GE 7.0 Coffin Keezer Build

[lumpher]

beautiful. gives me something to aspire to ( but never reach ). nice work. i like the multiple lights, too

 

[RacingRam]

This is amazing. This is a very broad question, but what tools did you feel were essential in your build? Particularly with the woodworking...beautiful stuff.

 

[cgolden101]

This is amazing. This is a very broad question, but what tools did you feel were essential in your build? Particularly with the woodworking...beautiful stuff.

I will answer this in the context of making a coffin keezer with raised panels for the outside while keeping budget in mind.

Essential tools:

• Miter Saw
• Table Saw You could possibly use a circular saw and clamped boards as guides. This would be a lot more work but you make due with what you have. If you are making panels there is a certain level of precision that is required to have all the pieces fit together so a table saw is highly recommended.
• Drill If you are building a coffin you need one that has enough power to cut the holes out of the freezer. The batteries in our 18 volt drill were older and on the weak side. Ultimately we had to use a drill with a cord to make the cuts with the hole saw but if your batteries are in good shape you may be able to get by with a cordless drill.
• Router and Panel Making Bits
• Clamps Take the number of clamps you think you need and double it.
• Hole saw

Optional Tools:

• Biscuit joiner If you are gluing smaller boards together to make a larger panel you need to create a joint. The most common method would be to use biscuits which require a slot to be cut out of both boards and a biscuit is then glued in to hold it together. If you do not own a biscuit joiner you can use a slot cutter router bit in your router to achieve the same results.
• Planer If you are starting with unfinished lumber you will need a planer. This would be too much of an investment if you don't have access to one and don't have plans to use it long term. They will finish the boards to your specifications at a lumber mill if you can't find what you need at your warehouse home improvement store. It costs a little more but is a lot cheaper than buying a planer
• Rivet Tool We used rivets to attach the top to the lid of the freezer. There are a lot of other ways that it could be attached so this one is optional.

 

[tshinefield]

Very nice job!

 

[RacingRam]

Less equipment needed than I thought. I guess most of the challenge is between the ears. It's the Indian, not the arrow.

 

[ACC84]

Nice job!

 

[gumpbrew]

Nice work! Couple quick questions... Dimensions of your coffin? Also, I am using 4 pin lock kegs, 3 on floor, 1 on hump, which will require about a 4" collar.... What is the total height of the counter top? Do you think it will be too tall with a 4" collar?

 

[cgolden101]

Nice work! Couple quick questions... Dimensions of your coffin? Also, I am using 4 pin lock kegs, 3 on floor, 1 on hump, which will require about a 4" collar.... What is the total height of the counter top? Do you think it will be too tall with a 4" collar?

My coffin is 20" wide by 14"tall by 11.75" deep. The backsplash is recessed by about 2.5" and the center of the taps are about 11.5" from the tile.

I originally planned to do a collar because I wanted to keep my options open to maximize keg configurations and possibly add a bigger CO2 tank. However, I wanted my keezer to look like a piece of furniture and I felt like adding a collar would make it look too boxy. To give you some perspective my keezer is currently 49" wide on the bar top and 36" from the ground. Adding a 4-7" collar like I originally planned would make it almost as tall as it is wide which doesn't look like most furniture pieces (think entertainment center, dresser, buffet, etc).

On the flip side if I wasn't making this a "decorative" piece I would much rather have the flexibility of a collar. If squareness doesn't bother you then the collar would allow you to add in pin locks or 1/6 barrels a little easier. Adding a collar would also put the top more at a bar height so it could make it a nice place to stand around with a beer.

One thing that I don't see people talk about much is that even without a collar the top with a coffin is very heavy. It can be tough to hold it open while moving kegs around and the stock hinges seem to be barely capable of supporting the weight. I would imaging that adding a collar that is attached to the top would make it extremely heavy and hard to handle. If you attached the collar to the bottom part of the freezer you are making it more difficult to lift heavy kegs up and over to get them inside. Ultimately I decided that the adding a collar was not worth the added trouble (trying to get everything sealed and airtight) and it did not fit in with my design but if you are set on pin lock kegs it may be worth it to be able to fit the fourth keg.

