American Chestnut Keezer with Iron Pipe Tower

[Deadalus]

Here’s my keezer build. I could never quite figure out if I needed the box tower to call this a coffin build. It’s a full surround. I had one last detail I was going to add but haven’t ever gotten around to it. Then something breaks or I redo something else and I never get to writing it up. I’m writing it up now before something else breaks!

I started out where I was just going to put wheels on it, raise the lid, paint the sides, and put the taps through the front. I bought a nice piece of cedar for that which I still have. Then I decided I was going to sheath it and put in an iron pipe tower after I put the wheels on and raised the lid. I hunted down enough reclaimed chestnut to do that and had some extra, so I decided to make a bar top too. So of course, I needed stools, so I got some more chestnut and made those.

Base-The base is made from 2x4s and plywood. First base I made was more of a cart and I used a piece of mdf and slapped wheels on it. This base needed to be big enough to leave an air gap around the freezer. I left about 2 inches front and back. I was aiming to create a side pocket for a CO2 tank outside the freezer inside the shell. But then I decided I wanted a bar top so I had to reign in the main body size in order to have the bar fit in the room it was going in.

Frame- I built the side walls independent and then screwed them together. A lot of my design changes were on the fly and made the keezer bigger and I began to worry that I might have to take it apart to get it out of the house someday. So I kept that idea at all points of construction. The side frames are nailed but each side screwed together.

Reclaimed American Chestnut-I drove about two hours to a country home to procure the chestnut from an elderly woman. It was from a barn from her family’s property. Her uncle had worked in a sawmill back in the early 1900’s. Every day he walked to the mill to work and every day he was allowed to bring home a piece of lumber he could carry. Chestnut is on the lighter side so that’s what he brought home and they built a barn out of it. I got about 80-90% of the 1 inch boards for the shell and top from her. The rest from a fellow about 45 minutes away who reclaims it.

I pressure washed the wood to clean it up, then sanded it lightly with either 80 or 150 grit, nothing finer. I also gave it a wash with borax in water to address any insect issues.

I had one really wide board that I knew would be in the front. Then I had some weathered pieces I thought might look nice as sort of pillars in the front too. The weathered pieces forming the pillar bases and tops came from the ends of some boards that I had cut off. Then I filed and sliced the cut side to make it look weathered as well. I also used some crayons to color those.

Wood finish-The wood is stained using boiled linseed oil, minwax polyurethane, and mineral spirits. Equal parts for the first few coats then ease off the mineral spirits. There are six coats. After the second and fourth coats, I sanded it down with very fine steel wool and shop vacuumed it.

Top-The top extends 10 inches. I built a frame out of 2x4’s I ripped in half. The top is attached with a piano hinge and stainless steel screws. The back of the top is flush with the back of the surround. It opens with 160lb gas struts. There are some really involved equations to figure out how to size these. I originally used 135 lb struts and these were perfect without the tower. I was a little off. One recently popped off and that’s when I replaced them with the 160s. A shade too much as the lid needs to be hooked down to stay shut. It’s better than getting my skull crushed though!

Pipe tower-That’s 2 inch pipe. I recommend slightly bigger. I have Evabarrier lines encased in 1” ID foam insulation. Those are called side out elbows. I gently washed the pieces, then spent a nice sunny day brass brushing off the rust. I then clear coated them twice for an industrial look. I think I retapped the reducer bushings to get the taps to screw in. [Needs checking]. I did grind the corners off the hexes to get the plate to cover them.

Chairs-That’s ½” iron pipe and 2” thick Chestnut. The black iron was treated the same as the pipe tower. All the pieces are screwed together. A little tricky for the square base but doable. I sorted all the pipe very finely to match lengths closely. You have to screw the pipes in really tight on one side and then back them out into the other fitting. I routered in grooves to hold the pipes slightly in the wood. I forget the pipe clamp size I used but I did some trail runs to fit the pipes well with the clamps.

Tap Handles-Maple, red oak, walnut, cherry. Those are off of Etsy. Intertap faucets. I will add more pictures and details later…

 

[Deadalus]

Tap lines are evabarrier. I used 1" flexible PVC to house the lines as I wanted to air cool the tap tower. The PVC runs through the freezer lid and terminates between the iron flange of the tower and the bar top. I used a coupling to hold the pvc up. One line is the supply and one line is the return. The air thus forms a loop. I could probably use a 45 or 22 at that taped fitting, the fitting is not 1" there. Inside the freezer is a pvc wye. The beverage lines run through one opening in the wye and the other side there is a length of PVC attached to a plastic box in which I have a computer fan mounted. This is not connected in the photo as there is a fifth keg inside in the fan box space. I need to finish that keg off!

I orginally had the CO2 tank inside. But now I have it outside. It just sits under the bar though. I originally had a manifold, then switched to three secondaries, and now I have four secondaries and the primary regulator(outside). One secondary is redundant but it was cheap and it avoids having to set the primary to the highest pressure out of all the kegs. That's recent and I have a leak from when I switched to Evabarrier. I recently had a strut pop off and couldn't fix it but I have the new struts installed and will get to the lead ASAP.

I have a nitro line run too and a stout on tap. That tank is also outside under the bar.

The drip tray is that middle silicone hose and it just runs to a soda bottle.