Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

Just got my hands on a discarded pony keg from Budweiser. I removed the compression ring and pickup tube, did a PBW rinse, and sanded down the outside. I'm now ready to cut the top off...any ideas? I've read about plasma arc cutting and angle grinder cutting. However, I have neither. Does anyone have one of these that could cut this for me? I also read about the hole for the ball valve. One guy on youtube said to use a 3/4 inch hole saw with some Pam sprayed on the keg, worked great and he filed the opening to fit the ball valve. I can't seem to find any info about how high to put the hole. The Sabco site had listed 3 3/4 inches from the bottom I think. Has anyone with keggles done this recently? I'd really like to get this turned into a full wort boil kettle soon and step up my brewing! Thanks!

I used a dremel tool to cut the lid off my MLT & HLT kegs. A step drill bit worked great for the other holes.

I second the step drill bit. Makes a nice clean cut. They are pretty cheap at Harbor Freight. You need some lube and go slow with lots of pressure. I used something similar to a dremel at my dad's shop, an air tool with a disc. Used it to smooth the edges with a sand paper wheel too. My lids came from a turkey fryer and old cooking pot from the kitchen.

OK, cool on the dremel and step bit. I'll try to pick up the step bit this weekend but I don't have a dremel. My dad does and I could have him bring it down when he comes for easter weekend but if I could get it cut before then that would be awesome. I'll pick up the cutting wheel and sanding disks this weekend as well. Let me know if anyone would be willing to let me borrow their dremel for like 15 minutes. If Matt doesn't mind we could even cut it at his house on Thursday and wouldn't need to arrange pick-up of the Dremel. Let me know, thanks all.

Make sure you get the fiberglass-reinforced cutting wheels. I went through 3 of them per keg. I also found it helpful to fill the keg with water so you had a cooling fluid immediately available once you punched through keg. For what it's worth, that is a little bit dangerous since Dremel tools do not have grounded (i.e. GFCI) plugs.

They make a diamond cutting wheel for the dremel, that my do the trick and cut down the time a little.

FWIW, If you're going to harbor freight to get the step-up, they do have this

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/ ... 47077.html

It was on sale for $10 over the weekend and I almost bought one. It may make it easier/faster than the Dremel, and would make the electrical engineer feel better
Harbor Freight:crap tools at crap tool prices.

I got a low speed, high torque drill there for $45 for my JSP Malt Mill. Works great and hopefully I'll get 5 or 6 years out of it. Oh, also got my water pump from there for about the same price. Figure for how often I'll use em, I'll definitely get my monies worth. But yes, crap tools nonetheless...

I totally agree, I'm not knocking people for shopping there, I have a garage full of their tools. For as often as I use a lot of them , cheaper is better than durable

I think their air tools are a good value.  Especially the cut-off tools and grinders.  I've been very pleased with mine.
I tend to stay away from their Electrics for anything that will get real use.
On Mar 15, 2011 5:25 PM, "kjball" <brew-equipment@crbeernuts.org (brew-equipment@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:

FWIW, If you're going to harbor freight got the step-up, they do have this

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/specialty-air-tools/3-inch-high-speed-air-cutter-47077.html

It was on sale for $10 over the weekend and I almost bought one. It may make it easier/faster than the Dremel, and would make the electrical engineer feel better
Harbor Freight:crap tools at crap tool prices.

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

Yep, just like most things, everything has its place. There are some things I'll go to HF for, and other things I will never buy there. For brewing, HF has been a great value for me, especially since I usually brew 7x a year.

Great info, guys. But I don't have and air compressor either. My father-in-law does have a small one he uses to keep tires full but I don't know if it has enough pressure to run an air cutter. I will check with him, though.

</Tangent>

johnnyik wrote:My father-in-law does have a small one he uses to keep tires full but I don't know if it has enough pressure to run an air cutter.

Doubtful. The cutters take 4-5 CFM. If you want to go that route, you could borrow one of my portable compressors. I haven't used my medium-sized one in years, so it'd be no hassle at all. (Other than you lugging it.)

-Jim

Fortunately not from experience, but the one piece of advice I've heard is to make sure to let off any pressure in the keg first.

Yep, for tools that don't get a lot of use, Harbor Freight is awesome. Would never consider them for my basic use-all-the-time cordless drill. I also got a heavy duty corded one to power my grain mill, and it's a cheap option that does the trick.