Dents in SS kegs

Guys,

I finally retrieved some beer kegs that had been stolen from garage. The thieves were rough on them when they tried to sell them at the scrapyard. I cut the top off 2 kegs to make keggles. Since my knowledge of metallurgy is limited, I want to know if can fix the dents on these kegs. Is it alright to hammer out the dents form the inside of the keg. Also, It is OK to use a grinder on the outside of the keg. Any input would greatly appreciated!

DocDave

how big are these dents? pictures maybe?

yes it is possible to hammer out dents, however with your "knowledge of metallurgy is limited" I would assume your knowledge of metal working is also limited and would recommend not trying to fix them. I have seen some attempts to smooth things out by novices that go very badly and look worse than they did originally.

Grinder as long as your not to aggressive with it would be fine. I would recommend just using a grinder with a finishing pad that will smooth out the rough spots and not remove much material.

how'd you get the keggles back? I don't suppose the authorities got a chance to talk to your buddies?

If the dents are not too bad, why not just leave them?

B

outside92129 and jtsims21,

The dents are fairly large since the thieves abused them trying to remove the valve. I want to use them based on principle of the thing, I got them back! When I was robbed, I called all the scrapyards where they turned up. The police caught one of them but no word on all the tools they stole! I'll try to post pictures!

DocDave

It's amazing you got anything back. Let alone kegs from a scrap yard since they aren't even supposed to accept them.
Pounding them out from the inside is possible but it may take forever. There is not a lot of space inside a keg to swing a hammer.

brewingmeister said:

Pounding them out from the inside is possible but it may take forever. There is not a lot of space inside a keg to swing a hammer.

Click to expand...

I wonder if you could get a car jack into the keg and use it? It would not be super fast but could be quite effective and exact.

you could always sell the ones you have and get more on craigslist, if the dents bother you that much.

Thanks for the car jack idea. If it doesn,t work, I think I will use a heavy ball peen and some car body tools since there are really no creases formed in the dents. I don't want to get new kegs because I don't want to concede to thieving scumbags. BTW, if there any Canadian attorney brewers in the forum, can I sue the jerk in civil court to recover my tools?

DocDave

Well, if they were stealing kegs to scrap chances are even if you won they wouldn't pay. You would be out the court filing costs as well.

Lets see how bad they are and maybe then can offer some better fixes.