods were needed, 4 corneys fit perfect.
 
What are the end caps? I'd like to make a simple double tap tower, but I don't want to use the big dorky end cap that go around the outside of the pipe..i want the internal ones like you used..
 
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