The Kegerator

[FutureBrewer]

PART ONE

This project has been waiting for a long time to happen. I've been collecting bits and pieces from Ebay, researching other kegerator builds and generally procrastinating - which, incidentally, I can do for Britain.

Thankfully, I've got one of these:


No, get yer own!

The donor fridge was difficult to source, mainly because I was holding out for the "right" one. It had to be:

• A larder fridge
• Silver
• Local
• Cheap

It's amazing the amount of cheap, silver larder fridges there seemed to be on Ebay in Eastbourne. The ones close to Birmingham, were tatty, expensive or non-silver.


The 'One'

Finally, I found this for about £35 in Warwick. As a bonus, when I removed the shelves and door furniture, I was left with a smooth interior lining. No awkward bits of plastic to cut away.


Nice and smooth...

It needed a good clean though...


Muck of ages

I toyed with the idea of putting taps on the front of the fridge door, but this fridge was begging for tap tower. Once again, I bided my time and eventually picked this up for about £20!


Result!

Because it's not a 'through the bar' fitting, the threaded pipe was far too short to be attached inside the fridge...


Too short...

...and the fridge-top is just too thin to support the weight of the tower.


More thought required

Then, I had a revelation... a vision... a picture in my head... a picture of this:


1.21 gigawatts!

A wooden frame with an aluminium top (secured from inside the fridge with a sheet of MDF) should be enough to support the tower.

That's the theory...

After checking that Cyclopentane wouldn't cause a slow, agonising death if messed with...


Cyclo-what?

...I found the first obstacle - a pipe running precisely where I wanted to drill!


Typical

Hoping it would be something I could gently push out of the way, I pressed on... measuring the tower location (with bar towel for guidance).



I marked out the supporting frame:



...exposed the foam insulation:



...and started excavating around the pipe.



The pipe turned out to be part of the thermostat...



...and, with a little 'persuasion' it could be moved out of the way slightly.



TO BE CONTINUED...

[Trefoyl]

I'm jealous

[Kev888]

Looks excellent! Good job you didn't drill first and look later, too!

Cheers
Kev

[FutureBrewer]

I'm jealous

You just wait...

Looks excellent! Good job you didn't drill first and look later, too!

Cheers! Just glad there wasn't a load of refrigerant lines running through the top either!

Cheers,
FB.

[FutureBrewer]

PART TWO

Building the tap tower support frame:

I checked the hardwood tram-rails for size:



...and the aluminium top. Flush fit!



Drilled & countersunk:



...and screwed onto tram-rails.



Put the frame into position... (ignore the drilling mistake! )



...and, with fridge-top back in place, measured up. Twice



Drilled a pilot hole. The wood shavings come from a small cork block taped underneath the aluminium to stop me accidentally drilling through the thermostat pipe!



With the hole now drilled out for a Q-max cutter, I taped the frame in position on the underside of the fridge-top:



...and turned the Q-max just enough to bite.



I put the fridge-top back on, making sure the frame sat in the hole correctly:



...and Q-max'd the sucker!



Cut away some more insulation and drilled a pilot hole for the beer line pipe:



...dismantled the frame and covered the tram-rails with polythene.



Then, with some 22mm pipe taped in place (and the thermostat pipe carefully relocated), I put a layer of expanding foam into the gap...



...and left to cure!



TO BE CONTINUED...

[charliefarley]

Looks like youre doing a great job.

[Bradsbrew]

A tap on the top, that is so very cool. My brother has one and it has the tap sticking out the door. I'm interested to see the final result here

[FutureBrewer]

Looks like youre doing a great job.

Cheers Took a look through your pizza oven build photos - quite simply an incredible piece of work... Respect!

A tap on the top, that is so very cool. My brother has one and it has the tap sticking out the door. I'm interested to see the final result here

Thanks! Stay tuned for the final post

[chivelegs]

I'm mid-way through a kegorator build (mid-way, in as far as I've got nearly all the bits and a vague idea of what to do, so for me that's pretty much mid way.)

Mine will be a tap-through-the-door, measure-twice-drill-twice-go-to-casualty-twice type of build so I'm watching this as well with a certain degree of envy!

[charliefarley]

A tap through the top does negate the "beer belly into the tap handle when reaching over the kegerator and 'whoops its all over my foot'" scenario.

[AceMcAce]

This looks brilliant. One day.....one day.

[FutureBrewer]

Mine will be a tap-through-the-door, measure-twice-drill-twice-go-to-casualty-twice type of build so I'm watching this as well with a certain degree of envy!

Get building! Just watch where you're drilling

A tap through the top does negate the "beer belly into the tap handle when reaching over the kegerator and 'whoops its all over my foot'" scenario.

Good point...

This looks brilliant. One day.....one day.

Make it happen!

[WishboneBrewery]

thats rather good

I'm thinking of a non-invasive Kegorator design myself, I've got a fridge freezer and almost all the other bits to build one.
I was thinking i might try get a sort of Tap mounting plate made that could just sit on top of the fridge with just 3/16" beer lines coming out of the door closing.

[FutureBrewer]

thats rather good

Thanks!

[FutureBrewer]

I'm thinking of a non-invasive Kegorator design myself, I've got a fridge freezer and almost all the other bits to build one.
I was thinking i might try get a sort of Tap mounting plate made that could just sit on top of the fridge with just 3/16" beer lines coming out of the door closing.

Is it a fridge freezer with a top opening door - a full-size thang..?