Hey everyone! I just finished building my keezer and thought I'd document the process somewhat on here.
So the first thing I did was buy a freezer. I went with a Holiday 5.0 cu ft freezer i found on Craigslist for $50. Next I put the collar on. According to this thread I needed an 8 inch collar, but I went with a 1x10 inch collar to be safe. I attached it to the freezer using gorilla glue epoxy and sealed the edges with liquid nails.
Next I installed some insulation for the collar. I went with 1 inch wide pink panther insulation that had an R value of 6 i believe. I then glued this to the collar using Elmer's glue all that I had lying around. Anything would work though, not even sure I really needed to glue it.
Then I painted it yellow and started actually taking pictures of the process:
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Why did I paint it yellow you ask? Well I wanted my kegerator to be funky in some way so my dad had mentioned some technique painters use to get a faux wood look. So with some youtube and multiple trips to home depot, I took a stab. Remember, I actually don't enjoy painting whatsoever and wouldn't ever claim to be good at it. The results are acceptable in my opinion though.
Anyways, the basic process is to paint the base coat yellow, then put a stain over it and using a wood grain tool, you drag the stain and it leaves the wood grain marks. then you go back over that with the same stain and it looks like wood grain. I used Rustoleum spray paint and primer (yellow), then I used a gel stain. I used gel stain because I wasn't sure that regular stain would stick to the metal of the freezer as well as regular stain. I then used a clear coat spray by Rustoleum. It had a reaction when I applied the clear coat and it made the stain bubble up. It ended up not being super noticeable but if I were to do it again I think I'd use spray lacquer.
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Here it is after the first coat of stain using the wood grain tool. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it's pretty loud in person.
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And here it is with another layer of stain on top. It toned the grain down a lot. Here's the difference in grains up close:
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That's the first grain tool
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And that's it finished.
I definitely could have done a better job painting it, but I thought it came out pretty good.
Next I painted the lid. I went with a copper color using Rustoleum "Hammered" copper spray paint.
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So now the faucets. I decided to get Perlick perl chrome plated faucets. (about $19) and 3.5 inch chrome plated shanks (about $10). I got them all at Ritebrew.com.
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I drilled pilot holes first. And I spaced them 5 inches apart.
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Then I drilled the foam out for the shank nuts.
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I used a 7/8" hole saw for the holes. The shanks fit perfect.
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Put the lid on.
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Then put the shanks and faucets on. I painted the black parts of the shanks the same copper color as the lid.
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And there she is all done with some taps I had lying around. I hooked her up to the BrewsbySmith temp controller which is great because it reads in Fahrenheit and is programmable. Believe it or not I hadn't tested that the freezer actually worked until right here so I was pretty happy it actually worked haha.
Let me know what you think! Thanks for looking.
So the first thing I did was buy a freezer. I went with a Holiday 5.0 cu ft freezer i found on Craigslist for $50. Next I put the collar on. According to this thread I needed an 8 inch collar, but I went with a 1x10 inch collar to be safe. I attached it to the freezer using gorilla glue epoxy and sealed the edges with liquid nails.
Next I installed some insulation for the collar. I went with 1 inch wide pink panther insulation that had an R value of 6 i believe. I then glued this to the collar using Elmer's glue all that I had lying around. Anything would work though, not even sure I really needed to glue it.
Then I painted it yellow and started actually taking pictures of the process:
Why did I paint it yellow you ask? Well I wanted my kegerator to be funky in some way so my dad had mentioned some technique painters use to get a faux wood look. So with some youtube and multiple trips to home depot, I took a stab. Remember, I actually don't enjoy painting whatsoever and wouldn't ever claim to be good at it. The results are acceptable in my opinion though.
Anyways, the basic process is to paint the base coat yellow, then put a stain over it and using a wood grain tool, you drag the stain and it leaves the wood grain marks. then you go back over that with the same stain and it looks like wood grain. I used Rustoleum spray paint and primer (yellow), then I used a gel stain. I used gel stain because I wasn't sure that regular stain would stick to the metal of the freezer as well as regular stain. I then used a clear coat spray by Rustoleum. It had a reaction when I applied the clear coat and it made the stain bubble up. It ended up not being super noticeable but if I were to do it again I think I'd use spray lacquer.
Here it is after the first coat of stain using the wood grain tool. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it's pretty loud in person.
And here it is with another layer of stain on top. It toned the grain down a lot. Here's the difference in grains up close:
That's the first grain tool
And that's it finished.
I definitely could have done a better job painting it, but I thought it came out pretty good.
Next I painted the lid. I went with a copper color using Rustoleum "Hammered" copper spray paint.
So now the faucets. I decided to get Perlick perl chrome plated faucets. (about $19) and 3.5 inch chrome plated shanks (about $10). I got them all at Ritebrew.com.
I drilled pilot holes first. And I spaced them 5 inches apart.
Then I drilled the foam out for the shank nuts.
I used a 7/8" hole saw for the holes. The shanks fit perfect.
Put the lid on.
Then put the shanks and faucets on. I painted the black parts of the shanks the same copper color as the lid.
And there she is all done with some taps I had lying around. I hooked her up to the BrewsbySmith temp controller which is great because it reads in Fahrenheit and is programmable. Believe it or not I hadn't tested that the freezer actually worked until right here so I was pretty happy it actually worked haha.
Let me know what you think! Thanks for looking.
