Keg couplers welded in. Dissapointed. Advice

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IrregularPulse

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So I finally got my couplers welded into my kegs. The outsides look great. The guy assured me he would back gas for sanitary foodsafe welds. I toldhim what the kegs were for.

Here's what I got on the insides. What you all think. Can I cllean them up with a grinder. Should I? Are they okay? they're pretty rough to the touch

keggle001.jpg


keggle002.jpg


keggle003.jpg


keggle005.jpg
 
I am not a welder, so I can't vouch for sanitary issues, but I don't think that weld job looks very good or professional. I'd try to get it fixed or smooth it out some.
 
Yuri is a TIGger, so maybe he'll chime in. It doesn't look like the best job to me, but I've seen worse. Most that I've seen have a little sugaring.

Honestly I don't think it really matters that much. Regardless of whether this is your HLT, MLT, or BK, you are eventually going to boil you wort. Boiling kills baddies.
 
Honestly I don't think it really matters that much. Regardless of whether this is your HLT, MLT, or BK, you are eventually going to boil you wort. Boiling kills baddies.

Kind of what I was thinking. one will be a HLT the other boil kettle.
I only paid $25 per kettle so cant complain too much. Another play quoted me 150 for the same job
 
When it turns black like that it's oxidized and you've burned the chrome and the nickel out and it will rust. You basically have carbon steel at that location. When it's welded correctly with a purge of argon on the backside it will be shiny just like the base metal. The only way to correct the job that was done is to get cut out all the black and put a bigger coupling on it.
 
I called the guy today. The threads on the inner coupler would not accept my 1/2 pieces. He said they must have warped some from the heat and apologized for not cleaning up the insides. He said there wasn't a way to purge the tank with gas short of duct taping the top. Which he said he could do the purging before taking them too him. But he driver over to my house right away an d picked them up and apologized immensely for the problems and is hitting them with a wire brush tonight to drop off tomorrow. He was going to bring them tonight but electric is out all over around here. I'll post pics tomorrow.

Couple Q's.

1)This keg is a ***** What does this mean
2)What is the problem using a steel wire brush? What will this do?
 
The goatse references means that the weld looks like a particular shock image that used to be found at at ***** named URL.

Don't google for it unless you want to bleach your eyeballs.
 
The problem with using a steel brush (i.e. carbon steel, not stainless) is that it will embed pieces of carbon steel into the stainless, which will subsequently rust.
 
I would not pay $25 for that weld. Looks like he didn't even think about pre-heating it, used bad filler and I totally call shens that he nitrogen blanketed it.

It will probably hold and it probably will not leak but it is NOT sanitary.

You will never get all the gremlins out of the porosity no matter how well you grind them down. It will probably be fine as a lauter tun or brew kettle, seeing as sanitation isn't quite as important until after flame-off but I wouldn't let these welds touch finished wort.

As long as you're just using the pots to boil with, you'll be fine.
 
So I finally got my couplers welded into my kegs. The outsides look great. The guy assured me he would back gas for sanitary foodsafe welds. I toldhim what the kegs were for.

Here's what I got on the insides. What you all think. Can I cllean them up with a grinder. Should I? Are they okay? they're pretty rough to the touch

keggle001.jpg

This almost looks like he used flux core wire to weld it or is it some water after a rinse? I would be worried that the weld area will now rust. Not a real big problem but you will have to keep up with maintenance
 
There is water in thos pictures. He had done a leak test right before bring them over. He currently has themfixing them up again. TOo bad half our town lost power last night ( althoughcan't complain compared to Texas) so I didn't get them back last night or today. I'll post pics.

About them being used as onl a HLT or Boil kettle, That is all they are for. I ahve a cooler to a mashtun adn don't plan on changing. It works too well. If it does eventually rust what can I do for it, or what can I do to prevent it? any kind of treatment or add-on. Once again I'll post pics this week (smaller) when I get them.
 
RDWHAHB, everything going in will be boiled anyway. It's not like its your fermenter. Grind the weld down flush (or close to flush) with a new aluminum oxide grind stone, rolox, or your preferred method of destruction. Do not use a used stone or sanding disc, ya its going to rust a little, but if the weld is ground down then it will be easy to clean with a green scrubby. Since the nipple protrudes into the tun, I wouldn't grind this down. It will make installing a fitting difficult. Just be prepared for a little rust and don't worry. No one will taste it, after all exposure will be about 2 hours not weeks.
 
RDWHAHB, everything going in will be boiled anyway. It's not like its your fermenter. Grind the weld down flush (or close to flush) with a new aluminum oxide grind stone, rolox, or your preferred method of destruction. Do not use a used stone or sanding disc, ya its going to rust a little, but if the weld is ground down then it will be easy to clean with a green scrubby. Since the nipple protrudes into the tun, I wouldn't grind this down. It will make installing a fitting difficult. Just be prepared for a little rust and don't worry. No one will taste it, after all exposure will be about 2 hours not weeks.

And thats what I'm looking for. C'mon guys. 2 pages before I get a RDWHAHB? haha I do appreciate all the knowledgeable advice though. He won't be grinding down then inner nipple. I almost wish now I wouldn't have asked him to clean it up cause who knows what he'll use to grind it with.
 
I called the guy today. The threads on the inner coupler would not accept my 1/2 pieces.

If it can't accept your piece(I was going to make a joke about the size of your piece:)) then what are you going to use? You need to put something to get all of the wort out, no? For the therm and site glass not too much of a problem but for the ball valve it could be a problem.
 
That's a nasty looking weld. Can't it be leveled flush with a sanding/grinding wheel and then pacified?
 
It will be grinded down, but what and how is the pacifying process? Will it prevent future rusting? I'm all for preventative maintenance on these.
 
It cant be pasivated at this point. Pasivting restores the surface oxide. The chromium was more than likely burned out with the high heat that was used leaving only steel behind. It is the surface oxide that prevents SS from rusting and it is dependent on the chromium. you could pasivate the keg and allow the oxide to accumulate as far into the heated area as possible, but I dont think you will ever be rust free. Pasivating is done with a mild acid solution on clean stainless, then rinsed and dried. Let it sit with good airflow for a week or so. this is the home version of pasivating. Commercially they would use a nitric? acid solution and the oxide formation would happen much quicker. Think like this. make beer(week acid solution), sponge wash, rinse and towel dry. Allow it to sit until next week when you repeat the process. that should do it except for the missing chromium area. That you will just have to sponge the rust away.
 
ok, got my kegs back. They look pretty good to me. No discoloration at all. Inside weld is same color as outside weld. I really think it was just a case of it not being touched at all inside after the welding on the outside. I'm not worried about it any longer. Thanks to all who helped and recommended such things. I learned some things about metal through this. Oh and he explained to me that he used a new stone for this and explained all the scientifics about why you can't use any thing that's touched carbon steel when working with stainless just like you guys. This guy does seem to know what he's doing and know his metal work, I think I rushed him a little asking to squeeze it in if he could.
 
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