1950s Refrigerator to Kegerator - or how an engineer builds a kegerator

[aggierailroad]

Folks here is a project I've recently started but have been planning for some time. Started off as a Craigslist find 1950s era General Electric refrigerator. I bought it with the intention of converting it into a homebrew sized kegerator capable of holding 4 - 5 gallon kegs of beer. 1 will most likely be a cider, the second root beer or cream soda for my nephew (and me) and the other two rotating seasonal taps.

Major features will be converting from a standard light bulb in the back to flush mount LED lighting on the interior, stretching the chassis 5.5 inches on the inside box and outside box to accommodate the four kegs (9" diameter each), plumbing the system for CO2, adding casters for mobility and of course, paint. Will also be adding a temperature controller for the ability to dial in an ideal serving temperatures. There will be a shelf on the top for bottle storage as well - should be able to hold 5 rows of 6 bottles. Any reasonable suggestions are more than welcome.

Starting with the chassis:



GE Logo on the door, will probably re-chrome this and paint the channels.


Door handle, I tried to polish this out later, it's very scuffed, will go to chrome.


The back panel. The compressor and coils come out as one unit. Another gentleman has restored one of these (just using black epoxy paint ) and a "kill-a-watt" and calculated that running the same model fridge to be $6/month. Not having an auto defrost really makes these old units energy efficient.


Interior of the door. I believe this panel to be Bakelite?? Someone let me know if I'm wrong. It's very brittle, but not quite plastic like.


Freezer door, this is where the coils come into the fridge and cool the interior. Love the classic styling of the font. This will just be painted, letters and logo left intact.


Current incandescent interior light.


Compressor underneath the frame.


Lines running from coil through back panel into interior shell. Note the fiberglass insulation.

 

[webbs2jzgte]

subscribed! I'm a Mechanical Engineering student in the process of starting his own bussiness this would go great in the future workshop

 

[aggierailroad]

Shot of the temperature controller. I plan to cut out the current knob and put in a LCD programmable controller. I'll need to do some more research to see if it's rated for the temperature and UL67 rated for moisture resistance.


Inside shot of the door. Looks like someone replaced this fiberglass with a more modern flavor. It was in a plastic bag and not rotted/smelling.


Rust damage at the bottom of the door. I'm debating drilling weeping holes in the door... There are none now - thoughts?


Full shot of the interior as is. The stretch on the interior shell will happen right at the back, while the exterior will get stretched at the front. This is mainly to avoid dealing with the bead rolled floor and roof. It's also worth mentioning here that the shells are both 20ga steel. The interior is ceramic coated and is a bear to grind back for welding. I'm not sure yet how I'll tackle scuffing this for paint.


Detail of the inside of the door where the logo attaches. Interesting to me was that they used wax as a glue/sealant. The bottom of the exterior shell was covered in wax. Water got underneath and rusted it to hell. The rust wasn't a big deal, but removing the wax to paint will be troublesome. I've already washed it 3 times with AJAX.


More rust...


Insulation - 3.5 inches of fiberglass.


Cut out the bowl pocket for the light bulb to weld in a patch panel.


Here is where the bad ideas started - I used 22ga to make the panel, cut it too small and...


used a new welder with .030 wire and.....


oil canned it... Don't worry, I've already fixed it... More to come on that.

 

[pipsters]

Are you going to replace the compressor with a modern day one? For efficiency sake? My parents had a 70's fridge that thing sucked electricity...lasted 35 years though...

 

[aggierailroad]

Most of the rust removed on the bottom of the exterior shell. Used a wire cup brush and naval jelly.


Rustoleum black appliance epoxy paint applied. I know I'll be cutting and welding into this but my reasoning is two-fold: 1) at this point I wasn't sure I wanted to keep going with stretching it because I just got done warping the hell out of the other piece and 2) I really wanted to stay busy and get it cleaned up and stop any more rusting because I washed everything down after tearing it apart. Everything rusts quickly in H-town.

Moral of the story is that I really like this paint and recommend it!


Slots cut for LED lights. 12" on each side and 8" on the top. More lights will be behind the regulators on the back wall and on the tap handles..


Miller Digital Elite glamour shot....

