My GE 7.0 cu ft keezer build

[gregL86]

Finally starting my keezer build after a VERY long time looking through endless posts and pictures.

My goal is to build a keezer that holds 3 cornys with some room for additional 22oz bottles, etc (in other words allow some more room for food in our kitchen fridge!).

Also to make it look like furniture, and not just like a chest freezer, while not damaging the freezer and voiding the warranty.



Home Depot dropped off the freezer on Saturday morning!

 

[ScottSingleton]

What's the model # on this sucker? You think you can get 4 cornies in the deep-well area there?

 

[gregL86]

FCM7SUWW.

The freezer is too narrow to fit 2 deep, so you need to stagger them. I'm sure I could squeeze a 4th, but it would be super tight.

My plan is have 3 and the co2 tank on the floor, then put bottles on the hump.

Of course you also could put a 2.5 gallon on the hump, or a high collar and get a 5 g there. I'm not going to put a high collar because I'm putting an irish coffin on the top.

 

[buckeye2011]

4 ball locks will fit on the floor plus a 5lb co2 bottle. The freezer comes with a removable basket that works awesome for bottles.

 

[John_FL]

Yeah like Buckeye said four can be done. But the fourth is a very tight squeeze. I always feel like I am going to break something putting the fourth in. I have found not all my cornies, or maybe the rubber bottoms, are round. Try spinning them around if the fourth is hard to get in.

 

[j1rubin]

i have this one and built a 5 tap with 1 sitting on the hump

 

[gregL86]

I removed the lid as I will be building my own. Started framing out the keezer body in order to allow some ventilation in between the freezer and the plywood outside. Made a small collar in order to sandwich the freezer between it and it's base.



Attached the plywood sides and front, and started adding 4" trim pieces to dress up the piece.

 

[ScottSingleton]

nice!!! subbed. I would love to see how this turns out.

 

[gregL86]

Got some more work done this weekend. Finished trimming out the body and built the lid.





There's a lip on the edge of the lid, as I'm going to place bottle caps and pour an epoxy over them to finish my kegerator top.



I taped off an area on my floor 1/3 of the size of the top in order to get a rough idea how many caps I'll need for the top. It's looking like I need to pickup the pace drinking!

 

[TaylorInOK]

Excited to see how this turns out. Great work so far! Subscribed

 

[gregL86]

I put a coat of grey primer on the body and lid. Next up is to paint the whole thing with a few coats of black!

 

[GrantH]

Can you please keep a price list of things as you go? I'm debating whether or not I want to do this. Do you have plans for a temp controller? If so, which?

 

[BigPoppa502]

I'm in... I have this same project lined up and waiting.... Still collecting ideas though. Keep it going, looking great so far!

 

[gregL86]

Can you please keep a price list of things as you go? I'm debating whether or not I want to do this. Do you have plans for a temp controller? If so, which?

I'll see if I can put a list together. The wood and some other parts were things I already had, so I'll have to estimate prices for those.

I'm going to use a ranco temp controller for now (I use it for my fermentation temp control currently). I might switch to something else later

 

[gregL86]

Over the last 2 weekends I put on 2 coats of black paint and cut holes for my 3 faucet draft tower and drip tray I scavenged from a different project.




Next is going to be the time consuming process of glueing the 1200+ bottle caps!

 

[LilManBrewing]

I'm definitely going to be checking back!!
I've been contemplating the bottle top idea as well, I'm excited to see how this is going to turn out. Great work so far.

 

[redsoxfan1974]

Great work so far....this should look amazing when finished!

 

[Hoppopotomus]

Looks great! I used the exact same freezer for mine....holds 4 corney's, but is a little tight. Can't wait to see the finished top! Keep up the good work!

 

[gregL86]

Alright, after a long day of glueing:

 

[Wreck99]

Thats awesome!!! Are you putting a sheet of plexiglass or something over the caps to protect them?

 

[gregL86]

Thats awesome!!! Are you putting a sheet of plexiglass or something over the caps to protect them?

I'm pouring a resin called Envirotex Lite.

 

[InfernoBrews]

I must say great idea for the top with the bottle caps. I had a similar idea i have been saving caps for but now i may even need to save more than my original goal..

