Miss Keggy Gets a New Hat

So I git a great deal from AHS on some perlicks... And I needed a quick and dirty faucet box to replace the single faucet tower on my kegerator (miss Keggy)..

Nothin' fancy, but nice enough for now, and most importantly, gets the perlicks installed...

So after work Wednesday, I threw a basic box together out of some scrap furniture grade plywood and some red oak...

glued it up, put some clamps on it, and let the glue dry overnight

So Thursday after work, I continued, by making a top, drilling the holes, and test fitting the perlicks....

Here it is ready for sanding and finishing

So then I took it outside, and gave it a quick sand @60 grit, and then @ 120 Grit (definitely not a thorough job), and then insulated it with some scrap owens Corning R705 Sound Board I had laying around, and then a couple coats of verathane..

Looks good so far!

Gave it enough time to dry (barely), and then brought it inside to install (still Thursday afternoon).. While the Verathane was drying, I went inside and made up (3) 13' 3/16" superflex beer lines for the installation, and removed the old tower and cleaned Miss Keggy's Noggin, and shined her up with some pledge.....



So then I installed the faucets, brought the faucet box in and laid it on it's side and started routing the new beer lines (after labeling then (L, C, & R) from inside Miss Keggy and into her new hat...

So stood her hat up, hooked up the lines, and installed the top piece of insulation and the top....





Then I drilled a hole in Miss Keggy's side, ran a new Gas line through it, moved the Gas cylinder outside, remounted the manifold from the inside top to the side where the gas cylinder 'was', and put the third corny in the box.. Hooked it all up and drew a beer....



Then I went to the LHBS the next day, and bought a couple more tap handles.. And finally enjoyed my awesome new 3 perlick faucet box...

Woo Whooo! Three different beers on tap, and no more stcky faucets!




I still need to make a gasket for between the box and the kegerator, and then fasten it down permanently... I want to eventually move it further back, which will mean drilling a new hole.. but for now.. it's 'done enough' to enjoy...

Then on Saturday I brewed up 10G of a botched Stone IPA clone (fixable), then on Sunday afternoon, I patched the roof of the lean to cover along the side of the shop... (In anticipation of the blizzard that's supposed to hit sometime late tonight)...

Not a bad weekend!

WOW thats awesome...green with envy

iparks81 said:

WOW thats awesome...green with envy

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Me Too!
I envy myself!

I sandwiched a piece of 3/4" plywood between the main box and the oak top section at the front.. and I made this piece a couple inches shorter (top to bottom) than the piece of ak in front of it.. This allows me a recessed space to install an LED light strip (down facing cove light) later if I want... just for fun... thinking amber colored light would look nice..

Beauty. I love the grain/knot on the wood face with the faucets.

also some of your 45's looked a little skewed in some of the build pics. Ha. Just kidding. Nice work!

Badass job Bro. GO GREENBAY!!!

mariojr said:

Beauty. I love the grain/knot on the wood face with the faucets.

also some of your 45's looked a little skewed in some of the build pics. Ha. Just kidding. Nice work!

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If you're referring to that little gap at the top of the inside box.. the angle was correct, but I started taking a little to much cut on one of the pieces, so I readjusted the fence and finished the cut, then assembled it so it was in a non visible location...

There is also a slight gap at one end of the non visible piece being used as a spacer.. That's because I used that piece as i found it.. no need to cut another piece when I found one in the scrap pile that was 'close enough'

ImperialLover said:

Badass job Bro. GO GREENBAY!!!

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You know, if I wasn't a Raider Fan, I probably would have been a pack fan.. I've always appreciated the tradition of the franchise, and the dedication and loyalty of the fan base..

Of course, there's not a whole lot else to be into in Green Bay.. (except maybe beer)....

OTOH, pretty much 'everything else' that Oakland Ca is into outside of football, I'm not interested in...

r8rphan said:

So I git a great deal from AHS on some perlicks... And I needed a quick and dirty faucet box to replace the single faucet tower on my kegerator (miss Keggy)..

Nothin' fancy, but nice enough for now, and most importantly, gets the perlicks installed...

So after work Wednesday, I threw a basic box together out of some scrap furniture grade plywood and some red oak...

glued it up, put some clamps on it, and let the glue dry overnight

Click to expand...

Nice work...humble much?

wilserbrewer said:

Nice work...humble much?

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It's really not fancy.. just a couple plain boxes,, no fancy routered edges, no moldings.. just a box on another box...

truthfully, I spent more time 'installing' it and moving the cylinder outside of the fridge, than I did building it..

What I had in my mind to do 'someday' (maybe) is fancy.. After I build my CNC table I might...

I want to get a second kegerator someday, and when I do, I'll need to build a matching box, or two new ones that match each other... Even kicking around the idea of one long box that stretches across both kegerators...

This is beautiful!
What is the fridge you are using?

Pixalated said:

This is beautiful!
What is the fridge you are using?

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It's a Haier kegerator I bought from Best Buy or Home Depot about 6 years ago... It's comes with a single 2" chrome tube tower and a single faucet, a 5lb CO2 tank, regulator, cleaning kit, lines, and sanke tap.. I think it was under $500

Thanks for you reply. I was just wondering because I saw that most mini-fridges can barely hold two kegs.

Pixalated said:

Thanks for you reply. I was just wondering because I saw that most mini-fridges can barely hold two kegs.