 

[aggierailroad]

Preliminary LED attachment method... Used the 20ga strip I cut out, bent it, drilled it, countersunk the aluminum flush mount bezels and used a #4 countersink screw and nut. I don't think I'll weld the tabs after looking at them again, I don't see a reason to add more heat to this sheet metal. That, and the heat makes the ceramic pop and I'm worried about it flaking out or cracking later...


Bottom epoxied up. Once again, I really like this paint. Only flaw is that it has really terrible coverage or I over applied it.... Remember, no primer is used with this paint..


Also, no disrespect to any that's not an engineer and building a kegerator. I'm just emphasizing how engineer's tend to over-build their hobbies..

That's all the pics I have for now... More progress soon and thanks for looking.

 

[aggierailroad]

subscribed! I'm a Mechanical Engineering student in the process of starting his own bussiness this would go great in the future workshop

Might be up for sale when I'm done..... It won't be cheap..

 

[aggierailroad]

Are you going to replace the compressor with a modern day one? For efficiency sake? My parents had a 70's fridge that thing sucked electricity...lasted 35 years though...

No, please see my first post. This thing barely runs (due to having a electronic thermostat and the large thermal mass of 20 gallons of beer on the inside), and a similar model has proven to use $6/month by another gracious poster on a homebrew forum - homebrewtalk.com

 

[ADSR]

kick *** thread!

This is going to be awesome!

 

[machine_punk]

That is way cool!

For removing any of that wax, I'd recommend Mineral Spirits, from the paint department. I used that to remove the cosmoline (waxy substance for rust protection) from my new 3-in-1 sheet metal machine (which I suspect was dunked in cosmoline at the factory). It worked beautifully. I think it is one of those substances you need to be careful with...the spontaneous combustion issue while rags are drying. I made sure I laid the rags outside in one layer, to dry overnight, after using. Not sure if it is necessary, but don't want the shop/house to go up in flames.

You seem to be only interested in using the welder to extend the case. Since you are painting it...and nobody will see the back sides of the extensions, what about countersinking and pop-riveting in a strip behind the panel and using filler to get it flush. I know that's not the 'right' way, but what you are proposing will be a daunting endeavor, depending on your current sheet metal skills.

Looking forward to further pics!

Kev

 

[aggierailroad]

That is way cool!

For removing any of that wax, I'd recommend Mineral Spirits, from the paint department. I used that to remove the cosmoline (waxy substance for rust protection) from my new 3-in-1 sheet metal machine (which I suspect was dunked in cosmoline at the factory). It worked beautifully. I think it is one of those substances you need to be careful with...the spontaneous combustion issue while rags are drying. I made sure I laid the rags outside in one layer, to dry overnight, after using. Not sure if it is necessary, but don't want the shop/house to go up in flames.

You seem to be only interested in using the welder to extend the case. Since you are painting it...and nobody will see the back sides of the extensions, what about countersinking and pop-riveting in a strip behind the panel and using filler to get it flush. I know that's not the 'right' way, but what you are proposing will be a daunting endeavor, depending on your current sheet metal skills.

Looking forward to further pics!

Kev

Thanks for the tip! We are on the same page with the mineral spirits. I used a fair bit to help get rid of the wax after washing the crud out. I too am paranoid about wax and spirit soaked rags and hung them on a line to dry. The governor's mansion in Texas burned down during a restoration a few years back due to careless painters not doing this with their rags.

Rivets.... do they make a flush headed pop rivet? I also worry that the panels will flex due to their length and crack out any filler. If they were curved... I've also had great success with the modern sheet metal glues.... Now that you have my wheels spinning! Thanks for the ideas!

 

[PhantomEB]

That Miller lid.... new? Aint seen it before!

 

[aggierailroad]

Got it in January from cyberweld.com. Came with free pair of welding "sleeves." Love the mask, absolutely the most comfortable one I've ever used. Well worth the money.

 

[Plump]

I have nearly the exact fridge for my kegerator. Actually had two at one time (for black and tans, of course) and they both work like a charm.

I'd love to see some more information and pictures about the LED changeover. I'd love to do something with the old school bulb since it gets smashed once a year putting a keg or other beers in.

