sanke fermenter

i noticed on brewershardware.com there is a conversion kit to use a sanke keg as a fermenter... has anyone converted one of these on their own to do that with?

I converted 2 for a friend. Cut the tops off at 9" dia, he made gaskets out of 2 silicone placemats. A round piece of plexi covers that, with a hole drilled for an airlock. It has a piece of 1x1" barstock that fits through the handles, with a hole drilled through it. Through that is a bolt, 2 nuts, and a washer on the plexi. Tighten the bolt, and it pushes against the barstock and plexi, sealing it.

No pics, sorry.

Check out WortMongers post, I believe it is what he uses.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/closed-system-pressurized-fermentation-technique-44344/

I ferment in them all the time as is.... Just get a stopper big enough to make a seal on the opening. (#11 I think. But could be wrong.) and stick an airlock in..... Done! Works great and you don't even have to ruin a perfectly good sanky ether. Easy to clean just rinse and do a hot water soak th oxyclean or PBW. And your ready for another batch. I do 12 gal batches in mine.

I've used the ones from Derrin (Brewers Hardware) but I'm also in the process of getting some of my own made. Basically, I'm doing without the 1/2" piece of pipe for the airlock/blow-off tube, changing the racking cane fitting for a ball lock liquid post, and installing one of his thermowells (those are sweet BTW)... I already have gas posts on my sanke kegs, so I don't need to worry about getting CO2 into the kegs to push the finished beer out. I also plan to get some made without the thermowell, just for transferring finished fermentations.

I'd say that for the majority of people, the setup as Derrin has made it, does the job. There's always going to be some that want to tweak something to make it different. In this case, I fall into the later category.

I also have a short pony keg that I started to cut the center, around the valve hole, but buggered it up. So, now I plan on having the welder I've been using clean it up and install a 4" TC ferrule, and modify a cap, so that I can use it as a fermenter without any difficulty.

Oh, and if you're just looking to install an airlock into a sanke keg, the large universal bung (NOT the one for Better Bottle carboys, the OTHER one) does it perfectly. Just be sure you push the bung all the way into the hole (jam it into the bung hole ) and it will seal up just fine.