 

[billye1982]

That is very impressive! My wife might even go for that, it has a great look to it.

 

[knownfactor]

Thanks for the complement! So the temperature controller uses a probe to measure the temperature and determine when to supply power to the freezer. This means that the circuit running to your freezer compressor in constantly switching between on and off states. If you were to wire the fans into this circuit they would only come on when the temperature at the location of the probe falls below the threshold. However, to me the fans should be constantly running to keep the temperature of the keezer and coffin uniform so the cold air doesn't settle to the bottom. This means that you need to have another circuit for the fans to always be on.


In order to wire the fans you need to figure out what voltage you need to power them. I got 2 computer fans that run at 12 volts. To power these fans you can use any wall power adapter that outputs 12 volts (truthfully you could use a lower voltage but the mismatch would cause the fans to run slower). It is easy to find these as old cell phone chargers at Goodwill or lying around the house. I just happened to find the LED light strips that already had a 12 volt power supply I could tap into. Now what you need to keep in mind is that a lot of these fans come with 3 wires (red, black, yellow). The yellow wire is used by computers to modulate fan speed and is not needed for our application.

Most of these fans come with a 3 pin to 2 pin adapter like below.

Then you simply need to splice the power adapter and the 2 pin fan adapters to give you red and black wires. All you need to do is wire these in parallel (twist all reds together and twist all blacks together). I soldered everything together and used electrical tape to cover the exposed wire. As long as no blacks are touching reds it is really hard to mess something up since we are dealing with low voltage.

The end result will look something like below. There are 3 wires running out of the back of my coffin. 2 come from the temperature controller (1 female that you plug the freezer into and 1 male that plugs into the wall). The 3rd wire powers my lights and fans.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Scarrz]

CGolden, love the Keezer. You actually inspired me to make one and copy most if not all of your designs. Unfinished pictures posted. (Told you we copied you .

One question I did have and am thinking of incorporating in my own keezer is making the counter with its own hinge (in the rear) and therefore when you lift the counter this comes up separate from the Freezer lid. (Hope that make sense). The coffin of course would still be attached to the countertop. The portion where the holes are in the freezer lid would have a gasket seal around them that when the countertop closes down onto the freezer lid it seals the holes which should still allow for intake/exhaust fans to flow normally. The only thing is it would mean having to open 2 lids (freezer lid and Countertop lid) separate. My thought in doing this is that its less pressure on the freezer lid and you also don't have to worry about how you attach the countertop to the top of the freezer. I believe Cgolden used pop rivets for his. My other thought would be that this would allow if for some reason the freezer ever crapped out you could easily remove it and hopefully replace it rather than having to rip the countertop tile off, etc.

I would like any ideas or advice if others have tried this and ran into issues or if you think it might be viable. Thanks.


Update. Didn't work since it was too hard to find a spot on the back to mount a separate latch for the lid. Decided to stick to cgoldens and others method.

My coffin is 20" wide by 14"tall by 11.75" deep. The backsplash is recessed by about 2.5" and the center of the taps are about 11.5" from the tile.

I originally planned to do a collar because I wanted to keep my options open to maximize keg configurations and possibly add a bigger CO2 tank. However, I wanted my keezer to look like a piece of furniture and I felt like adding a collar would make it look too boxy. To give you some perspective my keezer is currently 49" wide on the bar top and 36" from the ground. Adding a 4-7" collar like I originally planned would make it almost as tall as it is wide which doesn't look like most furniture pieces (think entertainment center, dresser, buffet, etc).

On the flip side if I wasn't making this a "decorative" piece I would much rather have the flexibility of a collar. If squareness doesn't bother you then the collar would allow you to add in pin locks or 1/6 barrels a little easier. Adding a collar would also put the top more at a bar height so it could make it a nice place to stand around with a beer.