Keep the updates coming!

 

[aggierailroad]

Plump here you go, if you need more info let me know. LEDs came from superbrightleds.com, the site can walk you through everything. Just pick one thing you like, either the LED, channel, whatever - and it will match you up with everything that you need to power it up.

I picked up some aluminum channel, water resistant LED strips - cool white I believe, end caps for the channel, and a translucent plastic cover for the channel. Also got a waterproof AC/DC constant current converter to power everything along with a small but nifty switch that can make them fade, blink, flash and in general give you epilepsy if you stare at them.. Mainly will be used as a PWM dimmer to control brightness as I'm not too familiar with reading 5500K brightness and converting that into useful fridge brightness usefulness.

LEDs will be wired to the original door switch, power supply will be mounted to the chassis underneath with a grommet and quick disconnect leads for the wiring as the inner box just slides into the outer shell with 4 bolts at the front. This reminds me - if you need any tips getting it apart let me know, some of it is a little tricky.

The fridge already has a voltage splitter taking the incoming AC and splitting it to the compressor and the original light socket. I might rewire this to include a ground plug; currently only has a two prong wire, but the light and motor all use 14ga 3 strand??

On to the good stuff:

I cut out the entire back and replaced it with 16ga cold rolled sheet. This was to eliminate the oil canning from my poor fitment of the original light bowl patch. Nice and flat now, the 16ga and .023 wire make a big difference..


Shot of the LEDs and the channel. The water resistant ones like these come dipped in a plastic coating. You just snip them apart at predetermined lines, strip back the plastic and resolder on your wire leads. Interestingly, you don't have to jumper the ends, I guess the internals take care of that - very handy. I believe I got 8 LEDs per 12" channel.

 

[sam03]

Very cool project keep up the nice work and the pics coming!!

 

[aggierailroad]

Very cool project keep up the nice work and the pics coming!!

Thank you for the compliments. Hope to get back in the garage today to fit up the last light and decide how I want to stretch it. Another issue plaguing me is how and where to mount the regulators... I have 4 brass 1/4" mini regulators to mount and plumb with aluminum hard line...

 

[aggierailroad]

As promised - last light for the top roughed in and wired up to show how it will look. the USPS man came and delivered another surprise today - the digital temperature controller. It uses a thermocouple to monitor the temp inside. Once your desired set point is reached it can hold it to that temp to a tolerance of +/1 0.5C. It has two internal 15amp relays that you can plug in a cooler (the compressor) and a heater (for those whose fridge is in a cold basement) to keep the beer at optimal serving temp.

Here in Texas only the cooler side will be used

Out with the old....

And in with the new:

Got very lucky in that the panel fits right inside the old raised aluminum bezel. I was having design terror worrying that it might extend past the sides of the raised inner bezel and I would have to do some jonky mod to make it look right. I'd hate to lose the classic look of the current aluminum piece.



On to some lighting... I got the last piece cut and the channel fitted with end caps. Also got the wire leads soldered onto the top light strip. I soldered it from the bottom, but next time I think I will scrape back the water proofing layer and solder it from the top. Here it is with heat shrink - used two sizes to make it look like this.



Here is a shot of the top light off - I assume the strange angle is a result of the camera perspective. I spent a lot of time lining it up with the other two lights on the side... I also cut this hole a little larger to allow me to fine tune alignment.



I'm tempted to paint the aluminum track and the plastic end caps because they don't match each other very well. It's too bad they don't make aluminum end caps...

LED on - only thing I don't like here is the dark side on the right. This is caused by the heat shrink filling up the channel and blocking the light from reaching the end. Might have to trim it down some..



Couldn't find my real camera - sorry for the cell phone pics.. Any questions just ask!

 

[Trey T]

Off-Topic: Aggie joke

An Aggie, a Red Raider and a Longhorn were going to a college survival camp. The leader told them that they had to hunt for their own food. So the Longhorn goes out and comes back with a big buck. The Raider and the Aggie ask him how he got it, the Longhorn said "found tracks follow tracks BOOM kill deer. So the Raider goes out and brings back a doe. The Aggie asked how he got it, the Raider said "found tracks follow tracks BOOM kill deer. So the Aggie goes out and comes back with all these cuts and bruises and limping. The Longhorn and the Raider ask him what happened. The Aggie replies "found tracks follow tracks BOOM got hit by train!

