stick weld a keg.

was just wandering if a keggle could be welded with a stick welder. My neighbor is a very good stick welder and he said he could weld them up for me. I took my lid over and had him weld on the washers and they dont look to bad, he said it would have even looked better if he had 3/32 rod.

For a sanitary stainless weld I would want it TIG or gas welded.

I think rust is a big issue. Is he using stainless rods? Even so, the possibility of the excess heat removing the stainless properties around the weld scare me. I know you can use various flux materials to help, but I'd be hesitant.

I'm guessing you won't be the first to do it though.

i am kind of hesitant but I think I will go ahead and let him try on one coupler and see how it looks. since it is so conveniant.

Let us know how it holds up regarding rust after a few uses. I own a stick welder but I'm too chicken to use it on my precious kegs.

IMHO there isn't enough temp control on an arc weld to keep it from changing the stainless composition, let alone the major sugaring that will take place w/o purging the back with argon. I guess a little rust never hurt anyne either. I would get them tig welded, but that's just me.

I had my neighbor stick weld couplers on my kegs with a stainless rod. They aren't as clean as the one I had TIG welded but I haven't had any problems so far. I can't complain though, I got 11 couplers stick welded for $35 from my neighbor vs. $15 for a single TIG weld at the welding shop.

I wouldn't. Stainless comes in so many flavors. 18/0 - 18/8 - 18/10...

It will hold wort, but I would have it professionally done. (TIG with shielding gasses.)

Go for it. It makes no difference. You will be boiling everything that touches those welds. IMHO all this worry about sanitary welds is a waste of time. Does not matter what is "stuck" in the cracks. Its all brew material, and at 200+ degrees. Nothing will remain alive.

If you have a line on cheap welding. Take advantage. Worst case you might have to clean the area around the weld after every brew. Big deal. You should do that anyway.

i got the couplings ordered from bargain fittings. I think i will let him weld in a couple and I am going to silver solder or braze some myself and see what I like best. Another ? I have been looking for cadmium free 3/32 welding rod and cannot find any. Do they even make it?

Brewmoor said:

Go for it. It makes no difference. You will be boiling everything that touches those welds. IMHO all this worry about sanitary welds is a waste of time. Does not matter what is "stuck" in the cracks. Its all brew material, and at 200+ degrees. Nothing will remain alive.

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True. Sort of. It's probably going to rust...bigtime.

If you flux properly (inside and out) and use a stainless electrode, it's possible that you'll get good results. This electrode looks like it could work for you. Of course, going to the effort of buying stainless electrodes and flux (probably special order items) will likely be more expensive than just having a shop weld them properly.

that sounds good but to make it look a bit better then go with 1/16" rod, if your boys good then this should not be a problem for him 3/32 is a bit big and plus he is work with very very thin metal for stick and if he does have a stick then why not have the tig option unless he has buzz box then i would say go to the back of a welding shop and a case of beer will get you a long way, but have the beer in the car/truck when approching said shop

That's something your local welding supply won't carry . . . If you want to pay for it . . . They Have it . . . GL


http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/mepages/weldingrod.php

The slag from stick welding is the reason I would want to go with TIG or silver brazing, or even solder.

bendavanza said:

The slag from stick welding is the reason I would want to go with TIG or silver brazing, or even solder.

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My friend used stainless stick for welding his fittings, slag chipped off without any problem. What stayed behind was removed with a hand held pencil glass bead blaster. This on the outside and inside of the kegs removing the sugar for a bright finish inside. I myself would go with Tig.

about 12 years ago, i used a 316 rod iirc. it was a strange animal. i would in order of all benefits: tig, mig, stick.

Just finished Stick welding mine.
I really wanted to tig it ,but I`m about $400 short for my rig lol.

I made a tool ,Inspired by GreenMonti, I posted about it in the soldering stainless thread.
Well i was at the weld shop looking around and found a box of 5/64 308l-16
stick rod and this is what i came up with.













