Hey guys!
So last week I took my broken POS Danby kegerator in to get looked at as it wasn't cooling at all. Turns out this thing just died straight up in the middle of the night. However, instead of sending me a new one, Danby has (thankfully) refunded my purchase entirely, so now its time to (drum roll) be a smart brewer and just build my own keezer (yay!).
So I did the cost analysis of everything, and it turns out that if I start off with two taps, (still drilling holes and leaving room for the second two, using plugs to insulate), I'll still have money left over from my refund. I'm a student, so I don't have too much cash to burn, which is why I'm waiting another couple months before ordering my perlicks, dual product regulator, and 4-way manifold (I already have a two-way which later I'll use as a dedicated force carb manifold).
So now that I briefed you all on my project, I just wanted to run a few questions by the more senior folks who have done all of this before.
1. is the main reason for removing the copper piece in an electrical recepticle (to make a half-hot outlet) due to the fact that you can still continuously run something like a fan, while the temperature controller can shut on and off the power to the freezer on the other outlet?
2. I have a single tap right now but it has a gooseneck shank (to fit in the tower of my kegerator). Instead of paying $15 for the straight shank and tailpiece assembly, would it work to pass the shank through a hole in the 1"x6"x12' wood for the collar and simply cut out the insulation on the inside around where the shank protrude? I'm not too optomistic about this, but I really don't want to dish out another $15 so that a shank can go to waste collecting dust in my basement.
3. castors. I've seen an awful lot of people using 3" castors, but I was looking at maybe using 2" castors as they are almost half the price at my home depot in Canada. Since I'm terribly scared of drilling into the freezer itself, I was just going to make a base out of 2"x4"s and screw the castors into them. The only problem is I'm not sure if the 2" castors can hold the weight of the freezer, CO2 tank, and 4 full cornies. I'm sure it would help if I positioned them farther from the edges, but I'm still a little worried. thoughts?
And that pretty much covers all of the questions I have. I was thinking of following this tutorial for housing the temp controller: http://www.onemansbeer.com/keezer-build-diy-temperature-controller/
Then I was going to mitre birch wood together to form the collar, later using a red mahogany stain to clean it up. Perhaps spray paint the freezer black to compliment the stain a little better than the stock white colour.
Hinges should be fine as I can just unscrew them from the lid and screw them into the collar.
Insulation would be R-5 rigid polystyrene on the inside of the collar. Then, since the lid already has a rubber like sealing gasket which I hope to adhere the collar using liquid nails, I will then apply a self adhering V-shaped strip to the body of the freezer so that the collar will create a seal when it's let down.
Finally, I was going to get large, fancy looking brackets and use liquid nails to glue them to the front of the fridge, Then I was going to glue strips of velcro to the tops, and do the same to the bottom of my SS drip tray, that way I can easily remove it for draining.
That pretty much covers exactly how my keezer will be built, minus the installation of the handle, manifolds, securing the temp controller, etc... but that's all easily done by drilling into the collar, so there's no need to waste any MORE time than I already have. If anyone has been patient enough to read through this gruesomely long message (thank you), then I would really appreciate if you could pick out anything that you see to be problematic. I'll either take no response as everything is fine, or I've bored everyone to death!
Cheers and thanks again for your input!
Jay
So last week I took my broken POS Danby kegerator in to get looked at as it wasn't cooling at all. Turns out this thing just died straight up in the middle of the night. However, instead of sending me a new one, Danby has (thankfully) refunded my purchase entirely, so now its time to (drum roll) be a smart brewer and just build my own keezer (yay!).
So I did the cost analysis of everything, and it turns out that if I start off with two taps, (still drilling holes and leaving room for the second two, using plugs to insulate), I'll still have money left over from my refund. I'm a student, so I don't have too much cash to burn, which is why I'm waiting another couple months before ordering my perlicks, dual product regulator, and 4-way manifold (I already have a two-way which later I'll use as a dedicated force carb manifold).
So now that I briefed you all on my project, I just wanted to run a few questions by the more senior folks who have done all of this before.
1. is the main reason for removing the copper piece in an electrical recepticle (to make a half-hot outlet) due to the fact that you can still continuously run something like a fan, while the temperature controller can shut on and off the power to the freezer on the other outlet?
2. I have a single tap right now but it has a gooseneck shank (to fit in the tower of my kegerator). Instead of paying $15 for the straight shank and tailpiece assembly, would it work to pass the shank through a hole in the 1"x6"x12' wood for the collar and simply cut out the insulation on the inside around where the shank protrude? I'm not too optomistic about this, but I really don't want to dish out another $15 so that a shank can go to waste collecting dust in my basement.
3. castors. I've seen an awful lot of people using 3" castors, but I was looking at maybe using 2" castors as they are almost half the price at my home depot in Canada. Since I'm terribly scared of drilling into the freezer itself, I was just going to make a base out of 2"x4"s and screw the castors into them. The only problem is I'm not sure if the 2" castors can hold the weight of the freezer, CO2 tank, and 4 full cornies. I'm sure it would help if I positioned them farther from the edges, but I'm still a little worried. thoughts?
And that pretty much covers all of the questions I have. I was thinking of following this tutorial for housing the temp controller: http://www.onemansbeer.com/keezer-build-diy-temperature-controller/
Then I was going to mitre birch wood together to form the collar, later using a red mahogany stain to clean it up. Perhaps spray paint the freezer black to compliment the stain a little better than the stock white colour.
Hinges should be fine as I can just unscrew them from the lid and screw them into the collar.
Insulation would be R-5 rigid polystyrene on the inside of the collar. Then, since the lid already has a rubber like sealing gasket which I hope to adhere the collar using liquid nails, I will then apply a self adhering V-shaped strip to the body of the freezer so that the collar will create a seal when it's let down.
Finally, I was going to get large, fancy looking brackets and use liquid nails to glue them to the front of the fridge, Then I was going to glue strips of velcro to the tops, and do the same to the bottom of my SS drip tray, that way I can easily remove it for draining.
That pretty much covers exactly how my keezer will be built, minus the installation of the handle, manifolds, securing the temp controller, etc... but that's all easily done by drilling into the collar, so there's no need to waste any MORE time than I already have. If anyone has been patient enough to read through this gruesomely long message (thank you), then I would really appreciate if you could pick out anything that you see to be problematic. I'll either take no response as everything is fine, or I've bored everyone to death!
Cheers and thanks again for your input!
Jay
