grinding the keggle tomorrow

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Righlander

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so my SS pot is 32qt (8gal). i thought it would be big enough for 5gal batches. it's not. boil overs are really hard to stop with not a lot of head room. i should have listened when you guys told me i might want to go with a bigger pot. i didn't. anyway, i'm gonna take the grinder to the keg tomorrow. i watched a couple vids on how to disassemble the keg before grinding and all that. so ANYWAY, enough of my ramblings and on to my questions. 1: any tips on smoothing out the rough edges after it's cut so that it doesn't cut in to my mash paddle when i'm brewing with it? some kind of sand paper or something? and 2: how many gallons exactly is the keg? it's a standard keg like the full sized ones. like the kind that like budweiser comes in. like keg party style.
 
Smoothing will depend on how clean your cut is... Flap sander on the angle grinder works really well. If your cut is pretty rough, you may need a grinding wheel to "round" it out a bit.

Your keg should be 15.5 gallons.

btw... Spray bottle of water is a great tool for fighting boil overs.


Good luck,

Ed
 
My way less than simple jig (but it's very adjustable):
IMG_3309.jpg


IMG_3311.jpg


IMG_3312.jpg


Last pic is before I touched it.
The shards you see are very thin and sanded clean very easily.
 
a flap sander works great... remember, eye protection AND hearing protection (it's REAL loud). fill that key mostly with water to help deaden some of the noise...
 
BTW... Don't try to cut all the way through the keg in a single pass.
Score it first time around and cut a little deeper each pass.

If you plunge the cutoff wheel through the keg, it won't turn in the radius you need.
 
BTW... Don't try to cut all the way through the keg in a single pass.
Score it first time around and cut a little deeper each pass.

If you plunge the cutoff wheel through the keg, it won't turn in the radius you need.

wow okay thanks. i was wondering about whether i should score it or try to get it all the way through right away
 
hell yeah! im super stoked about having a 15.5gal kettle! MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA! can't wait to grind it tomorrow!
 
I use a simple home-made jig as well, I use an air powered die-grinder to cut it open and just a few minutes with a couple roloc disks mounted o the die grinder takes care of any sharp edges, I can speak from experience that you can still have a boil over when doing a 5 gal batch in a keggle. that happened on my second ever batch, and only because I was too busy reading my recipe and going over my step by step instructions I wrote out. I forgot to add a step regarding watching for boilovers though.
 
I did not use the jig used a marker on a string to draw a circle like a compass. Free hand cut around the circle worked perfect. I saw no need to waste all that time on a jig welded some stainless washers on the removed top to make a lid for the keggle.
 
DEFINITELY USE HEARING AND EYE PROTECTION! Loud is an understatement. Don't do it too early or too late. You're gonna piss the neighbors off!

I didn't use a jig. I used a cutoff wheel and went through 8 discs. I did plunge straight in and smoothed the edges after. I also got sick of the cutoff and used my cordless reciprocating saw on second keg. The blade snapped halfway around, but made by far the cleanest and fastest cut. I wish I had more blades at the time, I would have just used them. I used a hole saw to get a hole and the recip saw just tore right through with little effort. If you have a reciprocating saw and a few extra metal cutting blades, use those. You'll get a way cleaner cut, and it won't take very long. Fill it with water, it'll add weight and it'll prevent the saw from lifting the keg up and down. ( i used 8 gallons of water, and still sat on the damn thing when using the saw.
 
I free hand my kegs, mostly because I like the feel of free handing it. True it won't be as perfect as a jig cut, but still round. Now if I was doing 5+ in a day, yes I'd use a jig. I second the eye protection and +1000 to hearing protection. Good suggestions on filling with water. I never thought of that. It get's super loud.
 
I cut mine free hand with the same grinder pictured. 3 or 4 passes. Then used a 1/4" grinding wheel to clean up the edges. Then a bit of 60grit (belt sander belt) by hand (LEATHER GLOVES). Even if you are wicked tough and careful as hell, the raw edge will cut you as easily as a red ripe tomato.
 
When I cut my keg, I build a quick jig of out of a piece of 2x4 cut in half and made into an L with a hole saw blade that fit in the spear hole drilled 6 inches from where the cutting disc sat. Once the cut was done, I just used the cutting disc to carefully deburr the edges before taking some sand paper to it. Came out pretty round (fits my turkey fryer pot, which was my old brew kettle, lid perfectly) and I have no sharp edges after grinding and sanding the edge down.
 
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