Good welder in Los Angeles with keggle experience?

So I've finally obtained the kegs to make some keggles. Now I just need someone in the LA Area who is good at cutting and welding them.

I live just north of Los Angeles / San Fernando, in Santa Clarita.

Anyone have any recommendations?

Your best bet is a "certified" welder that does sanitary welding like dairy, food, or pharm work.
Also a certified welder that works in chemical or petroleum.
Finding a "good" stainless welder is a challenge sometimes.
If you ask them about back purging or sanitary welding and they look at you with a blank look then walk away.
Tig welding is the the proper way to do food grade welding.
Since your rig will be on the hot side of your brewery sanitary is not essential, but you also don't want someone making a mess of your equipment.
Be a little more discretionary in looking for a welder and you'll be much happier with the outcome.

In fairness, if they can lay a nice TIG bead down, back purging is just icing on the cake. I'd start by asking for quotes to put x number of bulkheads in and then say, "can you backpurge with argon or use a flux to avoid sugaring?". If they say no, mark that down next to the quote.

After calling 8 places, 3 will have said they don't want such a small job, 3 quotes would be for 3x the money you're looking to spend. One will give you a good price but say no to the backpurge. The last guy will give you a decent quote but tell you the backpurging will be twice as much.

I mean I don't know this for fact, but that's the experience I've had any time I've asked around. The type of places that know full well what back purging does is also the shop that works for pharma and precision chemical outfits. They're not your typical $60 an hour steel box/stick welding shops.

You will pretty much have to decide between affordable and a little sugared on the back, or premium price if you can find someone.

Perhaps a good compromise would be to find a reasonable quote and bring some Solarflux with you.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SOLAR-FLUX-...A%2BFICS%2BUFI&otn=21&pmod=220675892644&ps=54

A good welder is not gonna be cheap, so you will have to make a compromise.
You may be fortunate enough to find someone with the skill and experience to do it right at a decent price.

The problem is there are hundreds of thousands of welders out there, but only several thousand throughout the country that can do it the right way.

I was a pipe welder in chemical plants for around 15 years. About 75% of the work we did was with 304L, and 316L stainless, and a lot of AL6XN.
It was still a bit different doing sanitary level welding coming from a chemical industry.
I had the skill just lacked the knowledge in sanitary welding.
I now do side work for barter with a local brewery. They pay me in equipment for my homebrew set-up for my services. I work cheap, but I still like what I do after all these years.

So you may find someone like me that can "hook you up"

If we were closer I would be glad to do the work for you.

Here are a couple leads to start with:



So California Sanitary Welding,and here are some more