Pressurized removable keg lid

I am trying to make a removable keg lid pressurized. So far I have gotten it up to 8 psi. I am wondering if anyone has managed to make a removable lid pressurized?

This is what i got so far. This is a coors style keg I cut the lid off of a while back and scrubbed the inside to make it very clean. I had made a jig to create a smaller circle in the top but ended up not working because of the lip interfered with the grinder, so I cut it by hand.

The o-ring is 1/4 thick and it sits on top of the keg surrounding the hole. There is not as much space between the hole and the o-ring as I would like. An discarded keg top is placed on top of the o-ring and compressed down using two metal bars and some wooden pieces curved to roughly match the shape of the lid

This is what it looks like all put together. So far I can only get it to pressurize to 8 psi, followed by a hiss as the air escapes. Any suggestions on how to make it withstand more pressure? Would a smaller hole and o-ring be less likely to leak?

Part of the reason is that in order to get it to pressurize, you need the pressure to make it seal more, not seal less (pressure inside a corny keg pushes the lid tighter against the keg). This is not going to work, and certainly not going to work with wood. Please stop.

Why do you want to pressurize this (edit: it looks like you're spunding? It doesn't matter. Please stop.)? That looks incredibly unsafe. I am not an engineer, but I would not put my balls within a hundred yards of that thing. In fact, Oceanside is a little too close to my balls for comfort.

Yeah, that's not gonna work at all, and trying harder will only raise the personal damage quotient when something lets loose.

It's probably too late considering how huge the hole was cut, but if the OP really is bound and determined to pursue this, he/she should throw everything done away, then cut the hole so it's oblonged, which would allow an oblong "lid" at least an inch or so larger than the hole (in both length and width) to be passed through to the inside and shaped to conform to the underside of the keg top. Then a handle should be welded on top of the lid, because there won't be any way to use this without one.

With that all done the lid can be inserted through the hole in the keg top, then rotated 90° and lined up with the hole. The o-ring could then be laid on top of the lid and the whole thing brought up to the underside of the keg. Pressurizing the keg would hold the lid in place and pretty much guarantee that it won't get launched at any reasonable pressure. And let's set the ceiling on that metric below 30 psi as there'll never be a good reason to go any higher than around half that pressure.

Oh - and add a PRV to the keg. There are add-on PRVs meant for OEM pin-lock kegs, you just drill the required hole and bolt the valve assembly in...

Cheers!

If you have a 10" ID O-ring there you are applying over 600 lbs of force against that lid with the 8 PSI that you have attained. With that much force on the lid it's deforming enough to leak. I'd quit or totally re-engineer the idea from a safety standpoint before continuing.

I've never understood why people cut open the keg, and then try to pressurize it.
Is it to clean it out? I use Sankes for fermenting, and don't have a problem with cleaning.
Is there another reason I'm missing?

acidrain said:

I've never understood why people cut open the keg, and then try to pressurize it.
Is it to clean it out? I use Sankes for fermenting, and don't have a problem with cleaning.
Is there another reason I'm missing?

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Every carboy I have opened has had something inside I would not want to put next to my fresh wort, including ones I had used my carboy/keg washer on. I had made one of my old sanke fermenters into a keggle a while back and found a ring of krausen, i was unable to detect with a mirror and scope. I would rather not use severe caustics and 40 gallons of water to clean my fermenters out each time, as I have no place to safely dump the effluents. I have gone back to carboys until I can come up with a better plan. While this first attempt at this failed the pressurization test I think it will work well for just plain fermenting.

I have never pressure fermented but would like to experiment with this in mind I attempted to make my new fermenter style cleanable, inspectable and pressurize-able. I feel I have learned enough through the posts here to make it happen on my next attempt. What I have learned

1. The force needed to hold the pressure is a function of the O-ring size.
   
2. An oblong lid into an oblong hole would allow a corny style pressurization of the lid
   
3. Keep your balls at least one county from a sketchily pressurized vessel.

Thanks to ChuckO for doing the math for me to help me understand it. My o-ring is 9" meaning I was able to withstand 509lbs of force with this setup. A 4.5" hole with a 5" o-ring would need under 300lbs of force to withstand 15psi.

