Introduction: Mini Spinner : Cold Beer - Fast* (as in 1 Minute 30 Seconds)

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Spinning an aluminium beer can on a block of ice will cool it to less than 5c in under 5 minutes. Various ways can achieve this: The Spinning Car, Electric Drill, Electric Screwdriver but none are as small and compact as the Mini Spinner.

The Mini Spinner was inspired in the search to have a compact way to cool beer while camping: As a frozen cartoon of water unfreezes, the water is drank and the remaining block of ice is used to cool beers by spinning a can on top. Having a multipurpose saves space and weight and results in more beers being able to be taken on a camping trip.

It's also my 'go to' way of cooling beer at home. No more space wars over beer vs food in the fridge. Just keep a 1-liter carton of ice in the freezer section and cool beers when required.

There's an environmental aspect too, as this project reuses the plastic clip-on-top packaging.

* To cool beer in one minute 30 seconds, go to Step 6.

Supplies

Clip on holder (came with the cans)

Toy Wheel

6-volt, 300 rpm motor with gears

USB C Battery connector

Shrink tubing

Step 1: Clip-On, Clip-Off

There are two parts to the Mini cooler: The motor and the can connector.

The can connector is made by cutting off a clip-on disk which the beer cans were purchased in with a pair of large scissors.

Step 2: Can Connector

A good way to attach the plastic clip-on to the motor is using a toy wheel which has the same sized axle as the motor. While it could be fixed to the top of the clip-on, it looks better attached underneath.

Drill a hole into the center of the clip-on.

Apply contact adhesive to the side of the wheel and the underneath of the clip-on. When the glue is touch dry, join the wheel to clip-on.

Check that with the wheel fitted underneath, the clip-on still clips on to a can of beer.

Step 3: Powering the Motor

The 6 volt, 300rpm motor is powered by a 5 volt battery pack.
To enable this, solider on a USB C leed to the motor.

Step 4: Heat Shrink

Place heat shrink tubing around the motor and the USB C wire leeds. Shrink using a lighter or other heat source. This sheath protects the connection to the motor when the mini spinner is in operation.

Step 5: Operation

To use: Just clip in a beer can, attach the connector to the motor and lay the can on a 1 liter block of ice and connect to a 5 volt power bank.

I make the ice by filling an empty milk carton with water and then freezing it. Once frozen, the top side is removed with a knife making it ready for use.

To stop the kick back from the spinning motor, a bulldog clip can be clipped on to it.

The mini spinner was successfully used on a recent camping trip. It cooled all 4 beers to less than 5 degrees c and could have cooled more.

Step 6: Turbo Charging the Cooling

Add 160 grams of salt to the carton before adding the water and freezing it. This will give you semi frozen ice which will cool a can of beer super quickly:

  • After 2 mins of spinning: -1.6c
  • After 1 mins of spinning: 6.6c
  • Ideal time of 1min.30sec: 3.5c

The only downside is the salt infused ice is a bit messy and not the best for electric motors.