Magic Chef 6.8cf dual hinge keezer build

[mcwilcr]

I've been working on this project since mid December and thought I would share the progress here. I wanted a serving system that could handle 3 kegs and a large CO2 tank as well as a small beer gas cylinder without taking up too much floor space. For this I chose to use an ~7cf chest freezer with a 10" collar.

The magic chef 6.8 with some goodies inside.


The functional portion of the collar and base with casters.


Laying the weather stripping into the collar.

 

[mcwilcr]

I really like the looks of Cherry so I chose to make the outer cabinet out of that.

Making the pannels


Since I like the look of naturally oiled cherry I chose to use a neutral Danish oil. A comparison of side pannels.


And the outside of the collar.

 

[mcwilcr]

I used locking miter joints and pocket screws to hold the cabinet walls together so it can be disassembled if needed for moving.

There is a 1" gap all around the outside of the chest freezer to allow for air flow that will be assisted by a 115v muffin fan. Also, from the back side view, you can see a gap between the collar pieces for running electrical to the temp controller.

Here is a view of the muffin fan installed by the compressor. Air will be pulled in from the far side of the cabinet and pushed out the open bottom of the chest freezer.

 

[mcwilcr]

A couple more pictures from the build.

The cabinet and collar rough fitting.


The top lid.


The first rough fitting of the complete cabinet.

 

[RickBrewski]

I can tell that is going to be one beautiful Keezer! Good job so far!

 

[mcwilcr]

I can tell that is going to be one beautiful Keezer! Good job so far!

Thanks!
It's actually mostly done, just need to add a couple little things before turning it on. The iphone app keeps crashing every time I add more than a couple photos so I keep having to break the posts up and then I get busy.

More pictures to come...

 

[mcwilcr]

The collar is insulated with 1-1/2" chrome lined styrofoam insulation and capped with aluminum flashing to give it all a nice finished look

If you study the photo, the first thing I would have done differently is drill the outside shank hole further in so it would not be so close to the inside edge after insulation was in place. The taps are spaced at 5" on center on the top 3rd of the collar.

 

[Fishn-tin-sean]

Oh yeah! Very nice.

 

[mcwilcr]

Ok, so I put the final touches on last night and set the temperature controller to see if I need to adjust the calibration for the NTC thermistor sensor. I used one of the cheap Chinese temperature controllers similar to the STC-1000 except I have the single output H9745 which is 10A 110VAC and displays in deg. F.

I installed a table leg support to hold the top lid at a 90 deg. angle



For the collar support, I chose to use two lengths of stainless steel sash chain.



The collar opens to a point past it's center of gravity over the hinge but at a point that the top lid still wants to remain closed. In a previous thread I discussed using some sort of latch to keep the top lid down but the way I have things set up it was not necessary.

Here is a picture of the finished product with shanks installed!

Still have not tested this rig out with any fluid being pushed but I should be serving beer this weekend!

 

[NathPowe]

Nice rig man! Hey so I've been seeing these freezers for really good prices at the local Home Depot. How many ball locks can you fit in there with a 10" collar? It looks like 4 would go in, but I thought I'd check. Thanks.

Edit - Forgot to specify - keeping the CO2 tank inside isn't a requirement if it allows for 4 kegs. Thanks.

 

[mcwilcr]

Nice rig man! Hey so I've been seeing these freezers for really good prices at the local Home Depot. How many ball locks can you fit in there with a 10" collar? It looks like 4 would go in, but I thought I'd check. Thanks.

Edit - Forgot to specify - keeping the CO2 tank inside isn't a requirement if it allows for 4 kegs. Thanks.

Yes, you can fit 4 pin lock kegs in there with a 10" collar. you could deffinitely fit a 5# CO2 in there with them and I have a pretty good feeling you could get a 10# in too but it would be pretty tight. I have a 20# in mine with 3 pin locks and room for a 5# beer gas cylinder as well and it is not too crowded.

There is a great Sticky at the top of the bottling/kegging section that has diagrams of different freezers showing how kegs and cylinders fit inside if you have not seen it already.

 

[NathPowe]

Yes, you can fit 4 pin lock kegs in there with a 10" collar. you could deffinitely fit a 5# CO2 in there with them and I have a pretty good feeling you could get a 10# in too but it would be pretty tight. I have a 20# in mine with 3 pin locks and room for a 5# beer gas cylinder as well and it is not too crowded.

