A Peek at Life as a Natic

Parts used – Green parts are part of the kegging hardware.  Blue are parts used for the chest freezer conversion (keezer).  All kegging parts were ordered from www.kegconnection.com  They have excellent prices and even better customer service to back it up.  I would recommend them to anyone!

• faucets
• faucet handles
• faucet wrench
• shanks with tailpieces (I used 3″ shanks)
• quick disconnects
• kegs
• co2 tank
• co2 dual gauge regulator
• co2 gas splitter
• 20′ beer line
• gas line
• stainless steel clamps
• chest freezer
• temperature controller
• wood ( I used 2 2″x6″x8′ ’s)
• silicon (bath and kitchen caulking)
• wood filler
• 1.75″ wood screws
• weather stripping
• appliance spray paint
• stainless steel drip tray
• corner braces – 4
• velcro
• guerilla glue
• 19″ stainless steel drip tray (www.barproducts.com - search 19″ drip tray

Pre-thoughts

I decided to paint my keezer black as it was a little older and needed a refreshing look.  As you can tell, this is not required.  I also decided to attach the collar to the lid instead of the freezer.  This was done so that when you are putting the full kegs in the freezer, you dont have to lift them above the additional 6″ – 8″ collar.  In addition, when the collar is attached to the lid, the faucets and lines all lift up with the lid making replacing /adding kegs that much easier.  It is easier to attach it to the freezer, but better in the long run to attach it to the lid.

How To:

The wood collar

To start out with, I removed the lid by removing the 4 screws on the hing.  I then began to make the collar for the keezer using 1″x6″ wood and cutting the pieces at 45 degree angles to ensure a clean look.  This was done using a mitre saw.  After cutting the wood, 3 – 1.75″ screws were used at each corner (one at the top, middle, and bottom of the joint) to make sure that collar was solid and could withstand being lifted and moved around.  After screwing it all together, I measured to find the middle of the collar and marked where I wanted the faucets to be installed.  For cosmetic and functional reasons I decided to not place the faucets in the middle of the keezer as this would block the lid’s handle.  I decided to place the first faucet 1/4 of the way across the collar and the other 3/4 of the way across the collar.  I drilled a hole using a very small bit to mark the center of where the shank / faucet would be installed.  I then grabbed a 15/16ths spade bit and drilled the holes for the shanks using the small hole I drilled as a reference for the center for the spade bit.  It is much cleaner if you drill this hole half way on one side of the collar, and then finish the hole from the back side, using the original small hole drilled earlier to mark the center again.  This prevents the wood from splintering and looking messy on the side you break through on.  Because I am keeping my CO2 tank outside of the keezer, I also drilled a hole on one of the sides of the collar to run the gas line into the keezer. 

The freezer and collar painted

After making the collar, I painted the freezer, lid, and collar with appliance spray paint.  This paint is specifically made for appliances and can easily be found at your local hardware store.  I then let these pieces dry overnight.  After the pieces dried, I flipped the keezer lid upside down, removed the factory weather stripping (the factory stripping was causing issues mounting the lid so I had to remove it and replace it with one that I bought), replaced it with the one I purchased from Home Depot, put silicone everywhere that the collar would touch the lid and placed the collar on top of the lid.  I then added silicone around the inside collar (against the lid) to prevent cold air from escaping when the unit is running.  To ensure a good seal, I weighed down the collar forcing it to be firmly pressed against the lid, creating a good seal.  I just stacked some heavy boxes on top of it.  After this dried, I reattached the lid by relocating the spring holes.  Since I was attaching the lid to the collar, Isimply used the existing holes on the freezer and then just drilled holes into the collar which acted just as the ones in the lid did.  This creates a pivot at the collar as opposed to the lid. 

The internals - tubing and beer

 After letting this dry overnight, I touched up the paint using the appliance spray paint to paint the added silicone and any other imperfections.  I then installed the faucets, tightening them using a faucet wrench, and then tightening the shank bolt locking it into position in the collar.  I then ran the gas line in from the CO2 regulator into the keezer and secured the air distributor to the collar.

To mount the drip tray, I used 4 small corner braces and liquid nailed them to the front of the keezer.  This should give it enough support in case someone does put a full glass of beer on it – although I dont recommend that you make a habbit of this.  I then placed a small strip of velcro on the top of the corner brace.  This is so that I can remove the drip tray to wash it easily as it does not drain on its own.  I also used some leftover weather stripping to place on the drip tray against the keezer so that when washing it, it will not scratch the front of it. 

Now that we have everything in place, we had to convert the freezer to a refrigerator.  I used a Ranco ETC111000 temperature controller.  This unit is hooked up using an extension cord cut in half with a little wiring to provide an outlet on one end for the freezer to be plugged into and the other end leads to the circuitry of the Ranco.  This then allows you to set a temperature for the freezer (mine is at 38 degrees) and it will turn the freezer on or off by cutting power to the unit within one degree.  A wiring diagram can be found here.  I assure you it is easy as ever as I have no electrical experience at all!

That is about it.  The build was fun and quite easy.  It just takes some time with all of the painting and silicone drying.  If you have any questions about the build you can feel free to leave a comment and I will respond with an answer promptly.

Notes:  After doing the build I bought some .5″ wire fasteners (see pics in the gallery) to hold them in place but those rusted on me.  So I bought the same ones, painted them with a rust resistant finish spray paint and them put them into the freezer along with a tub of Damp Rid.  The Damp Rid will soak up the water in the freezer to prevent any future rusting.