Can these keggles be fixed?

So my friend had a friend that was a welder that would weld my keggles and cut the tops for a case of beer. (hell of a deal since i didn't know any welders) He said he could weld stainless no prob. Well long story short the welder friend passed the kegs to another welder friend and somewhere in the mix the spacing for the couplings was miss communicated. Also he attempted to weld the inside of the keg and was unable to. Will it be possible to weld now with the spacing so close together? Do i even need to weld the inside?? Or are these kegs ruined now?

A little blurry. The flash and angle were giving me trouble.

Sure beats my setup! Welds look good to me, it's tight alright, I would go for it.

Welding inside, IMHO and I am probably wrong, is probably so that there is no gaps to have sugar to build up in. You might want to get a toothbrush and make sure you get the fittings on the inside nice and clean after each use. Everything ends up being boiled so even if it builds up you would be sterilizing every batch by boiling though.

they weren't welded inside, i will post a pic c of mine, that is jus the heating through. if they were wleded on the inside they would be similar to the outside welds. then again the picture is a bit fuzzy

While they aren't beautiful welds, they are typical and will work fine as long as there are no leaks.

this is what mine look like, they are welded on the outside only.

Thanks for the help. From what I'm gathering, it doesn't matter if the inside is welded or not because boiling will kill off the bacteria. So it's not worth having the inside welded as long as they don't leak. And i should just RDWHAHB. Am i on the right track here?

BTW Bobby M does that site glass look familiar. Its one you made and that thing is sturdy. Can't wait to try it out.

Here are some better pictures of the inside of the keggles.

If the ball valve can close completely without contacting the face of the thermo I don't see any problems. Everything is probably closer together than you had envisioned it, but still looks very functional.

kmat123 said:

If the ball valve can close completely without contacting the face of the thermo I don't see any problems. Everything is probably closer together than you had envisioned it, but still looks very functional.

Click to expand...

Just swap the thermo with the sight glass.

Based on the better pictures, they weren't back-gassed and what you see there is sugaring. Not a big deal on the hot side of your brewery but if you can I would try to grind off the sugaring with a Dremel and re-passivate the area around the welds otherwise they will rust. BKF and a stainless or nylon toothbrush will repassivate the SS but the sugaring would have to be removed with a grinding or sanding wheel.

I have my valves rotated so the handle is vertical when off and I pull them straight down to open. This way there is at least a little less chance of burning the grips off!

Derrin said:

Based on the better pictures, they weren't back-gassed and what you see there is sugaring. Not a big deal on the hot side of your brewery but if you can I would try to grind off the sugaring with a Dremel and re-passivate the area around the welds otherwise they will rust. BKF and a stainless or nylon toothbrush will repassivate the SS but the sugaring would have to be removed with a grinding or sanding wheel.

I have my valves rotated so the handle is vertical when off and I pull them straight down to open. This way there is at least a little less chance of burning the grips off!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help. I know nothing about welding so when you say re-passivate its over my head. I take it sugaring is the raised welded area. I could get a hold of a stainless brush, not sure what BFK brush is? I've been wanting a dremel and this might just be the excuse to buy one

ks_medic said:

Thanks for the help. I know nothing about welding so when you say re-passivate its over my head. I take it sugaring is the raised welded area. I could get a hold of a stainless brush, not sure what BFK brush is? I've been wanting a dremel and this might just be the excuse to buy one

Click to expand...

No worries, let me expand... You are really looking at two issues, oxidation at the weld and sugaring.

Stainless steel is stainless because of the chromium in the alloy. When exposed to oxygen, it forms a layer of chromium oxide which protects the metal from rust and is super hard. It's just a few microns thick but that's all it needs. It forms nearly instantly, so if it's scratched or scrubbed off, it comes right back. The formation of this layer is called passivation.

When SS is heated, the chromium is driven off a little deeper, hence the blue, gold and straw colors around the welds. I meant to say BKF; Bar Keepers Friend. It is a cleanser you can get at the grocery store or even Home Depot. It contains Oxalic acid and with a little elbow grease it will remove the discolored oxidation and restore the chromium surface, allowing it to repassivate and preventing it from rusting.

If SS is superheated to molten in the presence of oxygen, it basically burns, the chromium is completely driven off and when it cools it forms that nasty crystalline black structure that looks like black sugar piled on the metal; hence the term 'sugaring'. It is very porous, sharp, hard to clean and will rust for sure. That's why the best way to weld SS for a brewery application is to "back-gas" or "purge" the back side of the weld. The sugaring will not form in an argon atmosphere but back-gassing is not required for the 99% of all other welding and so most welders aren't setup to do it. This isn't a knock on the welder, it's just not something they usually need to do. The sugaring cannot be remove with BKF and scrubbing and needs to be ground or sanded off.

In a fermenter this would clearly be unacceptable but on the hot side of the brewery you could leave those welds just like they are and it wouldn't be a big deal: they just have to seal. The only downside is you'll be chasing rust and they'll be hard to clean. If you take the time to remove the sugaring and scrub all the other oxides off with BKF, those welds will give you years of relatively maintenance-free service.

I know its an old post but this problem has come up for me too. Damn welders, i even asked him to backgas it. Is there another option to seal the bad weld? Cant say for sure its going to be easy to get in there and grind it smooth. Maby an epoxy seal over it would slow the oxygen damage?

Go at it with an angle grinder with a sanding disc. Use at 60-80 grit. That stuff is nasty and hard to grind down.