Still another Keezer build

[zelltj]

Hey y'all. I finally got around to starting the build for my keezer. I have been planning it for months. Like some of the others around here I'm going to be make it more like a bar. I have a few weeks of work to do, but I'm happy that I finally got it going. It's just kinda hard to work on with a 2 year old in the house! I'll keep everyone posted. Thank you for all the inspiration and motivation!


***Edited because I know that most people don't want to follow a link to see pictures.***

https://picasaweb.google.com/travis.zell/KeezerProject02?authkey=Gv1sRgCOKMn62Jw4OgaA&feat=directlink

 

[gingervitis]

looks awesome!

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Sweet! I totally understand about the two-year old, mine is a little over one year, so not quite as mobile as yours. I can only imagine the difficulty in accomplishing even the most trivial tasks!

Keep at it!

Cheers!

 

[zelltj]

 

[zelltj]

Carpentry has never been one of my best skills, but I do really enjoy making something from nothing. I think that is what drew me to home brewing. That and my love of not just beer, but ALL beer.

I have most of this keezer built. I need to do some sanding and trimming (to hide my terrible job of measuring and cutting in a straight line). Lines still need to be run and I still need to stain and paint. I feel like I'm in the home stretch, but I still have a lot of work to do. Let me know if you have any questions! I'll keep the post going! Thanks!

 

[gingervitis]

Loving the pics. Any plans for laminating the tabletop or something along those lines?

 

[zelltj]

I've saved about 350 different bottle caps that I'm going to lay on the bar top and cover with Kleer Kote epoxy. I let the wife pick out the stain color and trim design so we picked all that up yesterday. I just went around and filled everything with wood filler. I'm going to try to get the trim all measured and cut today.

Here is a picture of most of my caps. I've added quite a few to this collection since.

 

[Jota21]

The bottle caps are cool, but in my honest opinion, a little over-done and frat-boy-esque. I'm really digging the whole design, but think that some nice tile would look better

 

[zelltj]

I appreciate the tip. I kind of agree about the caps. I just haven't been able to talk myself out of it. I'll let the wife decide I guess. It's going in her living room! I'd leave it plywood colored if it were up to me. Haha! Thanks again!

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

Oh I kinda like the beercaps. I had some friends (back in college...yes they were in a frat) who made a beer-cap table. It was neat then and that hasn't changed for me at least. You're gonna get some of these beer snobs calling foul on the Bud Light and Miller 64, though. Good luck with the rest of the build, looks great so far.

 

[EasyE]

One hellofa a frame, ready for some detail. May I consider some bar lighting strips, say under the tap, under that bridge just above the drip tray. Ceramic tile would look shape, maybe have a few cut corners were you could work in a few bottle caps or stainless steal.

Was not sure if that fan I saw was to cool the inside or outside. Temps run kinda high next to the skin of the chest freezer, do you have a plan for keeping her cool so yer beer can stay cool?

Looking good!

 

[zelltj]

There is a cold cathode light under the faucets. Its hard to see, but one of the pictures shows it turned on.

There is a fan on each side in an attempt to suck air in on one side and one blow out on the other side. I'm hoping that'll work.

I talked it over with my wife and she still thinks I should put caps on the bar. She thinks it gives the bar some character and personality.

 

[zelltj]

Someone said that post could be controversial so I figured I'd just delete it. Sorry if anyone felt offended! Thanks for reading the thread!

 

[zelltj]

I've been trying to work a little bit each day on this thing. Like I said the other day it's hard to find time with a 2 year old. I try to only work when he's asleep and most of the time I can't do a lot of the louder stuff until the weekend. I've gotten all the trim cut and all the black paint done. I need to stain and polyurethane everything, but I'm hoping to be able to do that this weekend. It's Mother's Day weekend and I'll probably avoid working on Sunday so we'll see how things go. Let me know what y'all think. I'd appreciate the suggestions!

 

[zelltj]

I finally got everything trimmed and stained. I have only a few things left to do, but I could theoretically be dispensing beer as I type. I need to do the bar top in whatever I finally decide. Right now I'm still planning on doing it with the caps. It turned out pretty good I think. I left some swirl marks from the sander in the wood. I didn't notice them until after the stain was on. I suppose I should have been a bit more diligent with my finishing sanding. I need to mount my CO2 block and do some other minor touch ups inside the freezer. All in all I'm really happy with it. I'll be much more happy once I'm able to put 3 full kegs in it!

 

[Nashbrewer]

What is the height from the bottom of your taps to the drip pan?

 

[kmat123]

Looks great. I think the bottle caps would be cool for the top!

 

[Hang Glider]

just a thought on the bottle caps -
a thin layer to hold them still and give you the opportunity to keep them flat. Otherwise, trapped air bubbles might make them rise.

then, a top coat to flood the whole thing.

you might check out U.S. Composites for your clearcoat - they were the best I could find, and I bought a quart "sample" (1 qt ea of resin & hardener, making half a gallon)


that, and keep a hair dryer handy immediately after the pour - while the epoxy is wet, the hair dryer keeps it soft and bubbles will rise to the top and pop - no trapped bubbles

 

[Jota21]

I'll have to get a picture of the ghetto bottle-cap-coffee-table that i built in high school to take to college. Being a broke/stupid student, we simply poured a bottle of elmers glue and stuck the caps down into it. It's not perfect (some bubbles and yellowing) and it's all under glass, so durability isn't an issue, but for the $1.99 that it cost, it turned out pretty cool for a douchey thing to begin with...

