how i cut my keggles

i have had kegs for about 6 months now. I looked into renting a plasma cutter, then getting a welder to cut them.

the rental company was full of crap, their web site said one price but when i stopped by it was 150% more expensive. the guy gave me some crap that about the web site cant guarentee the price. so i called shanagons on him & left

then i found a welder on craigs list & our schedules didnt work out,

I then tried the gig for the grinder & it didnt work out for me.

I just lopped off the top.

I know, what about the handles, went to home depot got me 3 handles for 2.65 a piece screwed em one i can pick it up now.

i also got a piece of aluminiun 18 x 24 & cut two 16 inch circles, made 1 inch fins in it banged em down around the keg & i had a lid, i screwed on the handle & was finished

I'll have pics tomorrow since unbunto doesnt work well with windows mobile

i tried to use a grinder but went through 2 wheels, so a friend of mine who is a sheet metal guy put a saws all on it and finished it off. He they buffed all the cuts and cleaned it up real nice for me

glad you found a method that worked for you.

Both of you guys should have watched Bobby M's video: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LthGdMk_avk&feature=related]YouTube - Keg to Brew Kettle Conversion[/ame]

i tried bobby's method, but it didnt go so well as my wheels wore down they changed the diameter of the of the hole. i made my jig on the fly and later realized why this was happening (i needed to adjust for the height deviation from rim and pivot point)

i layed out the circle and my keggle came to looking great so i a mhappy with the results.

Ill be honest i cut mine this weekend with a dremel tool. took about 30-45 min but only used 2 wheels. Wasnt as bad as i thought it was going to be.

so what are you guys using for lids?

I went to a restaurant supply store and found a stock pot lid which fits perfectly for $3

i did see the vid & made a similar jig, but since their were no real plans for it, i dont think i made it right, I banged out a lid by cutting a Piece of ALu & then just banging the edges down

I've cut a couple of kegs and the angle grinder is really the way to go, unless you have a lathe or plasma cutter.

I didn't use a jig, so you just need to go slow. I found it worked a lot better if I made several passes. Once you've gone around once, and have a shallow groove, it's easy to keep it aligned. I found that if I tried cutting all the way through (where part of the cuttingwheel was above the keg and partly inside) it made the metal extremely hot and wore through the wheels a lot quicker. If you make a few passes, it works alot better.

I didn't watch Bobby's video, but if didn't mention it, it helps to put 4-5 gallons of water in the keg. It makes clean up easier and helps to deaden the ear-splitting noise.

I just did my 2 kegs last week. I watched Bobby's video beforehand and also found this page on BrewWiki:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Keggle#Hole_Cutting

It had a good article on keggles in general and a good picture of Bobby's Jig that I was able to copy perfectly.

I used a metal cutting wheel and used 1 wheel per keg. No word of a lie, I did both kegs just like Bobby in under 15 minutes. You just need to keep a constant pressure on the grinder and move it evenly around the top.

Of course I didn't realize there would be so much smoke from grinding. I was prepared for the sparks, but needed to open up my garage door to ventilate the smoke better. Also, if you are going this, make sure you have pants and a long sleeve shirt on. I had pants but only a tshirt. The sparks don't burn, but they can be a distraction when hitting bare arms and hands.

I didn't watch Bobby's video, but if didn't mention it, it helps to put 4-5 gallons of water in the keg. It makes clean up easier and helps to deaden the ear-splitting noise.

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Man i wish i would have thought of that

I built a jig pretty much identical to Bobby's and it works awesome. I was afraid I'd have to beef it up a little but the wood worked fine... Rather than use clamps, I used some 3/8 threaded rod and made some U-bolts with backing plates.

The key is to make a lot of light passes. You are cutting a radius with a radius and if you try to go too deep too fast you will start cutting with the sides and not just the very bottom portion of the blade. This will do two things, wear out blades and try to straiten up the cut - both not the ideal situation...

Yeah, cut that barcode right off!! LOL. Very nice jig. It looks a lot safer than the crap I came up with.

monty73741 said:

I just lopped off the top.

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Probably alot easier to clean/pour out of, etc.

Bobby_M said:

Yeah, cut that barcode right off!! LOL. Very nice jig. It looks a lot safer than the crap I came up with.

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I noticed that after I posted it, a different angle of the pic would have been better

Hey, I payed the deposit, I'll just tig the lid back on when I am done

since I am inept and don't have a proper stock of man tools I will be visiting a steel company nearby and letting them do a quick plasma. I think it's like $10.

However, I like ingenuity displayed here

Nice jig. Hey, I have that exact same cheapo angle grinder. (Actually, that thing has really been great for the $10 I paid for it.)

COLObrewer said:

Probably alot easier to clean/pour out of, etc.

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That top rolled edge really keeps the keg rigid though. When you cut it off, it gets a little floppy.

not really, I thought the same thing, until i did it. it pretty thick stainless remeber these can hold a lot of pressure