Danby DAR044A6BSLDB Kegerator Cabinet Build

[Unknown99]

This is just an awesome piece of job, and im gonna do one of my own. but instead of tower fan, im gonna build a water cooling system with pump, and hoses attached to the beer line. One question though. what kind of stain did you use? it looks kinda scoorched. My paint guy gave me a walnut water stain, but im not sure it will bring out the burned rucked look like yours. Whats your secret.

 

[Sellick]

This is just an awesome piece of job, and im gonna do one of my own. but instead of tower fan, im gonna build a water cooling system with pump, and hoses attached to the beer line. One question though. what kind of stain did you use? it looks kinda scoorched. My paint guy gave me a walnut water stain, but im not sure it will bring out the burned rucked look like yours. Whats your secret.

Thanks, Unknown! I've been using it for almost a year and a half now and absolutely love the design still. It really blends itself into my apartment and people coming over for the first time don't realize what it is at first. It's a great conversation starter!

As far as color, I used a conditioner on all the wood first (highly recommend, otherwise the stain will come out much darker), then stained with MINWAX Provincial 211. I went fairly light with it, made sure I wasn't heavy handed because I know how quick it can get too dark on you! Then for the cabinet top, I put on a few layers of VARATHANE Semi-Gloss Clear Polyurethane, which added a bit more yellow to the top than I expected for "clear".

 

[Unknown99]

Thanks, Unknown! I've been using it for almost a year and a half now and absolutely love the design still. It really blends itself into my apartment and people coming over for the first time don't realize what it is at first. It's a great conversation starter!

As far as color, I used a conditioner on all the wood first (highly recommend, otherwise the stain will come out much darker), then stained with MINWAX Provincial 211. I went fairly light with it, made sure I wasn't heavy handed because I know how quick it can get too dark on you! Then for the cabinet top, I put on a few layers of VARATHANE Semi-Gloss Clear Polyurethane, which added a bit more yellow to the top than I expected for "clear".

Heres my take on it so far.

The cooler will be a snug fit, so i'll have to take some of the floor off with some sandpaper. Only a few mm. I've scorched the wood before, im gonna stain. Im gonna use a light walnut water stain, and then finish it all of with a matt coating. The plumbing will be done in black pipe, and then with a compentsater faucet. My wife isnt too keen on the idea tbh.

 

[Sellick]

Heres my take on it so far.

Looking good! For the burning, looks like you laid some pieces of wood over and burned around them. Interesting look, I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks once the stain is on. Keep me updated!

Hopefully once it's all finished, your wife will feel different. I know my wife loves ours!

 

[Unknown99]

Looking good! For the burning, looks like you laid some pieces of wood over and burned around them. Interesting look, I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks once the stain is on. Keep me updated!

Hopefully once it's all finished, your wife will feel different. I know my wife loves ours!

Almost done now.

Im going for more trashy/old style look, so I cut a bit of the top door off, to give it some edge.

Top and door burned now. And now applying the stain.

To give it some extra edge, and make it look more beaten up, ive put some paint on it, and alså taken som of the top off with a saw, so the table is a little bit uneven in the wood.

Then all I need is to grind it down a bit, and then give it some coating. When im done with the coat, im gonna some black silicone fugue (correct spelling?). Im getting more and more satisfied with the look, even though it some turns from your original idea.

 

[Unknown99]

oh yeah, and the edges that i burned around, is my brew name (black label brewery - garage brewing), in a metal template. the name is sligtly visible in the second last picture to right. where you can see blac

 

[Unknown99]

Now for the coating. Ive choosen an semi gloss ship coating. That really should highlight the burned element, and the oak stain really Nice.

Im really pleased with the top especially. The rugged look, along the burning and stained elements, makes it look really cool. Its a bit darker than what i was going for, but i think it will fit nice into the living room.

 

[benjamminsince85]

Does anyone have pictures saved of the original project that they could uploaded again to this thread? Family is out of town and was going to use the time to build my own version and those pics were my baseline. Then Photobucket went and changed their ToS... Thanks.

 

[Sellick]

Does anyone have pictures saved of the original project that they could uploaded again to this thread? Family is out of town and was going to use the time to build my own version and those pics were my baseline. Then Photobucket went and changed their ToS... Thanks.

Thanks for the heads-up! Will try and get the pictures back online.

 

[Sellick]

Wow, this is frustrating about the pictures. I can't go back and edit the original posts, so I'll just have to post all the photos in new posts here. Sorry to anyone starting out reading on the first page!

THIS LINK SHOULD TAKE YOU TO THE ALBUM WITH ALL ORIGINAL BUILD PICTURES

 

[SkewedBrewing]

I'm bumping this because the pictures are no longer being shared. OP, @Sellick, is it possible to repost the pictures?