Photopilot said:

[...]Keep your balls at least one county from a sketchily pressurized vessel.

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Always good advice...

Cheers!

Photopilot said:

Every carboy I have opened has had something inside I would not want to put next to my fresh wort, including ones I had used my carboy/keg washer on.

Click to expand...

I ferment in Sankes, so I speak from experience.
I use a pressure washer with an elbow at the tip. Takes less that 5 minutes to clean a keg, and I always look inside with a flashlight to make sure. Cost me less than $20 and works flawlessly.

Fashion something like the openings on the huge commercial conicals. Otherwise, I think you should ditch the pressurized fermentation idea with this setup.

I was looking at your keg .. with the hole cut in the top. I have a early model stainless steel 12.5 gallon fermenter .. with the cross bar .. wing nut and metal plate for hold the lid on the top of the fermenter. It looks like you could do something sort of like that with your keg.

I would get a cheap pizza pan .. maybe 14" diameter ..(from the dollar store .. as a trial .. and if it works .. get a better pan) .. drill a hole in the pizza pan .. maybe .. about 3/4" diameter ... to hold a stopper. The stopper will hold an airlock. You could drill a larger hole .. to hold a stopper with two holes. I don't know if you could pressure transfer .. but you could definitely syphon from the top. You could also drill a hole in the bottom area of the keg .. and fit with a rotating arm .. or other valve to drain from. Drill maybe 4 holes in the sides of the pizza pan ... 12 o'clock .. 3,6,9 o'clock .. to hold a bungee cord. The bungee cord will hold the pizza pan tightly against the o-ring gasket .. creating the seal. The pan is on top of the fermenter .. not inside. It is not going to be like a pressure cooker. You just want to be air tight .. to see action in your airlock as your wort ferments .. right? I don't think you would need the eye bolts or s hooks. Turn the pizza pan upside down .. on top of the o-ring gasket. Put the bungee cord hooks in the pizza pan holes .. and stretch it down and attach the other side of the bungee cord to the bottom of the keg.

I have thought of turning a keg into a fermenter too. I may go the route of .. just taking the spear out .. and fitting the opening with one of those orange two hole carboy caps?

Good luck .. I think you will find something that works for you.

acidrain said:

I ferment in Sankes, so I speak from experience.
I use a pressure washer with an elbow at the tip. Takes less that 5 minutes to clean a keg, and I always look inside with a flashlight to make sure. Cost me less than $20 and works flawlessly.

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Does a free pressure washer come with the $20 tip?

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Photopilot said:

Does a free pressure washer come with the $20 tip?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app

Click to expand...

No, does the TIG welder come with the welding rod?
This is DIY... there are at least a dozen ways to clean a keg. You don't need to take the top off to do it.

Cut the hole in an oval just like a corny. That way the lid can go inside and the pressure will seal it.

Going out on a limb here.

If you could rotate the keg like a tumbler, and find a suitable medium to polish the insides, a huge hole would not be necessary.

Something like stainless pins or ceramic beads? In a citric acid solution, or vinegar, etc.
Set keg on it's side on a couple of rotating rods. Only one rod needs power,
the other could idle. Rubber hose for traction, get the idea?
From a reloading (ammunition) background the tumbling thought just hit me.

This might be more feasible if you do multiple kegs, or salvage kegs for trade?

I have a couple of kegs like this, always wanted to keg my brews but never got it assembled, maybe I'll get a CO2 bottle after all...

acidrain said:

I ferment in Sankes, so I speak from experience.

I use a pressure washer with an elbow at the tip. Takes less that 5 minutes to clean a keg, and I always look inside with a flashlight to make sure. Cost me less than $20 and works flawlessly.

Click to expand...

Thanks Acidrain! Why didn't I think of this myself?? *facepalm*


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That sounds good, and easier too.