 

[Mulletbarber]

Looks really good!

Which freezer is this?

Do you have a parts list by chance?

Any pics of the inside?

I would like to build one very similar to it.

Thanks for any help you can give

 

[zelltj]

What is the height from the bottom of your taps to the drip pan?

It is exactly 9 inches from the tray to the bottom of the faucet. It is just tall enough for my tallest Weizen glass.

 

[zelltj]

you might check out U.S. Composites for your clearcoat

I am planning on getting my epoxy from US Composites. It'll probably be a while. I don't have quite enough bottle caps to get the coverage I want. We'll see I may just scrap the whole cap idea and go with something more "classy" and use tile or something. Who knows.

Which freezer is this?

Do you have a parts list by chance?

Any pics of the inside?

I haven't taken any pictures of the inside yet, because there is nothing really in there. Just some grain and hops and a keg full of StarSan. I haven't organized the beer and gas lines in there yet either. I'll get to it one of these days. Probably after I get the beer brewed.

I used the GE 7.0 FCM7SUWW from Home Depot. I got it for 199.00. It fits 3 ball lock Cornies. All of my basic designs are in the album linked in my opening post. That should get you started. I think some of the measurements are slightly off though so you'll have to double check them. I think I did the math with a 2x4 equaling exactly 2" by 4".

Other than that... I used a handful of 8' 2x4s, a sheet of 3/4" sanded plywood, a sheet of 1/4" sanded plywood, some styrofoam insulation, and some assorted stainable trim pieces. I got the faucets and lines and regulator from Keg Connection; it was the 3 tap set. I can't remember where I got the temp control, but it's the Love TSX-10140 if I remember correctly. I got the drip tray from http://www.coffeemakersetc.com/; it is the Curtis DTP-13. I got the cold cathode light from Fry's. That's about it really.

I haven't kept a running tally of the cost. I bought the tap kit while I was deployed to Afghanistan almost 6 months ago. Definitely under $1000 for the whole nine yards. (I'm talking the WHOLE nine yards... kegs, lines, CO2, freezer, lumber, controller, stain, paint.... you get the idea.) I'm afraid to add everything up though. I don't know what my wife to realize exactly how much it cost! Just kidding, honey!

There will be a few pictures to come. I'll be more that happy to answer any questions!

 

[zelltj]

I've got the Love TSX-10140 temp controller and have been having some issues for a while now. Every time I assign a value to c0 the controller will reach the set point, turn on it's LED saying that it is running, but will not turn on the freezer. If I set c0 to 0 and unplug the unit and plug it back in the freezer kicks on just fine.

I talked to a rep at Love who said that although it shouldn't do that as long as I'm not having trouble with the compressor running too frequently I should be OK. I have kept an eye on it and it seems to only run about every 40 minutes or so here in the Mojave Desert. I figure that it should be ok with that kind of delay.

I don't have the money for a new controller so I can't replace it right now, but what other precautions could I take to ensure I'm not going to wear out the compressor? Is there a way that someone knows of to completely reset the controller to factory defaults? Any other suggestions?

 

[zelltj]

Sorry forgot to say "Thanks in advance"!

 

[DubbelDach]

Another vote for no caps... I think it actually looks great (and classic) how it is.

If anything, do some tile.

 

[Thehopguy]

Ya i love the stained wood and black top. I vote for leaving it as it is. it looks sharp

 

[zelltj]

Ya i love the stained wood and black top. I vote for leaving it as it is. it looks sharp

Sorry it took me so long to get back. The Corps has me all of the country right now. Thanks for the votes. as it stands the keezer is still lacking the caps. I posted earlier about having troubles with my temp controller, but I took it out the other day and smacked it with a screw driver, and what do you know... it seems to be working like new!

I think I want to include a way to hold some of my beer glasses that will allow me to open the lid with out moving everything. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking about making little "cabinets" to go on either side of the tap box.

 

[Hoppopotomus]

Looks great....welcome to the coffin keezer club I have a dual input, dual output TSS2 Love Temp. controller that took a little while to figure out. Now it works flawlessly. I needed this type of controller, because I wanted to control the compressor of the freezer and the 2 Inductor fans in the coffin independently with seperate temp. probes. ClaudiusB knows an awful lot about the temperature controllers (more than the IT folks at Dwyer) and helped me to get my controller functioning as I wanted it. If you have any problems, I would suggest dropping him a PM. I think you should mortar and screw down a thin piece (1/4") of cement board and cover the top with slate.....would look kick a$$ with the darker stain and black combo. My 2 cents.

P.S. You could easily build shelves on either side of your coffin to house beer glasses. Several of us did this. Check out my build, JakeTheHopDog's build, etc. for some ideas. I like your idea of cabinets even better than shelves. Good luck!

 

[zelltj]

I am slowly starting to agree with the "no caps" folks out there. Some of the ideas for other covering are very intriguing. Maybe I could just use the caps for the recessed back splash and cover the rest with some type of stone or tile or the like. This thing is just as much my wife's as it is mine. And it's in her living room so she gets final say on the final look.

I think I'm going to see if I can find some shadow boxes that I can paint to use as glass cubbies on either side of the tower. It's so blazing hot here in the desert that I don't really want to drag the table saw out and make my own. Even though I have the required hardware.

 

[Golddiggie]

What's the spacing on your taps (center to center)?? I'm getting ready to drill my brew fridge and want to be sure I leave enough space, but not too much...