I`m not real good with the camera ,but hopefully you can see there is absolutely no sugar on the inside ,came out better than expected ,and there water tight.
I may just use this for the other two kegs.
couple more pics in my gallery.
Thanks, Geoff

Impressive!

stopped buy pepboys today and picked up some prostripe (multistripes)
3/16 x pinstriping for the wort level , It`s a 3/16 pinstripe with 1/16 stripe top and bottom clear in the middle ,should work well.

I have a lincoln mig welder with mixed argon gas. What wire should I use? Would this be a good choice?:
http://toolsandmore.us/us-forge-00676-stainless-steel-mig-wire.aspx

Hardtack said:

Just finished Stick welding mine.
I really wanted to tig it ,but I`m about $400 short for my rig lol.

I made a tool ,Inspired by GreenMonti, I posted about it in the soldering stainless thread.
Well i was at the weld shop looking around and found a box of 5/64 308l-16
stick rod and this is what i came up with.

I`m not real good with the camera ,but hopefully you can see there is absolutely no sugar on the inside ,came out better than expected ,and there water tight.
I may just use this for the other two kegs.
couple more pics in my gallery.
Thanks, Geoff

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Congrats on your welding project, you got good results no matter what the negative members replies were. Knowledge learned by testing with results yourself is better than no you can't do that, you proved it. hell i've used SS stick rod as Tig filler rod after removing the flux, thin SS Mig wire with Tig welding all the time. See who's laughing with a successful project now?

When ever you weld no matter whether it's Mig Tig or what, you gotta heat treat the SST afterward or it'll rust anyway 'cause the heat strips the chrome away and the metal changes enough that it won't self passivate very readily.

Maybe your welder friend knows about what's called in the industry the "solution treatment" which is just an annealing process for SST after welding.

Quick update
I was at the hardware store and found a 5/8"x1/2" flare adapter.

so i annealed a piece of 1/2" copper pipe with a propane torch ,and used one of them bender springs ,flared both ends and came up with this.



only thing left in the keg after draining is the 1/8" at the very center,I don`t think I could clog it if i tried.
I`ve test fired this keg twice so far and there is absolutely no signs of rust anywhere.
Both times it has boiled off 2.25 gallons at 60 min.
I really need to get some beer in it! Think I`m gonna do 10 Gallons of Cream of three crops.

Those welds are beautiful....is the lack of sugaring an indication that it WON'T rust? In other words, how do you know the composition of the metal hasn't changed? I guess it'll be pretty obvious after a few brews.

Raising the temp to welding temp will always change stainless. You have to re-passivated it if you care about the stainless property around the HAZ (Heat Affected Zone). My buddy has some stainless sticks and has been itching to try them out.

RegionalChaos said:

Raising the temp to welding temp will always change stainless. You have to re-passivated it if you care about the stainless property around the HAZ (Heat Affected Zone). My buddy has some stainless sticks and has been itching to try them out.

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This passivating notion is new to me and this came up right off when I Googled the term so I thought I'd share.

I'd really like to use my stick welder, but have been too chicken due to rusting concerns. Maybe I need to experiment a bit on something other than my precious kegs!

With welding you always want to do a lot of practices runs before doing the real work. At least I think so, unless you really know what your are doing I suppose. You have to dial in your machine. Different metal thicknesses, different rod thicknesses, etc.. It's always good to practice

ScubaSteve said:

Those welds are beautiful....is the lack of sugaring an indication that it WON'T rust? In other words, how do you know the composition of the metal hasn't changed? I guess it'll be pretty obvious after a few brews.

Click to expand...

The reason that there is no sugar is that the keg is flared.



I pulled a 1/2in. coupling (1-1/16in. O.D.)through a 7/8in. hole using this.



It`a a 1/2in. coupling sharpened on a bench grinder ,a 1n. galvanized coupling ,that i grinded the threads out of on one end with a die grinder to allow for the thickness of the keg. and a piece of 5/8in.all thread bolt.
It`s kind of like the "keg tool" but not nearly as nice,I was gonna upgrade the 1in. to stainless and then figured ,what the hell ghetto goes so well with homebrewing.

But what it does is leave about 3/16in. of the keg flat to the coupling,so the back of the weld doesn`t come in contact with outside air.

Just realized that i posted this info in another thread,and not this one.
DOH!