Keg Repair

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IrregularPulse

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My boil keggle is a little bent up around the skirt which makes it difficult to sturdy it on my burner. Any tips on what methods/tools should be used to straighten this skirt out short of beating it with a hammer?
 
I too am interested in other ideas. I have a 3 lb hand held sledge hammer that I tried to use to straighten out the skirts on my kegs and I really had to beat the crap out of them to get them to move at all, and they still aren't that great. That SS is tough stuff.
 
If the skirt is bent inward, You could use a very large pipe wrench on it (with some rags to keep from marring) but you'll need someone to sit on the keg to hold it down.
 
Just like in body and metal work if you don't back up your work it just springs back. On Heavy gauge steel we used to use two 5 pound sledges One to beat the metal and the other to concentrate the force . Take a small sledge and put it on the crease where the metal is bent and then hit the lip of the base with the other it should move much easier than just using one hammer you may need two people. Or if you can lay it on something and beat it . We had a 3 ft piece of railway track for that.

If you now someone with a hydraulic porta power used in body work it is real easy just pump a few times and hit the crease it will move like butter.
 
If it is bent inwards you could set a jack inside with some blocks and jack it straight. You would need two heavy pieces of steel with a radius the same as the keg for the top and bottom of the jack so you don't deform it even worse.

You might get by with some 4X4 wood blocks with the radius cut in them also.
 
Maybe just squeeze it in a vise with strips of soft metal in between keg and vise jaw to prevent marking up the keg surface. This will let it sit level again.

The best answer is to only use a good keg to begin with, if aesthetics are important. Pawn the old one and stat over. Keep your plumbing for the new one.
 
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