 

[aggierailroad]

Off-Topic: Aggie joke

An Aggie, a Red Raider and a Longhorn were going to a college survival camp. The leader told them that they had to hunt for their own food. So the Longhorn goes out and comes back with a big buck. The Raider and the Aggie ask him how he got it, the Longhorn said "found tracks follow tracks BOOM kill deer. So the Raider goes out and brings back a doe. The Aggie asked how he got it, the Raider said "found tracks follow tracks BOOM kill deer. So the Aggie goes out and comes back with all these cuts and bruises and limping. The Longhorn and the Raider ask him what happened. The Aggie replies "found tracks follow tracks BOOM got hit by train!

I'll choose to ignore that...

 

[aggierailroad]

Can't get imageshack to play nice - so I'll just add the small progress I made last night as best I can.

Bought some 2"x2" 0.065" wall tubing to mount the regulators to. Last night I got the regulator mounts and pass through slots cut out. Didn't have the correct hole saw size (or a plasma) so I got creative with the drill press. I wanted half round slots so I figured I would just use half of the 2" hole saw that I had... I cut the straights with a cut off wheel on my angle grinder.

Tonight I hope to cut the gauge holes out and weld in the standoffs.

Step drill bit to make the holes for the regulators.


Drill bit is an Irwin or Greenlee. I can't remember this morning. Works awesome.

And the shot for when you don't have the correct (1 3/4") hole saw and just need a part of a circle cut out. I don't advise anyone to do this in any way.



And lastly - part of my inspiration for the regulator mounts and plumbing. This is a high pressure air control board from a ship.

 

[aggierailroad]

Gauges came in last night - 4 total Winters 0-30 psi; 3% accuracy over the full range. Should be good enough for a lager. Mounting cups should hopefully come tonight if I can find some steel on the way home.

 

[LX-Markham]

Also, no disrespect to any that's not an engineer and building a kegerator. I'm just emphasizing how engineer's tend to over-build their hobbies..

This made me laugh, sooooo true.

When I design my projects I try to have a case of beer on hand (a kegerator would be awesome!). Beer tends to mellow out my over-engineered designs LOL.

Love this project! Keep up the great work.

 

[aggierailroad]

This made me laugh, sooooo true.

When I design my projects I try to have a case of beer on hand (a kegerator would be awesome!). Beer tends to mellow out my over-engineered designs LOL.

Love this project! Keep up the great work.

Agreed...... It's a horrible sickness. I'm probably one of the only ones calculating heat transfer of various insulations compared to cost while having a 60 year old fridge with a digital thermostat.... Like it even matters as long as the beer is cold.

 

[Plump]

More updates, dammit!

 

[jbs]

Great thread, thanks for posting. If you don't mind, can you link to products you use? I'd love to have a reference for things like the LEDs, digital thermostat, etc.

When I re-do our kitchen, I'd really like to make custom refrigerated cabinets, so this is great info.

 

[aggierailroad]

Great thread, thanks for posting. If you don't mind, can you link to products you use? I'd love to have a reference for things like the LEDs, digital thermostat, etc.

When I re-do our kitchen, I'd really like to make custom refrigerated cabinets, so this is great info.

Be happy to, I'm keeping up with receipts and will post a total up when it's complete. I think a big thing missing on forums is the price of projects - people want to know and the only person I have to reconcile my prices with is my wife! With that said - just keep on asking if I didn't include a cost or a detail. I appreciate you guys following my slow progress - it's a great motivator when people are interested.

The temperature controller was originally used as an aquarium controller and sourced by the homebrew community. All of the info you need to know about how to use and wire them can be found here:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/stc-1000-ebay-temperature-controller-build-330427/.