P.S. I spotted a Miller cap in the mix towards the middle.. I hope that got in the mix by accident!! LOL

 

[gregL86]

I must say great idea for the top with the bottle caps. I had a similar idea i have been saving caps for but now i may even need to save more than my original goal..

P.S. I spotted a Miller cap in the mix towards the middle.. I hope that got in the mix by accident!! LOL

It was definitely more caps than I was expecting. Laying caps out on a surface 1/3 of the size and x3 was extremely helpful for my planning.

And there is no miller cap! I made a point to not use any bud/bud light/miller/coors caps. I didn't want it to look like a college fraternity beer pong table.

And before someone says it, yes there are some caps owned by those companies on the lid

 

[gregL86]

I poured the first 2 layers of Envirotex. It's looking good!

It was about how easy I thought it was. The amount of bubbles in the resin panicked me at first, but using a heat gun removed them quickly.

I'm going to put one more coat across the entire surface as a few caps that were a little bend just barely stick up above the layer.

 

[scubasteve03]

way cool man :rockin:

 

[Cioffi]

I love the bottle cap idea, but how'd you get each bottle cap so flat? If you open a bottle, doesn't the cap get pretty bent?

 

[TalkingGoats]

Makes me very thirsty. I see you like magic hat... lol


^Use a "church key" it will pull caps off much flatter than other bottle openers I have used.

 

[Hoppopotomus]

Looking great! I'm about to do the same thing to my pub table, so this is very helpful. Here's a link to the pub table that I am building to set drinks on while playing pool.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-basement-bar-build-216039/index20.html

As you can see, it's Oberon themed, utilizing Oberon Mini-Kegs and a top completely filled with Oberon bottle caps. I have a couple hundred caps collected, but need about 50 more. I have a couple of last year's cases in my cold storage beer/wine cellar, so once they are consumed I should have close to enough. Your thread has been helpful in guiding me in the right direction with the Envirotex. Thanks man!

 

[gregL86]

I love the bottle cap idea, but how'd you get each bottle cap so flat? If you open a bottle, doesn't the cap get pretty bent?

A church key bottle opener definitely helps. Most key chain bottle openers mangle caps pretty bad. I did use a pair of pliers on a lot of caps that had bent edges.

 

[gregL86]

Looking great! I'm about to do the same thing to my pub table, so this is very helpful. Here's a link to the pub table that I am building to set drinks on while playing pool.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-basement-bar-build-216039/index20.html

As you can see, it's Oberon themed, utilizing Oberon Mini-Kegs and a top completely filled with Oberon bottle caps. I have a couple hundred caps collected, but need about 50 more. I have a couple of last year's cases in my cold storage beer/wine cellar, so once they are consumed I should have close to enough. Your thread has been helpful in guiding me in the right direction with the Envirotex. Thanks man!

I definitely used more Envirotex than I was expecting. I ordered the 1 gallon kit off Amazon (64 oz jug of resin and 64 oz jug of hardener) for I think $79. It's going to be close, but I think it's going to be just barely enough.

 

[cyclogenesis]

subbed! Awesome stuff!

 

[SamBrewer]

that's awesome!!

 

[gregL86]

Alright, I'm pretty much done!

Loaded up and ready to move to the apartment!



In place!



Close up!



Shot of inside.

 

[Wreck99]

Looks great!

 

[SpartanBrew]

VERY nice setup. Thanks for sharing!

 

[LilManBrewing]

Beautiful!! It turned out awesome, any chance you would do anything different? Will the exterior be protected for many beers to come or will it crumble with moisture?

 

[TheKeg81]

Nice job man! I've been collecting caps for a while but had decided against using them as part of my future keezer. The examples that I had seen thus far did not impress me. The image I had in my mind was much more awesome looking than what I had seen, but your keezer top looks fantastic! It has made me reconsider, once again, using caps in my design.

 

[weeple2000]

Did you have to cut a hole in your freezer, or were you able to route the beer tubes without cutting the top of the freezer? Sorry for the necro post, but it looks great.

 

[pdxbg]

Did you have to cut a hole in your freezer, or were you able to route the beer tubes without cutting the top of the freezer? Sorry for the necro post, but it looks great.

I removed the lid as I will be building my own

Not using original lid. Just had to cut a hole in the lid he made.