More brewing furniture

Based on the write-up of "Son of Fermentation Chiller" (PDF). I constructed an end table for my living room that houses not one, but two, independently controlled carboy chillers. I scaled down the interior dimensions to ~14"W x 21"L x 22.5"H (or thereabouts, I'd have to measure again) so that there's around 1" or less of wiggle room for a carboy horizontally, and actually about -1/4" of space vertically for a carboy with a 1/2"OD vinyl hose running to a jar of sanitizer. In other words, it's just barely big enough. The extra space behind the carboy houses the fan and gallon jug of ice. Everything is inside a simple wooden frame, and I used 4 pieces of 24" x 48" x 1-1/2" foam insulation (not the extruded stuff...wasn't going to be able to get it home as a 4' x 8' sheet). The table top is split down the middle so I can open one side at a time (coming soon: hinges in the back), and the front is held on by magnets. All of the foam that doesn't move (the top and front panels come out for loading/unloading) is caulked in with silicone. I plan to add some weather stripping to seal the top and front, as it's all a little leaky now. Two thermostats control the fans, the wiring is identical to the basic diagram in the pdf above, just with an additional thermostat and fan in parallel. So, here's my parts list followed by pictures.

-2 thermostats, low voltage, bimetal coil nonprogrammable heat/cool, $30 (eBay)
(as it says in the PDF, these things say "24V" on the package, but you want 12V for the fans)
-2x 80mm muffin fans, $2 (thanks, craigslist!)
-12V 500mA power adapter, $9 (Fry's)
-Extra wires from old cell phone chargers, $0
-Scrap wood from an old couch for the frame, $0
-2x 24" x 48" x 1/4" plywood sheets, ~$10 (Home Depot)
-1x 24" x 48" x 1/8" MDF for base ~$5? (Home Depot)
-2x 8' strips of moulding, ~$20 (?...don't remember exact cost, Home Depot)
-8x 1/2"ish disc magnets, $2 (home depot)
-L brackets for frame, ~$10 (Ace)
-Old worktable for top surface, $20 (craigslist again)
-Assorted finishing nails and whatnot, ~$5
-4x 24" x 48" x 1-1/2" foam insulation, $20 (Home Depot)
-Silicone caulk left over from kegerator construction, $0
-2x Plastic hose barb T-joint for blow-off hoses, $4 (Home Depot)
-3/8" ID vinyl hose for blow offs, ~$5 (MoreBeer)
-Stick on thermometers for carboys, ~$6 (MoreBeer, "fermometers")
-Stain for wood (already had primer and clear coat), $10

Easy enough to put together: build frame, add panels, cut and insert insulation (my middle panel had to be two pieces), wire it up, caulk it up, stain the wood, make girlfriend happy it doesn't look like a box made of foam insulation. Oh, and it works. I've got a DIPA fermenting at 68F inside the box and an uncontrolled saison at 74F (at 8am, higher at 5pm I'm sure).

All told, about as much as I would end up spending, if not more, for a chest freezer and temp control. BUT this has several advantages over a chest freezer: it's smaller, it uses less power (although freezing the ice might negate that), it looks nice in my living room, I can independently control the temperature on two separate fermentations. The ice is a pain to change all the time, but that's okay with me.

Pictures HERE.