Keg polishing sucks

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I never quite got the shiny keg thing.

They look ok I guess, but dang that's a lot of work for something that has no measurable effect on my brewing.
 
Clearly, the whole "bling" factor is lost on y'all...

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(^ one of Golddiggie's keggles. Fricken awesome!)

Cheers! ;)
 
It does look awesome, but I would rather spend the time brewing and drinking a beer... If I squint my eyes just so, they look really shiny :)

To all of those that have done it, well done and more power to ya! I'm just too damn lazy
 
Also don't forget that it's not just the initial polish that gets you. If you don't keep it up, after a few brews, they'll look worse than if you never touched them. It's the gift that keeps on givin' Clark.

Oh and polishing the bottom does actually add value do to better heat transfer vs a sooty bottom. Polishing the inside would make it easier to clean. So I guess polishing the outside is like the racing stickers on your civic, makes it look "better" but no real performance gain.
 
I was gonna ask if anyone had done the inside of their kegs, especially the BK, not as much crap would stick to it. +1 on racing stickers on a civic, or carbon fiber lol.
 
Agreed. After hours of grinding/polishing and inhaling metal dust, I have a nice gradient. One keg shiny, they next more like bushed stainless, and the last untouched.

Thinking this could be in my future............

After the first hour, I had already decided MLT would look pretty in insulation.
 
So I guess polishing the outside is like the racing stickers on your civic, makes it look "better" but no real performance gain.

A polished surface radiates less heat, so a polished mash tun should be more efficient at maintaining temps. Although is it worth black-lung and 20 hours, probably not.
 
I'm a third way through polishing mine. After the fine polish. How do you get rid of the black residue?
 
I stopped using polish and kept goin... as all the polish was used off the pad it took some off... the rest came off with a can of stainless cleaner/polish i had for the fridge
 
Still sucks.

Assembled arsenal. 4" polishing pad on 4.5" Milwaukee, 7" buffing wheel on 4.5" Dewalt, 10" buffing wheel on 7" harbor freight, Walmart orbital buffer with Blue Magic. Polishing pad is worthless, ended up rotating between 7" and 10" based on gearbox temperature. Not shown, heat gun for removing paint and 400 grit wet/dry on foam pad for surface prep.

Neighbor taking shift behind the grinder. On the positive side, the unfinished single tier makes nice cradle to hold the rascals.

And place to clamp 10" polishing wheel.

Allow me to restate, again, it still sucks.

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I did my first two and then it took me forever to get around to finishing the last one.

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Looking good. I've already decided the last one will look like a koozie. Damn, I wish I polished before welding the fittings on, but when buddy is doing welding for free, I jumped on it when he had the time.
What works for getting the paint off easily? Failed with acetone and carb cleaner and resorted to heat gun/putty knife combo.
 
Looking good. I've already decided the last one will look like a koozie. Damn, I wish I polished before welding the fittings on, but when buddy is doing welding for free, I jumped on it when he had the time.
If someone is going to help (welding) for free, definitely work with their schedule.
 
MrNatural said:
What works for getting the paint off easily? Failed with acetone and carb cleaner and resorted to heat gun/putty knife combo.

Im using air craft stripper and seems to work well. Its a thin layer of paint and it comes right off.
 
I bought mine from someone on this forum and they had already hit it enough to give that brushed look, which I really like. I have a set of All Clad for cooking and went with the brushed (MC2, polished stainless inside) by my father in laws recommendation as its so much easier to clean (outside) than the polished stainless.


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You must have a lot of spare time on your hands. When I got my HLT someone had written F&CK on it in magic marker (very light print). Four years and countless brews later it is still there.
 
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This is how far I got yesterday - I tried some stainless steeler cleaner prior to this photo and it made it very cloudy. I had to go over the entire thing with the polishing pad again to bring back the shine. Would some metal polish and elbow grease help shine it up a bit more?
 
Press a little harder with the polishing pad. You should be able to do it all with that and not use any BKF or the like. If it still looks cloudy with the angle grinder, it won't get any better manually. I was in the same boat as you until I read this somewhere else. Good luck.
 
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