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Yeah, it's not really a mini fridge, but a dedicated kegerator... Most of your big box stores carry them nowadays...

Yeah, it seems to still cost around $500. I won't be getting into kegging for a while, but when I do I would want to have a kegerator ready.

Pixalated said:

Yeah, it seems to still cost around $500. I won't be getting into kegging for a while, but when I do I would want to have a kegerator ready.

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I know this girl that bought one off of craigslist for $75 with all sorts of extra accessories... Deals are out there if you're not in a hurry and can pay cash...

Hmm, setting up an RSS feed for kegerator on craigslist. Thanks for the tip.

Looks great, love the character in the wood.

Replace those Raider glasses with more Stone ones and it would be perfect

Nice work! Looks good...other than all the Raiders logos ruining it!

GO CHIEFS!

I_B_Mongo said:

Nice work! Looks good...other than all the Raiders logos ruining it!

GO CHIEFS!

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"Go Chiefs" what? Go sit on the couch during the rest of the playoffs?

Chargers, Chiefs, Broncos.. The only teams in the AFC West to 'not' play in a superbowl this century...

Nice Job

I have that same kegerator. Just curious, but I can get 3 cornies and the 5 pounder in there with no problems. Are you useing pin lock cornies?

I went a cheaper route (though not easier) and just modified the standard tower for three taps, but I like your idea better.

Afterwards, I found I had uneven cooling. The front 2 kegs were considerably warmer than the back one. So I attached a hard drive cooler directly to the cold plate for circulation and now it cools great.

Yours looks great. I may have to go that route.

Was awesome and than I saw the Raiders. LOL seriously though pretty cool could use some 49'ers apparel.

airmek said:

I have that same kegerator. Just curious, but I can get 3 cornies and the 5 pounder in there with no problems. Are you useing pin lock cornies?

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I probably could have, but it's crowded in there, so it made sense to move the stuff that doesn't need to be cooled 'out'... now checking/setting pressure, and changing cylinders doesn't require removing cornys.. plus I plan to go to a 15 or 20 lb tank as soon as possible... Much cheaper for CO2 that way...

I went a cheaper route (though not easier) and just modified the standard tower for three taps, but I like your idea better.

Afterwards, I found I had uneven cooling. The front 2 kegs were considerably warmer than the back one. So I attached a hard drive cooler directly to the cold plate for circulation and now it cools great.

Yours looks great. I may have to go that route.

Click to expand...

When I built this, I planned to add a fan to move air up into the tower box and back down into the fridge.. But so far I haven't had any cooling issues with the tower, and I haven't even fastened it down yet or used a gasket...

It takes longer now to get the kegs to serving temp when I put them in there, but once they do, the thermal mass of the liquid keeps them all cool...

Do you put fermometers on your cornys? I do.. that way they can serve dual purpose as secondary fermenters, and I can tell when they've dropped to serving temp in Miss Keggy...

I did turn the kegerator temp down a bit when I went to three kegs though..

Prior to this, I had two kegs, one hooked to the tower, and the other inside hooked to a party tap.. That sucked because I had to open the door and hook up the tap when I wanted to have a drink.. then un hook it before I went to bed.. and the party taps beer line was too short, so I always got a lot of foam...

Now it all works perfectly.. I'm enjoying the crap out of this thing... Only problem I ran into, is that the shanks on the taps loosened up (I guess from the wood being cooled?) But I was able to tighten them up by just cranking on them slightly with tap attached , then disconnect the ball locks and reposition the faucets to upright....

Eventually, I'm going to make a large piece of oak slightly wider than the tower, and about two times as deep... I can then attach the new box to the top of that, fill the existing hole through the top of miss keggy with expanding foam, and drill a new pass through hole farther back.. Then I can move the tower back a few inches, and place a stainless drip tray on top of the piece sticking forward...

The box also allows me to sneak wiring inside so that I can install an LED strip light in the recess under the lip on the front where the taps stick out... could mount a dimmer on the back of the tower box or on the back of the kegerator...

Gldnst8warrior said:

Was awesome and than I saw the Raiders. LOL seriously though pretty cool could use some 49'ers apparel.

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Ha.. you're not gonna bait me there.. I grew up in LA, so I'm not into the bay area rivalry thing...

The Raiders seem to be turning it around, and I suspect that with the new coach, the niners will too.. Too much talent on both of those teams to be sucking as bad as they have.... Alex Smith ain't cutting it either..

Where is Pittsburg, Ca?

r8rphan said:

"Go Chiefs" what? Go sit on the couch during the rest of the playoffs?

Chargers, Chiefs, Broncos.. The only teams in the AFC West to 'not' play in a superbowl this century...

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True, but it was nice to be there. I know we still have a long way to go, but it was nice to see the team actually be competitive this year. Your Raiders look to be turning things around...should be a good team too.

I_B_Mongo said:

True, but it was nice to be there. I know we still have a long way to go, but it was nice to see the team actually be competitive this year. Your Raiders look to be turning things around...should be a good team too.

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Sweeping the division was like being in the playoffs for me.. especially Sadyeggo

Yeah, suddenly the AFC west is not looking so weak anymore.. I bet the Donkos will get a lot better too now that horse face is involved and they got rid of that idiot of a coach...

Soon, the chargers will settle back to their rightful place at the bottom of the division... with 'zilch' to show for their time in the sun... LOL