Simplest (?) Keggle Cutting Jig

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You need to use the thinner disc. Any metal cutting abrasive disc will work. I'd buy a couple if you have more than one cut to make.
 
Passedpawn, or other DIYers, what thickness disc do you use for this?

.045". I use up one of these disks per keg. Lowe's or HD.

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I'm finally cutting my keg today and I'm so glad I found this thread. The jig was really easy to make and I'm about to head out there to test it out. I think mine is going to cut a little less than 12 inches at the current set up so I might adjust it a little bit.

Here are a few pictures of my set up currently:

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I had some extra space inside the top hole so I stuck a piece of 1 inch PVC down into it to help stabilize it. My 1 inch piece is actually resting on the bottom.

Here goes nothing!
 
Here's my finished product. Worked like a charm. I could only get an 11 inch max diameter since my blade guard stuck out so far but that will do just fine. I'll have a hinged false bottom in there that I think will work perfectly.

I used the same blade as previously mentioned and it worked great

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It left some pretty jagged edges that I'm going to polish off shortly.

Thanks for the idea! You saved me a lot of time and headache
 
I did this last night and can't believe how easy it was. Thanks for posting.

I did run into a snag, or maybe I wasn't doing something correctly. I bought the suggest 1-1/4" pvc coupler. It wouldn't fit inside the hole unless I removed the spear. Problem is - I could not get the spear out. I've taken them out a couple times before in the past, but this very old keg would not cooperate.

I ended up using a 1" coupler, breaking off the 2 retention tabs on the spear, and wrapping the 1" coupler a few times with duct tape to get a snug fit.
 
Thank you posting this jig! I used it earlier today and it worked perfectly!! I found that it helped to use a little oil on the pvc so it would slide better against the keg. Here are my results:

Part way though

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Cut through, but still needs to be finished.

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After a few minutes with sanding flap wheel:

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Barry,
That's a nice, big hole! Does it fit a particular size lid?
 
Barry,
That's a nice, big hole! Does it fit a particular size lid?

Thanks! This was the size the jig wanted to cut it at so I just went with it. This is going to be a boil kettle so I didn't bother trying to match the hole with a lid.
 
A buddy and I took it one step further and had a piece of Delrin machined to fit in the hole almost perfectly (slip fit with some Pam spray). We also got a piece of M8 threaded rod which fits the holes for the handle in the Skil angle grinder. We used some washers and nuts on either side of the Delrin piece, and a nut to hold the rod snug in the angle grinder. This worked so good it's not even funny. A bit more elaborate, but we feel was worth the extra time. We had the piece machined for free at work, and the M8 rod was $7. Free nuts and washers and we're getting off pretty cheap. We also got some super sweet lids from Warezdirect. Stainless and real heavy duty. We measured them up and cut our hole just under 12". The lid fits perfectly. The jig is so smooth and accurate we had very round holes cut with little clean up work. Pics and a youtube video below...



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I'm sorry, bit I just don't understand the obsession with all of these jigs. I just just out a keg with a jigsaw and it came out great. All I had to do is take. A piece of sandpaper and smooth out the edges but it was definitely much cleaner than a grinder could ever get it.
Just a thought before people head out and buy a grinder just for this reason.
 
I'm sorry, bit I just don't understand the obsession with all of these jigs. I just just out a keg with a jigsaw and it came out great. All I had to do is take. A piece of sandpaper and smooth out the edges but it was definitely much cleaner than a grinder could ever get it.
Just a thought before people head out and buy a grinder just for this reason.

Pictures? I have trouble believing a jigsaw could make a cleaner hole than a grinder. Are you saying your hole was "muchg cleaner" than the one above?
 
If you can wield the jigsaw there's no reason at all that you could not make a nice hole. A lot of people, though, have no skill at all and would end up with nasty hole. You could make a perfect hole with a drill, a few 1/8" drill bits, and a file if you had enough time!
 
passedpawn said:
I'd love a plasma cutter. Some day. Welder too. Some day. Nice jig.

