This was a topic from my old site, but seems to get a lot of hits yet. Unfortunately, I don’t have the draftbox any longer and for some reason, at this time cannot find my old pictures. But here are the directions for building a draftbox for the 5 liter mini kegs and philtap.

1 – Valve Stem from an old inner tube (A.K.A. Schroeder valve) ($0 if taken from an old inner tube, or a buck or two if you buy one new.

Here is what the valve stem looks like

4 – 1/4″ hose clamps
8″ of 1/4″ inner diameter vinyl tubing or nylon braided vinyl tubing. (Less than $1.00)
1- Faucet Assembly with 3″ shank (2″ will work too) wing nut, tap handle, nylon washer and tailpiece and short segment of beverage tubing (or use the picnic tap tubing that came with the philtap). ($35.00)

1 – 28qt cooler ($10.00)

**optional 6″ of 1″ inner diameter tubing cut in half and glued to the inside for storage of 2 extra CO2 cartridges.

All I did was Drill the holes in the cooler with a small hole saw and for the tubing used a large drill bit. All you need to do is assemble the faucet assembly (it’s so self explanatory I am not going to list how to do that.)

For the gas line you have 2 options. You can do what I did and use the valve stem, or you can cut the gas inlet tube off the phil tap, and use the 1/4″ I. D. tubing as a jumper. What I did was drill out the stopper valve in the valve stem and then placed the vinyl braided tubing in boiling water to soften it. I then put a little bit of caulk on the valve stem and inserted it into the softened vinyl tubing. I then tightened a hose clamp around the valve stem. I now have a gas in hose. Slide the tube into the hole you drilled out for it and fill the gaps with caulk and let them set. Then connect the other end to the phil tap and secure it with the other hose clamp. You should be all set from there.

I also had some old 1″ tubing left over from a blow off tube and I just cut some small sections and glued a plastic bottom on them and glued them to the inside of the cooler. That way I can have 1 co2 cartridge in the dispenser and carry 2 along with me so I know I will not run out of CO2 at a party.

This cooler also fits perfectly in my beer fridge and it was how I kept beer on tap in my bar.

I am trying to dig up some old pics from somewhere, but here is the only picture I can find of the draftbox.

Only photo left of the draftbox at this time. It fit 2 mini-kegs inside

If I find the pictures from inside the draftbox I will post those for clarity.
EDIT: I could not find one anywhere. I can’t believe I deleted them. Anyway, here is a crude drawing of what the inside of the cooler would have looked like, then from the outside above, you get the picture.

Crude drawing of the innards of the draftbox.