 

[Sellick]

I'm bumping this because the pictures are no longer being shared. OP, @Sellick, is it possible to repost the pictures?

LINK TO ALL BUILD PHOTOS HERE

Unfortunately, I can't go back and edit the original posts with new links to the images! Maybe an admin could help?? Calling an admin!!

There's no way I'm paying photobucket $400/year to relink all those images, so I'm kinda stuck with a broken build thread at the moment. Sorry guys.

 

[SkewedBrewing]

LINK TO ALL BUILD PHOTOS HERE

Unfortunately, I can't go back and edit the original posts with new links to the images! Maybe an admin could help?? Calling an admin!!

There's no way I'm paying photobucket $400/year to relink all those images, so I'm kinda stuck with a broken build thread at the moment. Sorry guys.

Thank you! No worries, these are great. Much appreciated.

 

[Unknown99]

And now its done.

 

[Sellick]

And now its done.

Nice! Almost did something similar to that cage light you've got hanging over it. Thanks for sharing.

Love seeing other takes on this idea!

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

@Sellick That looks amazing. Do you happen to have a guide on how to do that thermostat mod? I really want to get mine done up like that because the dial sucks!

 

[Sellick]

@Sellick That looks amazing. Do you happen to have a guide on how to do that thermostat mod? I really want to get mine done up like that because the dial sucks!

Seriously, had a number of times where I accidentally turned it the wrong direction. Facepalm. Post #26 is my write up of installing the Inkbird. Obviously the issue is that the pictures are no longer working, but you might be able to reference the photo album and figure it out.

 

[Unknown99]

Nice! Almost did something similar to that cage light you've got hanging over it. Thanks for sharing.

Love seeing other takes on this idea!

hehe.. thanks to you for putting it up, giving out inspiration. I did some modification to the tower though. Its water cooled.

the inkbird measures the temperature in the tower, and when it hits above 5 degrees celcius it turns on. heres a picture of the fridge.

 

[benjamminsince85]

Adding my completed version of this awesome project. I made a few modifications, but much is the same.

 

[Sellick]

Adding my completed version of this awesome project. I made a few modifications, but much is the same.

Love that dark finish and the contrast with the tower! Pictures are showing up sideways, can you flip them for us?

 

[benjamminsince85]

No idea how that happened. Made no changes to the pictures, re-uploaded and now they aren't sideways...

I like the dark stain, but if I had to do it again i wouldn't use a stain and poly mix. Not super happy about the finish.

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

@Sellick

What did you do with the white and yellow/green wires when you put in the controller?

 

[Sellick]

@Sellick

What did you do with the white and yellow/green wires when you put in the controller?

Yellow/Green wire can be ignored, no longer needed. You can see in the photo, I just have it loose inside the box

White wire is what provides the power to the Inkbird. I spliced another wire (red in picture) from it to the #2 (correct me if I'm wrong here) terminal on the Inkbird.

Does that help?

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

Yellow/Green wire can be ignored, no longer needed. You can see in the photo, I just have it loose inside the box

White wire is what provides the power to the Inkbird. I spliced another wire (red in picture) from it to the #2 (correct me if I'm wrong here) terminal on the Inkbird.


Does that help?

I was asking about the big ground wire that is was soldered to the old controller, sorry if that confused you.

 

[Sellick]

I was asking about the big ground wire that is was soldered to the old controller, sorry if that confused you.

Haha We've got this conversation happening in two threads now... yeah, realized what you were referring to after my response. That's not a ground, it goes back to the temp probe. No longer needed.

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

Haha We've got this conversation happening in two threads now... yeah, realized what you were referring to after my response. That's not a ground, it goes back to the temp probe. No longer needed.

No worries. Did you trip a fuse plugging it in the first time?

 

[Sellick]

No worries. Did you trip a fuse plugging it in the first time?

No, definitely did not... sounds like something is very wrong if your mini fridge pulled enough power to throw a fuse. That or you had the microwave and a hairdryer on at the same time.

 

[Bighoss219]

Good morning! Looking forward to this project. How did you attach the top to the cabinet?

 

[Sellick]

The cabinet top is screwed into and sets on top of the fridge, but that's the only thing it's actually connected to. What you could do is attached one half of a flat bracket to the top of each vertical, corner 2x4. Then with the cabinet top on, you could screw into the underside of it.

Picture is for reference to the vertical 2x4s I'm speaking of. I don't actually have the brackets on mine.

 

[Cara777]

I know this is super late in the post but I'm trying to piece together all of the components I need for a kegerator I'm making. HOw did you all remove the freezer components from from the mini fridge? Do you have any specific models or brands you can suggest? I'm super worried about damaging the cooling lines and ruining the whole unit. Any advice/suggestion will be super appreciated!!