I am building my system. I contacted a local brewery, and they gave me a damaged keg. I intend to use it as a brew kettle. It is an old style keg with a bung.
To convert it to a kettle, I am going to cut an opening in the top and seal the bung. Any suggestions on how I can cut the opening? Dremel? blow torch?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
I use my 4 1’2" angle grinder with a skinny wheel on it to cut the top out, then i can use the piece i cut out for a false bottom after i drill a ton of holes in it.
Dont use a torch it wont cut SS. If you know a welder with a plasma cutter that will be best.
Or you have to use a jig saw or sawsall. But it takes forever and you will use a lot of blades.
Do you have a grinder? You can fix a grinder to some kind of guide using the bung hole as a center point.
Thanks. I like the idea of using the top as a false bottom.
np, for the guide i just used the safety shield on my grinder and pressed it up against the outer rim of the keg, that gives me the biggest hole in the top and then you can cut down the top to best fit the bottom to use as the FB
I have used a cut-off wheel on a die grinder with success. One thing I found useful was to have water in the keg - it cuts down on the noise and heat.
$15 for a professional to do it with a plasma torch. I tried DIY, busted a wheel, got a monster welt on my leg, loaded em all up on the truck and paid a pro. Not that I’m trying to talk you out of DIY - just sayin’, me and grinders - :-\
I’ve done 5 with a pneumatic angle grinder and cut off wheel. First one (total of 6) someone else did with a plasma torch, and it took 3 times as long to clean that up than it took to cut out and clean up with an angle grinder.
All of the above work. I would recommend using the tools that you already have and saving the $ for ingredients.
+1 on the plasma cutter. I’m lucky enough the guy accross the street has one. It’s amazing simple with a plasma cutter.
grinder with a cut off wheel worked for me. I kinda suck at it so it’s a little jagged in spots.most people would be fine.
I think I know why it was so rough. If you cut stainless with compressed air the molten ss at the plasma point gets way contaminated. If you used compressed argon it makes for a much cleaner cut. Shouldn’t need grinding at all. Because the argon shields as well as removes the material for the cut.
Also travel speed has a lot to do with the clean cut, you want to go real slow so to blow away all of the slag and molten metal.Move to fast and it back fills and hangs onto the parent metal.
Some good info from Skotrat…
Rule #1 when using a grinder - full face shield is required. Do not consider that optional.
Meh, I took a piece of string, a black sharpie, my dremel, and my metal cutting discs, and cut the top off that way. Went thru about six discs, then used the grinder on the edges, then the sander, and now it’s smooth as a…well, you know. Took me two or three evenings, about an hour each time. And didn’t cost me anything, and I didn’t have to worry about cutting off a limb or burning anything down.
Only 6 mini dremel discs? Or were they the larger dremel discs? Either way, not bad. I seem to go through the majority of 1 cut off wheel per keg in an air grinder (3" disc?) Then just use a buffing wheel to clean it up. ~20 minutes before work and it’s done. If I leave myself 25 minutes, I can have the holes drilled for the fittings too.
I used an angle grinder to cut the top, and then I sanded it to get rid of the burrs. The keg was semi-dented, so the hole is not a perfect circle. Oh well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The valve is a Kettlevalve from Willimas.
I attempted to attach a photo of the finished product, but there was no option to attach a photo. I guess I do not yet have a high enough level of participation.
I cannot wait to get the first batch underway.
Thanks to all of you who provided valuable insight.
Thanks on the photo advice. Here are one photo of before and two photos of the finished product.
