Funkenjaeger
Well-Known Member
I just thought I'd speak up and mention that I drilled my keggle tonight, just to provide my experience for anyone who's thinking about doing so - I know it's not a big deal for many people, but I was rather worried about it, since holesaws can be kind of nasty, and I don't have a lot of tools to fix it in the event that I somehow screwed up. I used a 3/4" holesaw and a big corded drill. The holesaw was a Ridgid brand (from home depot) bimetal holesaw, cost about $7, and I already had a mandrel for it.
I was pretty worried about it as I know holesaws aren't exactly precision equipment and like to bite in and yank the drill around, etc... But everything went pretty well. It was surprisingly easy and fast, really. It took a couple of minutes to get the pilot bit through the metal with the drill speed quite slow, and then less than a minute for the holesaw to get through the keg. The holesaw itself cut very nicely, much smoother than I expected, and at the end it just popped through without binding or tearing or anything.
It did leave a somewhat jagged, sharp edge on the hole, but nothing a little dremel work can't handle. As it is, it's not quite big enough for the 1/2" NPT pipe nipple that needs to go through it, but it's big enough that I can sort of start to thread it in, which means by the time I get done cleaning up the hole it ought to be just about the right size.
So hopefully in the next couple of days I'll get the hole cleaned up, install the valve, and throw together a dip tube for it, and finally have a finished keggle!
I was pretty worried about it as I know holesaws aren't exactly precision equipment and like to bite in and yank the drill around, etc... But everything went pretty well. It was surprisingly easy and fast, really. It took a couple of minutes to get the pilot bit through the metal with the drill speed quite slow, and then less than a minute for the holesaw to get through the keg. The holesaw itself cut very nicely, much smoother than I expected, and at the end it just popped through without binding or tearing or anything.
It did leave a somewhat jagged, sharp edge on the hole, but nothing a little dremel work can't handle. As it is, it's not quite big enough for the 1/2" NPT pipe nipple that needs to go through it, but it's big enough that I can sort of start to thread it in, which means by the time I get done cleaning up the hole it ought to be just about the right size.
So hopefully in the next couple of days I'll get the hole cleaned up, install the valve, and throw together a dip tube for it, and finally have a finished keggle!