The main consideration when purchasing your controller is to ensure that it is in fact 110V and not 220V as they are made in China. I bought mine on eBay, but they can be found for a few bucks more at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008KVCPH2/?tag=atomicindus08-20 <--note, I did not check to see if this one is 110V

Lighting strips are from here:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...oof-high-power-led-flexible-light-strip/1466/

Once you pick your light, it will lead you to picking housings and a compatible power supply. Easy as pie. I spent about $75 on the light strip, a power supply, aluminum channel, diffusers, end caps and some sweet LED switches and cable connectors that I won't use on this project. They do have specific cabinet lights that might suit you better. The stuff came quickly, worked out of the box, and I will be using them again - their site was just too easy to use for an LED dummy like myself.

The regulators were the other big purchase and were very hard to find a small secondary regulator that was cheap, had a working range in the 0-50 psi and rated for CO2. I spent about $20 apiece and got them from Valworx. They are ingersoll rand brand which should be adequate. Wish they were stainless but that was way out of budget.

@Plump : had a couples date last night that interfered with my plans to work on the regulator mount... Tonight should provide some success.

 

[admactanium]

Really cool project.

HOOK 'EM HORNS!

 

[aggierailroad]

Really cool project.

HOOK 'EM HORNS!

That was a close one, almost didn't see your blasphemy. I guess it hurt reading the news about our new 102,500 seat stadium and you had to post up

Anyways, on to the potatoes:

Test fit of regulator and guage in the "cluster holder mount thing." Drilled a 2 inch hole into a 2 inch tube about a 1/4 of an inch deep. Discovered one important thing - my drill press chuck is fubar'd. The spindle runs true, I took the chuck off, cleaned it, everything, but when you get a two inch hole saw on it it wobbles like crazy and makes cutting these tight clearance holes a real PITA.



2nd lesson: I am not a fan of DeWalt hole saws. I love their grinding discs, used to love their tools, but I guess since they got bought by Black and Decker (I believe) it's all gone down hill. In five holes, 2 teeth broke off, causing a lot of chatter on the rest of the holes. I used only a tiny bit of pressure and it's only 0.065" wall tube... Shame on you DeWalt.

Here's the complete, albeit rough, regulator mount front:



and back: (I really don't like how this turned out, next time I'll buy the proper hole saw size or use a plasma)



Here is all of them installed:



You may be asking yourself, why drill a two inch hole in a two inch pipe for a gauge that is 1 5/8" in diameter? Answer: Because the gauges will be inset from the face of the mount, I didn't want it to look like you were looking into a black hole while looking at the gauges. So, I had a pipe dream:



Can you guess what's going to happen next after I buy a "cold" cut saw this weekend?

Before anyone asks about the orange case in the back, I'll answer it shortly on my own. I'm always amazed at how folks notice the details in the background of pics.

 

[aggierailroad]

When I bought my drill press, I was also offered to purchase an old transit and stand. The transit didn't fit the stand (which was originally the classic yellow and orange banged up thing that you see all the time).

I scooped both of them up for $20 (he cut me a deal as he was a retired engineer and I am a new one - we got to talking for quite some time). He used to keep the transit on his desk in his office.

After some spit and polish, it came out looking like this: I didn't do any work to the transit itself, just the stand. Antique white paint, chestnut stain and hammered rustoleum paint that coincidentally was an exact match to the transit body!



Took a lot of sanding to get the yellow enamel paint off of the rails to make them stain worthy. Looks good enough that the wife has it in the living room as an "industrial style" decoration.





Sorry, and that's what came in that beat up orange fiberglass case.

 

[johnnie5]

Another gentleman has restored one of these (just using black epoxy paint ) and a "kill-a-watt" and calculated that running the same model fridge to be $6/month. Not having an auto defrost really makes these old units energy efficient.

auto defrost only uses about 100 watts in a day

i like the idea of the old fridge as it looks cool

but for energy efficiency go for a chest freezer with a temp controller and
fan inside to circulate the air around

ery easy to do this to a chest freezer without actually having to do anything to the freezer itself as can easily be converted back to a freezer in no time if required

 

[aggierailroad]

auto defrost only uses about 100 watts in a day

very easy to do this to a chest freezer without actually having to do anything to the freezer itself as can easily be converted back to a freezer in no time if required

Thank you for reading - you are correct. Keeping beer cold can be easily done with a chest freezer, a collar and a Ranco temperature controller. These are well documented on homebrewtalk.com.