There is a great Sticky at the top of the bottling/kegging section that has diagrams of different freezers showing how kegs and cylinders fit inside if you have not seen it already.

Right on. Thanks for letting me know. I've looked through the chest freezer specs thread many times - I guess I thought that the magic chef 6.8 model was different than the magic chef 7.0 listed in the thread. Anyway - definitely seems like a great deal.

Keep us updated on how this baby works for you. Again, really nice work on the keezer.

 

[mcwilcr]

Right on. Thanks for letting me know. I've looked through the chest freezer specs thread many times - I guess I thought that the magic chef 6.8 model was different than the magic chef 7.0 listed in the thread. Anyway - definitely seems like a great deal.



Keep us updated on how this baby works for you. Again, really nice work on the keezer.

I wondered the same thing but the model number is the same and the inside and outside dimensions match up so as far as I can tell they are the same freezer.

Will do!

 

[mcwilcr]

I have had the keezer up and running now for about a month and absolutely love it! I have learned a couple things though.

First, 4 coats of Danish oil does not sufficiently seal the wood against liquid and even a small drip of beer will leave a stain (Luckily just on the trim board at the bottom). I took the keezer out of commission for a couple days and applied 3 coats of wipe on Poly in a satan finish which I had planned on doing at some point anyway. Now that it has a good build of polyurethane on the wood it is more water resistant now.

Second, the customer service at Kegconnection is some of the best I have ever had anywhere. I sent them a question about an issue I was having with one of the chudnow regulators I bought from them and a couple days later I had a new one sitting on my front porch. The whole dual body manifold and not just a regulator body either. As for the issue, does anyone else notice pressure creep on those regulators? I have one of the two regulators completely shut off with the valve on the outlet closed and pressure still builds up on the output side of the regulator between it and the shutoff valve.

Brewed an Irish stout last weekend so I'm hoping to try out the new stout faucet in a few weeks!

 

[ZombieBrew83]

Really great work! The finished product looks like something right out of a furniture store!

 

[mcwilcr]

Really great work! The finished product looks like something right out of a furniture store!

Thank you for your kind words! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

 

[1BigBear]

View attachment 185558
wow what woodmanship ! Not being a wood-worker → but wanting this exact look, can you explain more about the glue-ing and sanding and cutting and sanding and staining and mitering and corners and molding and sanding and ---- OH Brother ! :rockin:
AWESOME ! on wheels ta boot !! Sweet

 

[Blowntri5]

Try this as far as layout goes. It might help with the questions on dimensions.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/chest-freezer-specs-layouts-377518/index2.html#post4731048

 

[mcwilcr]

View attachment 185558

wow what woodmanship ! Not being a wood-worker → but wanting this exact look, can you explain more about the glue-ing and sanding and cutting and sanding and staining and mitering and corners and molding and sanding and ---- OH Brother ! :rockin:

AWESOME ! on wheels ta boot !! Sweet

Gluing up the panels is really not that terrible if you have the right tools available. If you don't have access to a fully equipped wood shop, you are definitely not going to want to start with rough cut wood like I did though. To get the nice seams between boards you need a good table saw and a good jointer to square it all up. I used no. 10 biscuits to join the planks together but you could also use dowels.

The lock miter joint is achieved with a special router bit like this

Sanding is easy. Just use a random orbit hand sander and work your way down to a finer and finer grit until you have the finish you want.

Staining/oiling is even easier, de pinging on what finish you want just wipe on your coats and burnish with 0000 steel wool between.

I made all the trim molding but you can easily find pre made stuff and cut to the lengths you need so you won't have to run it through a thickness plane to thin it down.

Hope this helps! good luck!

 

[mcwilcr]

Try this as far as layout goes. It might help with the questions on dimensions.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/chest-freezer-specs-layouts-377518/index2.html#post4731048

And yes, these specs are accurate to the 6.8 model from homedepot. Not sure why the different internal volume spec In the name but it all measures out the same.

 

[mcwilcr]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430235686.628837.jpg
I was looking at a few pictures today and this is one of the reasons I love oiled cherry so much. The color is several shades darker and the wood grain more complex after just 1 year. Still chugging along like a champ too!