keggle cut to small

I had my friend cut my keg with a plasma cutter and he cut it way too small. I marked a line for him to cut and he cut it all on the inside. So it ended up way big on the top, and my lid does not fit.

How can I fix it... I have no tools.. so yeah..

sand it, grind it, plasma cut it again?

How much of a difference are we talking about? If he's got a plasma cutter, I would imagine he's also got a right angle grinder that can be used to clean it up... Have him grind it down so that the lid fits nicely...

He took it to his welding class at school...

Have him take it back and fix the cut then... Give him the lid for reference so that he gets it right this time...

looks like my line was too small in the 1st place

Do I even need a lid?

I dont have a lid, but may get one for the HLT only....just to slow the heat lose out of the top, and to keep all my precious sparge water form going up in a steam filled cloud.

But then again, I do not pay for my water or power so I may not....

Tim

Golddiggie said:

How much of a difference are we talking about? If he's got a plasma cutter, I would imagine he's also got a right angle grinder that can be used to clean it up... Have him grind it down so that the lid fits nicely...

Click to expand...

Golddiggie's right.
A grinder will get your hole to size pretty fast.
Maybe you should borrow the grinder and fix it yourself, I believe you could do a better job.
No offense but I would not let that friend touch my keg again after seeing that plasma cut.

dmfa200 said:

Golddiggie's right.
A grinder will get your hole to size pretty fast.
Maybe you should borrow the grinder and fix it yourself, I believe you could do a better job.
No offense but I would not let that friend touch my keg again after seeing that plasma cut.

Click to expand...

I was thinking the exact same thing, just take a grinder to it yourself and grind it down however you want it done. You are the only one who will take the time and effort to get it the way you want it.

first, fire your friend. that is a horrible cut. consider hiring him again after he has 10 years experience in the industry. You want to get an angle grinder, as mentioned, and use a stainless steel cutting blade. You are going to want to build a contraption that can create a perfect circle. It would have been easier with the keg top in tact, but now you have to design something else.

i would create an 'x' with 2x4's. somehow rig the angle grinder to the center in a way that it will spin in a perfect rotation. That'll give you a good cut that just needs to be smoothed out afterwards.

Just clean it up yourself and make it fit the lid you want to use on it.

Grinder is your best bet. Plus it will let you get a nice smooth hole instead of a jagged one.

And hey, its Jake from the SIB! I didn't know you were on HBT!

dmfa200 said:

Golddiggie's right.
A grinder will get your hole to size pretty fast.
Maybe you should borrow the grinder and fix it yourself, I believe you could do a better job.
No offense but I would not let that friend touch my keg again after seeing that plasma cut.

Click to expand...

I agree, what a butcher this guy should not be alowed near a plasma cutter again

You don't need a lid especially for your boil kettle. I would do as others have mentioned and get a grinder or dremel and clean the jagged edges up so you don't cut yourself on them. Also, your lid looks fine to me sitting on the top like that. I use an immersion chiller so after the boil is complete, I kill the heat and throw a clean towel over the top. This lets heat escape and keeps any critters from falling in.

Cut him some slack. It was probably a free job and the guy is still young and learning. Let's focus on how to fix this horrid cut and stop cutting into his friend.

You can buy an electric grinder at the big box stores for $25-30 or so I think. Pick one up and start working on it.

And maybe next time show your friend some pics of the cutting jigs people have set up here. I made mine out of the dip tube from the beg itself and a small piece of SS tacked on as a guide. The diptube allows the person to rotate the plasma cutter in a nice circle like a compass.

Homercidal said:

Cut him some slack. It was probably a free job and the guy is still young and learning. Let's focus on how to fix this horrid cut and stop cutting into his friend.

You can buy an electric grinder at the big box stores for $25-30 or so I think. Pick one up and start working on it.

And maybe next time show your friend some pics of the cutting jigs people have set up here. I made mine out of the dip tube from the beg itself and a small piece of SS tacked on as a guide. The diptube allows the person to rotate the plasma cutter in a nice circle like a compass.

Click to expand...

Yeah he is new to welding and probably just started using the plasma cutter. I guess I could find a angle grinder or borrow one from a friend and fix it my self.