Pipe dreams realized. Gauge bezels cut and welded in. Bought a nice dry cut carbide blade "chop" saw from Northern Tool. Cuts this thin wall tubing like a dream. Easy to set the saw up, but don't trust the degree markings. Other than that it seems to be a well built saw and will put up with my hobby use for years.

Sorry about the blurry pics..

Cut the tubing square, then eye-balled the miter cut. I wanted it to stick up a hair all the way around (3/8" at the min to be exact) to accommodate chrome edge molding around the lip. Fitting will be painted brass - I really can't justify $30 stainless steel fittings.. even with the seemingly crazy budget I've got. I'm still trying to source decent ball valves with integrated check valves...

Also while at Northern I snagged a 5 in 1 quarter inch NPT manifold. Much better price than I've seen online at only $11.

Here are some blurry shots of the gauge bezels.





I found it not exactly easy lining up the rings. Their heights were also a tad differing from each other due to no real way to make repeatable cuts without squaring the cut ends each time. Lazy, yes. Easy, yes.

Buy one of these saws. I was skeptical. I have since seen the light.

 

[aggierailroad]

7 of 8 1/4" tube x 1/4"MPT SS fittings in (I know I said I wouldn't get stainless... but...)

2 of 2 90degree fittings arrived this morning

1/4"x25' 316 DOM tubing delivered this week

4 of 4 chrome plated brass ball valves delivered this week

All told, roughly $200 for the fittings and manifold and tubing... It's unfortunate that it will only get half of the job done. Fittings were Ham-Let brand, valves were... something cheap.

From this pile I should be able to do the gas in plumbing, at least from the manifold to the regulators, regulators to the keg terminations, whatever those will be...

Works to commence Friday - stay tuned.

 

[ckadams00]

I love this!

 

[aggierailroad]

One of my favorite things about fabrication is building tools and or jigs to make other parts. I really enjoy it when home made things come out looking like they came from a factory. With that being said, I've got a lot of things to learn, but patience and research (and a little bit of money!) seem to help.

A major part of this kegerator is the plumbing. There will be 4 kegs which means 4 regulators which means an air manifold, CO2 in, 4 lines to the regulators, 4 lines from regulators to kegs, 4 lines from keg to door jamb, 4 expansion joints, 4 lines to the faucets and finally 4 faucets coming out the door.

Naturally all of this plumbing will have to be in stainless steel. Naturally. The cheapest way to buy stainless tubing is in coils. Which are round. Which make plumbing straight lines hard.



How do you straighten that tubing? There is a lot of material on the net, mainly from hot rod types, on how to do this. I've heard wacko stuff like roll the tubing between 2x4s in your hands, uncoil it into the corner of the garage floor and wall using your feet... All of which don't give straight tubing or that "factory" finish that I mentioned.

So, my inspiration was the $2-300 tubing straighteners that you find online. The goal was to build one for about $20 and have it be expandable for different sizes of tubing down the line. Easy.

Enter the roller. From a glass door kit.



They are 1.5" diameter wheels, ball bearing action. They have a little bit more slop than a pro rig would have, but they were about $3 per pair. I bought 3 pair. I bought them from Amazon, about half the price of a large orange store in the area.

Grab some hardware from that orange store, (story on that to come) and some hard maple from the scrap bin. Lay everything out with a piece of stainless that I bent up with my crappy 3in1 tubing bender. Looks OK.



I bought 8 1/4"x2.5" carriage bolts, two packs of washers and nuts, some captive nuts and some all thread couplers just for in case. Long story short, the carriage bolts were from the bulk bin, no tag. The cashier charged them to me as 5/16" split washers. They rang up as 1 penny more than the bolts that they are, but I figured 8 cents wasn't worth me lecturing someone on the difference in a washer and a bolt. Oh America....

Drill some holes. Here's a trick I picked up last week while reading about drilling straight shelf alignment holes in cabinetry. The problem is getting them square without using a drill press. I had the same problem. I've chased the horrible runout on my drill press to the chuck. I used the marker test. I don't have a nice dial indicator with a magnetic base.

Bad chuck. Bad.


