The Billy Bar, aka, Building an Articulated Tap Tower Keezer Without a Collar

[jlb307]

i am in AWE!
what are your rates? lol.

but seriously....:rockin:

 

[BeerGrylls]

When people see it they don't think "oh there's a fridge" they think "wow, cool bar!" That's what I wanted.

Well sir, I think you nailed it. And a million thank yous, because your photos are the sales pitch for my keezer to SWMBO. I hope to have something nearly as presentable when I'm finished. I may have missed it, but how did you run the tower lines? Are you cooling them or just insulating? Air or glycol? Any issues with foam?

 

[pannell77]

awesome work

 

[Phideaoux44]

Well sir, I think you nailed it. And a million thank yous, because your photos are the sales pitch for my keezer to SWMBO. I hope to have something nearly as presentable when I'm finished. I may have missed it, but how did you run the tower lines? Are you cooling them or just insulating? Air or glycol? Any issues with foam?

Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoy it. Also, as for the SWMBO line, I almost named this thread "A SWMBO Approved Method of Making a Kegerator."

Anyway, the tower lines are just insulated. And I know a lot of people worry about the foaming issue, but I have never had a problem. The actual lines inside the tower are metal and they connect to the liquid lines below the lid. And the inside of the tower itself is 100% full of insulation, a type that looks vaguely similar to an early precursor to spray foam insulation. So each of the four lines are in the center of insulation that is about 2-3" thick in each direction at the narrowest part. Up at the top they are inside of an even thicker cross section of insulation.

However, even on my old towers which were the cheap hollow metal tubes with 1/16" inch piece of foam rolled around the inside edge never had trouble with foam. I worried about it for a bit with those but once I did the math to find the volume in the unrefrigerated portion, I wasn't convinced such a small amount could make that huge of a difference relative to the volume of the pint. And more importantly, I never experienced trouble with it in practice either. However I know some people have apparently had problems, so YMMV.

 

[Phideaoux44]

That is a beautiful job sir. Well done!

So I'm going to bite. how did you make your dividers? I would have made a jig and used a straight bit with a guide bearing. I would think that would eat through it pretty quickly. Those cuts look like they are too deep to use a dado on, but I could be wrong.

For the dividers, I laid everything out and made two cuts with my circular saw. Then I finished out each notch with a jigsaw. It was pretty time consuming. Ideally I would have used the straight bit and guide bearing, but I haven't quite perfected the technique with my router just yet. And I already knew this method from another bar I built, so I just went this way.

As for the dado, that also could have probably worked but I didn't have one. I considered making a jig to run several at a time but it didn't work out.

 

[bobdole]

Bobdole, I appreciate the offer but I intend to be buried with that thing. I searched for over a year to find one that was just right since I'm so particular and this was exactly what I wanted. I appreciate the compliment though!

No worries mate! I can appreciate the sentiment, as I am still searching for my perfect tower. Again, Kudos!

 

[Monster Mash]

I'm not sure what you mean. The freezer itself is still intact, it just rides in the trays. If you're referring to the sides heating up as it would when you add a fresh keg, I have a glass door commercial fridge in my garage where I put all kegs prior to going into the bar. It does a great job of keeping all kegs the right temp so I can switch seamlessly during a party and also it's easier for me to tinker with the CO2 out there in the garage and get it perfect before I bring them inside. But it also puts less strain on the fridge inside the bar since everything I add is already chilled so the fridge doesn't ever have to suddenly cool down a large mass of beer. Does that answer your question?

The coolant lines run under the skin of the freezer and many people that have encased them in wood have found they overheat and it kills the freezer. The way to fix this is to leave a gap and run fans through that space so air flows over the freezers skin to keep the walls cool.

Since yours is already build you will just have to wait and see if you will have the same problem other people did.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/enclosing-chest-freezer-110143/

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/how-to-maintain-your-chest-freezer#b

 

[jar]

I'm starting to plot building a copy of your awesome bar for my new house. What did you use for the tracks that the freezer slides in and out on? Do you have any close ups of how you put that together?

Thanks.

 

[Phideaoux44]

I'm starting to plot building a copy of your awesome bar for my new house. What did you use for the tracks that the freezer slides in and out on? Do you have any close ups of how you put that together?

Thanks.

I'm glad to hear you liked it! You'll have to share when you finish it.

For the slides, I used the most heavy duty slides I could find at the hardware store which were, I think, 80# slides. Later this afternoon when I get to my other pc I'll upload the pics of how I got them in there.

 

[jar]

Great, thanks. I just bought a new house with my fiancee. In my old bachelor pad, I had a huge ugly collared keezer in the kitchen. I mentioned buying a new chest freezer to build a bar in the new house, and she was like, '*where* is that going to go?' I showed her your pictures and she said, "oh, that would be awesome to have in the great room."

 

[TahoeRy]

Im inspired. Great work

 

[HancockBrew]

Awesome job. I'm looking at building keezer with a beer tower for my man cave. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[outdoorvtguy]

Very nice build. I built a keezer using a similar methodology ( not nearly as nice as yours ) and just built a rolling base. I do like the sliding version better, much cleaner. I also have that same fancy hold-the-top open stick.