One thing that I don't see people talk about much is that even without a collar the top with a coffin is very heavy. It can be tough to hold it open while moving kegs around and the stock hinges seem to be barely capable of supporting the weight. I would imaging that adding a collar that is attached to the top would make it extremely heavy and hard to handle. If you attached the collar to the bottom part of the freezer you are making it more difficult to lift heavy kegs up and over to get them inside. Ultimately I decided that the adding a collar was not worth the added trouble (trying to get everything sealed and airtight) and it did not fit in with my design but if you are set on pin lock kegs it may be worth it to be able to fit the fourth keg.

 

[cgolden101]

Scarz, love the build and I like how you notched out the front of the coffin to lay tile underneath. That is something I wish I had done. I had the same thoughts as you about the future of my keezer and what will happen if/when the freezer dies. The rivets that I used will make it nearly impossible to reuse the countertop if I can't replace the freezer with the same model.

 

[Ttownbrewer]

For this build I have turned to my grandfather who has spent his entire career as a machinist building airplanes and making furniture pieces on the side. He knows a little something about everything and has a shop with any tool you could ever want. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend time with my grandfather and learn a little in the process.

Nice Build!!

This paragraph really caught my attention. Projects like this would have meant a lot to my grandpa, so I'm sure it meant a lot to yours. I was a little young to be building keezers when I spent a lot of time in his wood shop, though he would have been in for the project.

A lot of hardwork went into your keezer, you'll have it for a long time.

Cheers!

 

[homebrewdude76]

I know this is an old thread, but wondering how if any second thoughts after using this?

With the tile, was the lid to heavy?
I am wanting tile, but not sure about the added weight.
My plans are similar to yours.

 

[cgolden101]

I know this is an old thread, but wondering how if any second thoughts after using this?

With the tile, was the lid to heavy?
I am wanting tile, but not sure about the added weight.
My plans are similar to yours.

The lid is very heavy with the tile and coffin but I haven't had any problems with the hinges wearing out which was my original fear. I never did go back and add supports so I usually just wedge a 5 gallon bucket in there to keep it propped open. If I were to do it over again I would probably still use tile although I probably wouldn't use travertine. It has proven to be difficult to keep sealed and clean.

 

[Scarrz]

I know this is an old thread, but wondering how if any second thoughts after using this?

With the tile, was the lid to heavy?
I am wanting tile, but not sure about the added weight.
My plans are similar to yours.

Yes the top is quite heavy but since it's usually only once or twice every couple months you have to open, it's not too bad and it looks fantastic. I use an old pipe with an elbow bend and soft foam to prop the lid up. You do have to pull the keezer out from the wall in order to open the lid due to the coffin. I have not had any issues with sealing the tile and it still looks great. Very happy with the design and anyone who sees it is very impressed.
I did end up sealing the coffin with plastic and tape to keep it more airtight before putting the coffin door on.

 

[homebrewdude76]

Do you are using the hinges from the freezer?

I was planning on a collar on the freezer.
But was not sure on re-using the hinges

The lid is very heavy with the tile and coffin but I haven't had any problems with the hinges wearing out which was my original fear. I never did go back and add supports so I usually just wedge a 5 gallon bucket in there to keep it propped open. If I were to do it over again I would probably still use tile although I probably wouldn't use travertine. It has proven to be difficult to keep sealed and clean.

 

[wyowolf]

I really like your design!!

Question about the panels, I dont have a joiner, could I use my Jet Table saw and router to join the walnut boards I have? I dont have a biscuit joiner either... but could i just rout out and edge for each and glue them up that way?

thank you very much for showing all this!!

 

[homebrewdude76]

I just glued some panels for another project. You can go the old school way and use a hand plane. That is what I do

 

[Scarrz]

Do you are using the hinges from the freezer?

I was planning on a collar on the freezer.
But was not sure on re-using the hinges

I'm also just using the freezer hinges and it seems to work fine. Since I never really tilt it all the way back I don't think it puts much pressure on the hinges.

 

[TheMadKing]

I'm going to be incorporating most of your design into my keezer build, planned for this fall. I may do more of a shiplap style front instead of the panels, but you have a ton of great ideas here. Thanks!