BUILDING A NEW KEGERATOR and WINCH to Lift the KEGS

When a man had two beer taps he thought himself a king, but secretly he dreamed of having 4

Once the fridge with 4 taps was built it seemed like just the best thing -but soon 4 seemed so few

Now SIX, he thought - a man could never need more than 6.......

So a new fridge with 6 became the new best thing..................but man was wrong again..........

Life is so short and the beers so many - so what a man really needs is another 6 tap dispensing unit. This will mean 12 beers on Tap, with another 5 gassing-up in another fridge - and for emergencies they have Pluto Guns and picnic Taps.

He is confident - A man will never need more than 12 taps !

 

Kegerator project - Oct09

 

Thank goodness we own a Ute to bring home the new baby

There was some fast talking when the 'Sales' were on again at Hardly Normal... Just out of curiosity we wondered what a chestie big enough to hold 6 kegs would cost...

There's no harm in running into town in the Ute and just checking prices, is there?

WHAT? Reduced to just $599 what a bargain - We'll take one!

**Phew** lucky we had the ute in town that day wasn't it?

Now while we have the truck we should probably pick up some timber for the "collar". It would be a shame to ruin the build with nasty old mdf or chipboard huh?

Look, they're practically giving away, 8x2 Merbau slabs at the timber yard for only $125!

Wouldn't it be a shame to get all the way home and find that once we got the kegs in there was no room for the CO2 gas bottle?

Honey - it's our anniversary, what say we pick you up a little something special.

What! the Home Brew Shop is just about giving those gas bottles away this week !

What a lucky week we're having.

We'll take one.

Happy Anniversary Baby

Getting Started

Rip out all this rubbish - 4th time this year we've had to get rid of these things

Get the lid off so we can see what we're doing

The important test, will it hold 5 or 6?

And it will need a base & wheels

Now begin to build the thing

There were plenty of designs available for kegerators but we'd always avoided them in the past preferring to use upright refrigerators. We thought lifting full kegs up and into a high "box" was a bit rough.

But now we're thinking smarter and by putting the whole unit on a solid wheeled base we can simply roll the unit under the lifting mechanism and raise and lower full kegs.

Now we can become old people and still have kegs.

We favoured the look of solid timber for the collar and our local timber wholesaler lets us wander through their yard finding just the right - straight- pieces we want.

200 x 50 or (8x2 in the old money) was a bit wider than we'd envisioned but it was such nice timber we couldn't resist.

Cut to size and glued and screwed with some countersunk screws it looks a very neat job to complement the stainless taps.

The inside has a coat of Urethane as it will be subject to moisture but the outside is oiled with a quality timber finishing product.

Timber box to hold the CO2 bottle snug

6 new Perlick Stainless Steel (creamer) Taps

Manufacturing the little things

Having a fully equipped engineering workshop makes it easy to manufacture all those little things you need.

Standard tail pieces put beer lines in the way when handling kegs, so a new design was called for.

Used the lathe to cut down the nuts from the rear of the taps and also cut down the shanks.

Made brass discs & bent some copper tubing at 90 degrees. When silver soldered together they became right angled tail pieces.

Now its a snug fit from the rear of the taps to the beer lines using a crimped ring - they are very secure.

So we've minimised the waste of space behind the taps & given maximum room for keg handling.

Next came some aluminium clips to fit the the inside timber wall to hold the gas lines secure to the walls so they don't form a rat's nest over the top of the kegs.

That was another pet hate about Kegerators. You open the lid and can hardly lift anything in and out because of the miles of beer hose tangled all over the place.

Well neat-niks we may be - but ours will be out of the way.

Fitted the Fridgemate and tidied up the electrics and the job is just about done.

Cutting down the tap nut

Brass rings and copper elbows

Aluminium bracket to hold beer line

Make new hinges and a mounting plate for Fridgemate

DEALING WITH BEER & GAS LINE

The beer lines are secured to the new right angled brass/copper pieces and begin their journey around the inside of the timber collar. Each beer line leaves the group with just enough slack to get to its keg.

And to stop the hoses drooping - we milled some aluminium cover brackets which are screwed into place over the lines - this will hold them just right.

The timber guides at the corners have an outward radius where the lines run behind them, so they keep the plastic lines in a gentle curve and prevent tight "L" shaped crimping.

The gas lines run from the small CO2 bottle with a metal in-line quick connect (like the John Guest type) into a 5 way manifold. Actually it's now a 6-way as we modified the end plug to take another gas fitting.

Purchased the manifold from the U.S. each barb is fitted with a check valve so it turned out to be great value.

Fitted a computer fan on a hinge so it can flip up and out of the way when handling kegs. And now the inside is finished.

We wheeled the demon kegerator down to the house and took the obligatory photos. First standing beside it's older cousin -the six tap fridge. Then in it's own position on the other side of the doorway under the swing out tellie.

It looks a treat and the heavy duty wheels make wheeling and moving it about really simple.

The overhead pulley system wasn't a real success so it's back to the workshop to build a swing out mini - gantry to lift kegs in and out.

Its filled with SIX beautiful full kegs and they are chilling down to 3 degrees.

So it's almost finished - still need to build a stainless drip tray but that's the next project.

We aren't getting any younger.... and lifting the empties out of the Kegerator is no big deal but lifting those full ones up and over the collar is a ball-buster!

A winch system was needed so it was back to the workshop to see what we could use.

Here is the final result.

Motor - a windshield wiper motor sourced from a swap meet for a couple of bucks - only draws 3 amps.

Gear assembly from an old Hand-Drill We buy these whenever we see them for a dollar or two at garage sales. They are old but sturdy and always come in handy on different projects.

Power supply - brought a box of radio equipment (SWMBO is a HAM) and power supply was in amongst the junk.

Spool, Pulleys and the Winch arm all made in the workshop. Mostly from recycled steel that we get from the dump. They let us buy a ute load of steel for $20 so we cart it home and make all manner of things.

Now we can winch the full kegs up and into the kegerator so the project is finished.... almost...

Still have to get around to making a stainless drip tray but we're enjoying the beer daily from this project.

** Update......... We hate the Kegerator!

We didn't realise that with 6 kegs constantly in it - there is no real way to clean the inside and lifting 6 kegs and and out just for housekeeping is a pain.

Nope - this kegerator has got to go! It's off to the workshop to be stripped down and turned into a keg gassing chestie!

So it's back to town and the end of year sales to buy a new upright fridge... nothing beats the upright for ease of keg movement and cleaning it out.

If you only intend to put a few kegs in the Kegerator and can charm the small wife or tiny kids into getting inside with to clean it... it might suit you. So if you intend to build and we can help or answer any of your questions - just ask.

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