Total Cover Keezer

So been hitting up CL for about 2 months and finally just gave up and bought a POS beat up chest freezer for 50$. Works great, just really ugly. I wanted to just go the route of paint black then put a collar on and call it a day. Well with it being so ugly I decided to cover it.

Made a base with casters.


Made a collar out of 1X12 common board and framed around.


Then covered with a veneer project panel. There is about a 1 to 1.5" gap around the outside so hopefully heat from condenser coils can work its way out. Need to cut out a square and put a register where the compressor vent is.


Made a new top since the freezer top was also beat to hell and back.


I'm going to trim out everything tomorrow with just some corner moulding and simple trim. Then paint the collar and trim a nice brown color I have left over from another project. I tried staining a few scraps and will be a huge pain trying to get a good color on the pine wood.

 

Does this freezer have coils on the back?

 

I believe so, I felt some warmth on the back when it ran for just a few minutes.

 

Yeah, to stain pine I have found it best to use a wood conditioner put out by Minwax. That way the stain goes on evenly. It is basically a stain with no colorant in it.

 

I have seen the obvious external condesner coil on the back or the hidden condenser on the front and sides. Just make sure the freezer can still vent the heat it makes during the refrigeration cycle otherwise it will hog electricity and burn out very early.

Otherwise looks good so far!

 

Trimmed it out, cut and then painted the vent for the compressor, and painted collar and lid.


Put cheap styrofoam on the collar and lid, still need to tape the joints.


After putting seal on lid and running it. Need to touch up some spots on the trim where I got too safe with the tape.


Looks like my STC1000 and faucets will be in tomorrow. Still need to find a place around me to fill or trade tanks. Ive got an IPA that has been crash cooling for about a month....

 

It cooled down fairly quick (to serving temp). The back got pretty warm so I'm sure the front and sides did also. Like I said there is about a 1" to 1.5" gap all around the front and sides. I left a 1" gap on the bottom so air can get in from the bottom and there is the air gap around the sides. I'm debating on popping a few 1 15/16" holes and putting some of these on the top and allowing a draft from the bottomhttp://www.mockett.com/grommets-wire-management/air-vent-grilles/wood/lwavg-r2.html .

 

Almost all done.

 

Looking good!

Do you have a version of the stc that you can program with the stc100+ stuff so you can read in Fahrenheit?

 

I do, but probably won't re-flash. Ive used the stc on my fermentation chamber for a while and haven't had an issue with using centigrade.