Wow, get some sleep and you miss a bunch of posts..

IF you have a decent drill, you could try putting a sanding/grinding wheel on it and fix it up yourself... A right angle grinder will be easier though. Plus, it's not a bad tool to have on hand... With that, and a cut-off wheel, you won't need to have him hack up the keg next time...

BTW, just learning how to do something is no excuse for doing a sloppy job of it. Especially since you gave him a line to follow... IF he didn't want to cut too much off, then he should have cut close and used a grinder on the rest of it...

Get a Grinder, but use a flapper wheel (80 grit will work fine)



More forgiving (a regular grinding wheel can dig in and gouge your metal if you are not familiar with the equipment. Well, and you can hurt yourself!) and will give you a cleaner non sharp finish.

Going at it again with a plasma cutter can lead to a bigger mess. You really don't have that far to go.

Thanks for the advice! I can use all the help I can get.

There is a Harbor Freight near you.

Get this:
4-1-2-half-inch-angle-grinder for $18 - note the 20% discount at the top of the page also.

mmurray said:

Get a Grinder, but use a flapper wheel (80 grit will work fine)

More forgiving (a regular grinding wheel can dig in and gouge your metal if you are not familiar with the equipment. Well, and you can hurt yourself!) and will give you a cleaner non sharp finish.

Going at it again with a plasma cutter can lead to a bigger mess. You really don't have that far to go.

Click to expand...

Take mmurrays advice and use the wheel pictured. It will work better than a grinding wheel.
You can buy them at lowes and Home Depot

Okay I will use the flapper wheel and then can I just use sand paper or is there a sand paper attachment?

The flapper wheel IS sand paper.

ahhh how many do you think I will need?

For the little that you need to remove, one should be fine.

And go slow and even when cleaning up the edges... you'll be surprised at how fast it'll remove metal that thin!

mmurray said:

For the little that you need to remove, one should be fine.

And go slow and even when cleaning up the edges... you'll be surprised at how fast it'll remove metal that thin!

Click to expand...

Thanks good to know!

Hey James it's Sam from SIB, When I did mine (my keggles was cut closer to what I wanted) but I had to smooth out the rough edges and take some off so my lid could fit, but this is what I did:

Before

Before

What I used

After

This can do a great job of cleaning it up and to make sure you don't have any sharp edges or burrs to cut yourself on. And it can do a good job at removing some of the excess you want to remove.
Just message me if you want to come by and use it.

Jcmccoy said:

Do I even need a lid?

Click to expand...

What are you using it for?
I use my 10 gallon round gott cooler lid as a lid for my HLT, fits perfectly.
You don't want a lid on your brew kettle while boiling your wort. You can cover during cooling to prevent contaminates from getting in.

I would just clean it up a little with a grinder and leave it. If you take off too much your lid will fall in.

Clean up the cut line, so that you don't open your arm up when cleaning it, and then test it before grinding away any more. IF you do need to grind away more, do it in very small amounts, test fitting as you go... It would really suck donkey junk if you were to grind away too much, too fast, and that lid won't sit right, or falls in if you look at it funny.

My buddy built two of these and he has the tools! He told me I can come over this weekend and we can clean it up. I think it would be smart to just clean it up all nice and use a towel to cover when chilling and not worry about the lid.

A towel soaked in StarSan does wonders... I use those (they're not dripping wet) whenever I have exposed wort/brew (post boil)...

If possible, find out what they usually put around the edge of the hole on keggles. I know the LHBS I visit converts them, and they have something going around the hole so that you won't get cut, ever... It has to be heat tolerant at least into the mid-200F range...

Jcmccoy said:

Click to expand...

toolboxdiver said:

I agree, what a butcher this guy should not be alowed near a plasma cutter again

Click to expand...

I've seen worse. You ever get a peek at the keg that BierMuncher converted himself?

It can be fixed no prob!

I always use a lid when waiting to get up to boil. Maybe its not that big of a difference, but it seems to get to temp faster.

Don't let a friend drink and plasma cut.

Man, some of the kegs I have seen on here are insanely bad :rofl:

Fixed! took less than a hour.

Good deal. Looks much better.