Genicom printer Kegerator build?

[dirkyturky]

So at the hospital I work at we received an old broken green bar Genicom printer that could quite possibly be as old as I am that was to be disposed. I'd been eyeballing it for awhile trying to come up with a use for it. I've been wanting to make a kegerator for my bar downstairs even before I started homebrewing 2 years ago and thought this would fit at least 3 cornies in the front compartment not to mention the compartment in the back. So finally yesterday I decided that I would gut it and take the shell home because I'd hate for it to get tossed if I could've found a use for it. I know it might be easier to just go out and get a Sanyo or look on Craigslist for an old fridge, but I'd rather make use of it. I already have it and especially because it was free. Plus I like building things and one of the beauties of homebrewing is using what you have to make what you need.

Part of me want's to keep it looking like a printer for comical effect but really I'd just like a nice kegerator to show off. My thoughts so far were to cut out the middle divider to open it up, seal and insulate it. Probably build the top up like is commonly done on the chest freezer's and make a nice finished wood top. The cooling is what stumps me. My only idea was to use a A/C window unit as I've seen people do for their fermentation chambers.

Well here it is. Let me know what you think. Any advice, comment, or mockery is welcome.

 

[The_Dog_42]

I'm not seeing any pics, but I'm in the middle of a build for similar reasons.

If you can get pics, I may be able to offer advice / suggestions. One issue currently is the placement of the temp sensors. My build has 2 (one for display and one for actual control), and the placement can cause issues with loading and unloading. With or without pics, it's probably do-able if it looks like you can fit 3 cornies. Good luck.

 

[cfrazier77]

Here is a possible suggestion. Get a small fridge, or better yet, a freezer. Put a resovoir in it and fill it with glycol. You want to get it as cold as possible. Put a pump in it and run plastic lines to your printer shell. Insulate the lines. Put a car heater core, $30, in it. Put a fan behind it. You can control the pump with a temp controller.

The benefit with this is that you don't have to have the ac unit hanging out of your kegerator. Also, the ac unit will produce heat so it would not be great in doors.

 

[dirkyturky]

Even with 3 cornies I should have enough space to just attach a mini-fridge to the back with only needing a small support built. Remove door, insulate, and seal up. Obvious downside is increased size, but that may or may not be an issue depending on open space once divider is cut out and size of mini fridge I happen to come across on Craigslist.

 

[dirkyturky]

I'm not seeing any pics, but I'm in the middle of a build for similar reasons.

If you can get pics, I may be able to offer advice / suggestions. One issue currently is the placement of the temp sensors. My build has 2 (one for display and one for actual control), and the placement can cause issues with loading and unloading. With or without pics, it's probably do-able if it looks like you can fit 3 cornies. Good luck.

That is gonna be sweet.

Can you see those?

 

[FirstStateBrewer]

I used to repair pieces of excrement like that back in the day! I'd sure love to see you finally put it to some good use! LOL!

 

[The_Dog_42]

That is gonna be sweet.


Can you see those?

Yup. Interesting project box you have. My initial thought is totally crazy and will be dependent on how tall it is and if you want to sacrifice one corny (possibly). It will also be below the bold.

My big suggestions are as follows:
(1) Watch out for the 3 cutouts at the top. Top cutouts are better than bottom, but you still want to make sure you can insulate them well. If possible run your electricals and cooling through them, so at least they serve a purpose (but make sure the metal edges won't cut anything).

(2) Allow for a ton of time to insulate and use the rigid foam insulation. It's not bad to work with and you have a lot of easy shapes in there, but going around cooling lines or any extra structure support you put in gets time consuming.

(3) Great foam is your friend. Spray, Spray, Spray some more.

(4) With a metal box, things are a little different than mine. You may want to ask someone who knows more than me, but look into vapor barrier. If you use an AC to cool it, you generally don't have to worry, but that'd be overkill for such a small space.

(5) Make templates of any funky shape framing / underlayment that you decide to use. I've made my scrape wood pile double in size from an "opps" moment.

CRAZY A$$ BUILD IDEA
Depending on how the power switch is wired here's what I think would be AWESOME.

Find a 1.3 cu ft mini fridge with coils on the back. Rip out the cooling plate and use that for your main box. You'll probably have to add 2-4 muffin fans (2 on the exterior coils and 1 or 2 on the inside). Insulate only the open section in the front. Run 2x 4" shanks in the front for 2 corny's.

Where the printer feed comes out, you'll need to make a few slight modifications to put 2 SST rollers in there. Reroute the paper removal to dump grains to a 5 gallon bucket in the back. Remove the old motor (I assume it's underpowered) and either install a new motor or install an axle to drive the two rollers with a cordless drill. If you install a new motor, try to follow any electrical connections to preserve the on-off rocker switch. Use this to turn your new grain mill on and off. Then you have a grain mill / kegerator in one. How can SWMBO say no? :rockin:

Only problem would be it would probably take 2-4 months of fairly consistent work...But it'd be an awesome project to learn on.

 

[beeboy]

well, thats the best use yet for a Genicom printer. I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.