Fitting A Font To A Chesty

[Batz]

My chesty died after several years of service so I needed to set up another, I thought I'll take a few pictures along the way which may help others doing the same.

Firstly I scored this 500lt second hand freezer, I have five taps and I like to have a few spare kegs and my reservoir for my flooded font inside. I found 500lt is an ideal size for my bar, when I had three taps I used a 320lt.



So here's the second hand chesty, cost me $160.00. Notice the panel on the lid RHS, this has a fast freeze button and an on indicator light. Care is needed when drilling through the top, there's also a light under the top.



If you drill and attach the font straight to the chesty lid the thin sheet metal will not hold if firm enough, it'll wobble around and look like sh*t. I use a couple of pieces of pine to strengthen it up. My chesty fits under my bar so it does not need to cover to whole lid.



Screw down the pine at either end, measure up and use a 50mm hole saw to drill the mounting hole. Drill through the timber and metal but stop before drilling through the plastic lining inside the lid.



Inside the top you can see the pilot hole from the hole saw, we want that as a reference the cut out a clearance hole for the mounting nut.



I used a 90mm hole saw to cut out the plastic but you can cut this easily with a hacksaw blade or Stanley knife. It can be a square opening.
The hole looks off center but it's not, the top was on an angle when I took the picture.



A bit of beading to hold the drip trays.



A little stain and varnish makes the pine look a lot better.



Font fitted



Last time I fitted the gas manifold inside and found that a pain as the chesty needed to be opened to shut gas off and on. So this time I put it on the outside.

 

[Batz]

J.G. 90deg fittings made it neat



Drill the holes on size or just under so you have a nice tight seal, you could feed them all through one hole and seal that.



OK so here it is under the bar




The bar top is hindged so it easy to load the kegs

 

[Batz]

I use a simple pond pump and plastic jerry for the flood font, this sits on the compressor hump. Of course it does not freeze the font but it does frost up nicely.

 

[sav]

Looks hot batz have too come up for a beer sooner than later mate.


cheers sav

 

[humulus]

Love the set up Batz!!!!find myself sitting here sort of wishing my fridge would die!....so ive got an excuse top get a 5 tap font with perlicks and a chesty post up a foto of the flooded font in action!
:icon_chickcheers: cheers Glenn

 

[matho]

looks awesome batz as usual and a good instruction too

:icon_cheers:

steve

 

[eviljesus]

Very nice. Given me a few ideas for my next build.

Nice job on the staining, looks really even and adds alot of character to the whole build. Also seems to match very well with the theme of the bar.

I'm very soon to be scrapping my 1 tap fridge for a chesty with a font. Pretty much exactly what youve done here.

 

[Batz]

I have had an inquiry about sealing the underside of the font, we are talking more about insulating around the hole cut for the font.






This time as the hole was quite small I wrapped the first couple of bits of foam around the font and cable tied in place, then wrapped as much more as I could around it, even pushing some into it with a screwdriver.
The last one I did I wrapped the thread with duct tape and filled the hole with expanding foam, when it dries you can trim it off nice and neat. That worked really well and is good for larger spaces to fill.

 

[seemax]

Sorry to hijack slightly, but thought this was a pretty novel way of making your own quasi-font on a keezer.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/utrockets-...r-build-270155/

 

[NickB]

Looking good as always Jeff!

 

[Batz]

Looking good as always Jeff!

Same same but different Nick

 

[iralosavic]

This is the reason I'm using plastic broncos for now - I'd prefer to jump straight into the bar+chesty slid underneath setup when I can afford all the goodies. Some ingenious touches there, like the hinging bar to allow access to the freezer without pulling it out and the external manifold. Nice, mate.

 

[DarkFaerytale]

Thanks heaps Batz, as you know i'v been waiting for this thread. I cut through my freezer lid yesterday quite easily, i thought it would be the hardest part! i had almost everything hooked up but turns out that my taps don't fit my font! (shanks are too long in a 2 tap set up) pretty upset about it as you can imagine. all good, gives me an excuse to buy that 4 tap font i wanted anyway

love the bar too, it's given me a few idea's

cheers

-Phill

 

[raven19]

**** hot there Batz.

Now I just need to get over your way to inspect & judge the liquid contents...

Bravo on the setup.

 

[Batz]

.

Now I just need to get over your way to inspect & judge the liquid contents...

It's time you visited the batcave mate, you know your always welcome here and bring jayse and the guys with you :super:

 

[mattric]

Question, is there any tips on fitting a font to a chesty which has a light in the lid?

 

[mattric]

Anyone?

 

[DarkFaerytale]

i do remember reading something about that a long long time ago, but i can't remember details

where abouts is the light? right where you want the font or off to the side?

Edit to add, in the first post batz said the one he used in the pictures has a light in the lid

 

[JakeSm]

Thanks heaps Batz, as you know i'v been waiting for this thread. I cut through my freezer lid yesterday quite easily, i thought it would be the hardest part! i had almost everything hooked up but turns out that my taps don't fit my font! (shanks are too long in a 2 tap set up) pretty upset about it as you can imagine. all good, gives me an excuse to buy that 4 tap font i wanted anyway

love the bar too, it's given me a few idea's

cheers

-Phill

hi phill, i am thinking about getting into kegging and was wondering since you were thinking of getting a 4 tap font, would you maybe wanna sell the 2 tap font??

cheers, jake

 

[DarkFaerytale]

will pm you