Oh yeah, the trick. Use your router to drill the holes. I have a plunge router and a bit that is exactly 1/4". Now, a nice spiral upcut bit would have been better, but my cheap-o straight 2 flute bit worked nicely. No egg shaped holes, perfectly square to the surface. I set up a temporary fence using scrap and some clamps for my centerline. It is imperative that the holes are all in the same plane or else you will coil your tubing instead of straightening it. I used my Incra rules to measure the offset of the bit to the router edge, mark the line and "plunge-drill" the holes.

I also routed the sliding grooves for the two top rollers. Similar jig, similar measuring techniques. These aren't as critical, you just want them to be parallel.

Voila.


Here's the setup - minus the adjusting bar.



You'll notice that I squared the bottom of the slots to allow for the head of the carriage bolt to not bind in the rounded corners. One could probably use a regular hex bolt for these two. ***Edit - No you won't notice, I haven't uploaded that pic yet.***

Sorry to drag this out, but I didn't finish the slider bar - mainly because I'm thinking of changing the design. Note to everyone making one of these, it would probably be easier to make in steel. I didn't have anything that would work on hand.

And an obligatory shot of stainless steel fitting goodness...


Stay tuned. Good chuck will make an appearance. Thanks for reading.

 

[aggierailroad]

New chuck. Way cooler than old chuck.



Southbend 1/32" to 1/2" keyed Jacobs 33 taper. It's a beast. And hopefully doesn't have any runout.

 

[JonBoehman]

So whats with the WL yeast vial? Brewing? or using it to fill with grains and use as a tap handle?

 

[aggierailroad]

So whats with the WL yeast vial? Brewing? or using it to fill with grains and use as a tap handle?

I brew, hence the kegerator, but it will really be used as a thermal well for the thermocouple. It will keep the fridge from overcompensating the chill cycle if the for is open for just a minute. Important feature because I will probably use the fridge to lager from time to time.

Good eye!

The tap handles are a closely guarded secret..

 

[JonBoehman]

I've actually seen that done over on Brewtalk. I use a baby food jar for mine. It was on hand at the time. I am currently converting my setup with E keggles.

 

[aggierailroad]

I've actually seen that done over on Brewtalk. I use a baby food jar for mine. It was on hand at the time. I am currently converting my setup with E keggles.

Exactly where I got the idea. Now just to figure out where to mount it...

Only update here is my the completion and testing of my coil tubing straightener.

First I cut down some aluminum angle 1.5"x1.5" with the jigsaw. A band saw would have come in handy right about now. Then I blocked it all up in the drill press and drilled a 1/4" hole.



A carriage bolt was cut down for clearance. On the final product I ended up cutting off the entire head (see below). Here's where I'm not satisfied with the design. It would have been better to drill and tap this for 1/4"x20. Would have solved a ton of problems in one step and made it easier to build.

I don't have any taps and I'm suffering for it. Instead I needed the cross brace to be tapped and the sliding bar to be held captive but still allow the screw to rotate. The second problem with doing that is that I wanted to be able to take it all apart. I could have just welded a nut above the slider and problem solved. Instead I double nutted it and lost some clearance in the process. Moral of the store - drill and tap it next time..



Above, you can see how I ground down the carriage bolt for clearance. I also drilled an access hole just in case. I love using nice sharp Forstner bits. Note the tearout from chiseling the slider tracks out. Whoops.

The final product. I double nutted the top with a washer inbetween so my wrench could sit on it and not slip off to allow for quick adjustments. I think I may make a handle from maple once I can think of a simple way to attach it. If anyone has ideas, I'm all ears!



The first pass was pretty easy. I just chucked it up and then tightened the rollers another half turn. Then I pull the coil back until the end was at the last roller and began to push it through. Didn't take much effort at all.



After about 4 passes this is the result!



Next thing to do is cut the bolts down and give it some paint.

A couple of tips for anyone wanting to make one of these:

Get nylon rollers if you can find them. I got a few scratches on the tubing from these steal rollers. I'm not sure how because they are quite smooth.

After straightening the tubing in the "hard" direction, roll it to take out any curve from the natural helix shape that the coil is in.

Next I'll post up some stuff on bending the tubing and using the compression fittings if anyone is interested.