Are my keggles ruined?

My cousin owns a machine shop and said he could plasma cut my kegs and weld my couples on for me. I have a feeling these welds may be "scrappable" and that I may have to start over from the beginning. I've tried grinding these with an angle iron, and using bar keeper's friend paste, but I'm getting more and more discouraged. Anyone know of a way to salvage these, or should I just cut my loses and start over?

 

The "sugaring" that you see is caused by stainless being welded with too many amps and not enough shielding gas on the back side of the weld. Its not the end of the world for a boil kettle. Is the fitting that was welded in stainless? If it is steel that could explain the rust. Make sure that you use a grinding wheel that has never been used for regular steel. It will embed iron particles that create rust. A flap wheel might be your best bet to clean up the inside.

 

The fittings are all stainless. Good point about using a clean grinding wheel, I'm pretty sure it was new (it's been a couple months). These photos are from 3 different keggles, I am very slowly working toward an all grain system.

If it is okay for a boil kettle, does that mean it should also be okay for a MHLT?

 

It's OK everywhere, I'd guess. You just have to live with the ugliness, which most of the OCD brewers on this forum can't. (for example, me )

 

It should be ok for anything on the hot side of your brewery. The only concern I would have is the mash tun and the need to clean it. The boil kettle self sanitizes during the boil and the HLT never has wort in it. Keep at them with a flap wheel and BKF. You seem to be well on your way to a sweet brew rig.

 

Thanks for the tips! I'm on my way to get a flap wheel now!

I'm a little OCD myself, but my impatience to get an all-grain system is outweighing everything else at the moment

 

Yowza, that's a hella unique (insert your own adjective here) weld job.

 

It'll be a bit of a pain to clean, but it's fine for your kettles schlotty

 

I still need to make it by to check out your system! I'm T-minus one month from having my student loans paid off, and that's when I promised myself I'd invest in finishing my all grain home-brewery.