How do you clean up slag in the keg? Do you have water in there when you cut?

It's a plasma Tig combo. Very handy.
The top is very clean with No real slag unless I raise the torch shifting my weight.
Bottom is not too bad. I use a dyna file or flap sander on my angle grinder.
Next time I will rinse the kegs real good first. Vaporized beer is the hardest part to cleanup.
Stainless scrubby and bar keepers friend is about the only thing to get it clean.
 
I ended up doing a modified version as my cheapo Harbor Freight grinder didn't have the required handle attachment.

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You will also notice that the switch is in a crappy spot and the operation of the entire setup hinges on the stick I jammed between the grinder and pipe to keep the switch accessible.

I have the same grinder from HF. I made the wooden jig I saw on a Bobby_M video. But just like the pic above I ended up with the switch on the wrong side. The blade can be re-positioned to enable the switch to be accessible from the the front. Just remove the head (the gray part) which is secured with four screws turn 180 degrees and re-install, of course in the pic above that means the body, red part would have to be turned 180 after the head was re-positioned. .

And to Passedpawn, Thanks Pappy! Awesome thread you started! Glad to see it surface again. Great info here from many creative people!
 
I have the same grinder from HB. I made the wooden jig I saw on a Bobby_M video. But just like the pic above I ended up with the switch on the wrong side. The blade can be re-positioned to enable the switch to be accessible from the the front. Just remove the head (the gray part) which is secured with four screws turn 180 degrees and re-install, of course in the pic above that means the body, red part would have to be turned 180 after the head was re-positioned. .

And to Passedpawn, Thanks Pappy! Awesome thread you started! Glad to see it surface again. Great info here from many creative people!

That's great Dan. I'll bet when MMB sees that he's gonna be sorry he didn't think of that. Thanks.
 
I ended up doing a modified version as my cheapo Harbor Freight grinder didn't have the required handle attachment.

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You will also notice that the switch is in a crappy spot and the operation of the entire setup hinges on the stick I jammed between the grinder and pipe to keep the switch accessible.

Awesome idea! It's one of those "why didnt I think of that" moments. I will be using this or a slightyly modified version(to make the hole a bit bigger) this weekend, thanks!
 
Thanks for the great thread passedpawn. I finally had the time to cut the tops and add the ball valves this weekend.

Your rig works like a charm!
 
This should be a sticky in DIY! So easy, I thought about hunting more kegs just to save them from a life of holding light beer.

Took about 10 minutes to cut through once I had the jig assembled. 5 minutes with a flap disc to clean it up and bam.

Now just to polish it up.
 
I'm going to Home Depot today to build this jig. My handles mount on the sides just like this. I'll post back once I'm done. My neighbor wants to do the same so we may do both at the same time. :mug:

- Destin

I used a 4x6 joist hanger (could have gotten away with a 4x4) and cut it down to not get in the way of the guard on the grinder. Drilled some holes in it for large bolts to thread into the grinder, used a double-nut on one side to securely hold the grinder upright, and a PVC spacer on the other to snug things up. This was fastened to a 1.25" PVC coupler by a length of all-thread (nuts on either side of the joist hanger to secure it). The only change that's hard to see is I used a double-nut setup on the 'back' side of the coupler after discovering how much the vibration loosened things up.

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I touched up the edges of the grind with a 60-grit flapper disc on the grinder till I can run my finger around the whole thing and not find any sharp places.
 
Just cut mine tonight. Just used the PVC coupler and a couple zip ties. In the future I will be adding the second piece of PVC that extends into the keg as mine was slightly more wobbly than I would have liked. But all in all cut a perfect circle, Just needs to be cleaned up a bit.

No before pictures, I always seem to forget those :drunk:

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Just a scale on the sides/bottom. I filled it with water to reduce noise. From that angle it does look like old beer. Soaked it in PBW and it is nice and clean now :).

Started the process of polishing it.
 
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