I Win The Award For Ugliest Keggle

Normally my pride wouldn't allow me to expose my fallability (sp) like this...but I'm drinking. And...well...this is kind of funny.

My new found keg and my attempt at cutting the top with a saws-all.

Notice the attempt to drill holes...

This will work, but if I touch those edges...I'll have to name this my "Red Blooded American Ale".

I'm bound and Gall Dang determined to do 10 gallon batches....

Reminds me of carving a pumpkin.





Please control your laughter.

LOL!

(sorry)

Honestly, go drop $30 and buy yourself an angle grinder. You can clean that up, no problem, with a simple thin cutting wheel. Then, get a grinding wheel and clean up the edges so you don't slice yourself all to hell. Remember, blood gives a metallic off-flavor in your beer!

That's really... nice.



I'm still jealous...

I'll take that keg off your hands, free of charge...and put it out of its misery.

Several phone calls today led to NOTHING! Salvage yards and bars alike don't have/want to sell me kegs. Dammit.

the_bird said:

LOL!

(sorry)

Honestly, go drop $30 and buy yourself an angle grinder. You can clean that up, no problem, with a simple thin cutting wheel. Then, get a grinding wheel and clean up the edges so you don't slice yourself all to hell. Remember, blood gives a metallic off-flavor in your beer!

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or just go to home depot tool rental and rent one.

Yuri_Rage said:

I'll take that keg off your hands, free of charge...and put it out of its misery.

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I'm afraid I couldn't be responsible for the bloodshed, or the humiliation you'd endure...

BierMuncher said:

I'm afraid I couldn't be responsible for the bloodshed, or the humiliation you'd endure...

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You wouldn't have to be. I have the means to make that keg very happy.

man, and I thought mine was bad, at least it is round!

Mine will cut my arm off, thankfully, I don't reach in there much...

Nwcw2001 said:

or just go to home depot tool rental and rent one.

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Bah, I'd buy one. I have a cheap Ryobi (I know Yuri wouldn't approve), but it works great and is surprisingly handy at all kinds of projects.

the_bird said:

Bah, I'd buy one. I have a cheap Ryobi (I know Yuri wouldn't approve), but it works great and is surprisingly handy at all kinds of projects.

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Ironically, I own a RotoZip and the home depot is five minutes away (where I could go buy the cutting disk).

But two nights ago I came home...the keg was sitting there...the saws-all was sitting there...the empty glass of my first beer was sitting there...

Next thing you know I'm sitting on the keg...vibrating all over the concrete floor...my arms muscles are starting to itch, the air smells like a steel foundary and even today...my ears still have a slight ringing.

thank God our hobby forgives our mistakes
I to had a rough evening when I converted my
keggle. But the ol' 5 pound sledge took care of that problem

BierMuncher said:

Next thing you know I'm sitting on the keg...vibrating all over the concrete floor...my arms muscles are starting to itch, the air smells like a steel foundary and even today...my ears still have a slight ringing.

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That's dedication to your beer. Gussie'd be proud.

Ize

megavites said:

...when I converted my
keggle. But the ol' 5 pound sledge took care of that problem

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I'll bet your ears loved that.

We tried to tell you that home brew and power tools don't mix but you just wouldn't listen.



Seriously, it doesn't look that great now but it is very fixable.

I believe in my carpentry days we would call that a 'hack' job. I'm jealous you are moving to a keggle though.

Get yourself a grinder as others suggested. At least you won't bleed to death or be making a lot of red ales.

HAHA! Looks like you used your teeth to cut through that...

That pic is freakin hilarious. Thanks for starting my day off with a good laugh.

ColoradoXJ13 said:

man, and I thought mine was bad, at least it is round!

Mine will cut my arm off, thankfully, I don't reach in there much...

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Even after smoothing things up with the grinder, mine still had a lot of very sharp places. I just took a piece of coarse metal sand paper to it and it smoothed it right up. I couldn't cut myself if I tried. You'd be surprised at how quickly it works, even on really rough, sharp spots.

Yuri_Rage said:

I'll take that keg off your hands, free of charge...and put it out of its misery.

Several phone calls today led to NOTHING! Salvage yards and bars alike don't have/want to sell me kegs. Dammit.

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Put an ad on Craigslist offering $15 for a keg. I bet you'll get some hits.

Honestly, you used a sawzall for that? big mistake. You didn't wear earplugs? Bigger mistake. Your keggle can be fixed, if you wreck your ears they cannot. Drop the coin on the grinder and also get a file, and maybe some sandpaper for the finishing touch. You can do this.

Just be patient with the grinder. Let it take a couple of passes. It's easy once you get the hand of it. You're just going to guide it along the line, once the first pass is done, it'll want to stay in the groove you made. Then, yeah, get a file (a half-rounded one worked great for me) and some 100 or 150 grit sandpaper, and you'll be good to go. Make sure you clean off those burrs, it's easy enough to do and I guarantee that you'll slice yourself open if you don't.

Can we now safely move down the sawzall on the list of preferred tools to do this job? Is it tied with, or behind, the Dremell?

There's no harm in opening that hole up to almost the keg walls. You'll lose a tiny bit of strength, but not too much. That rolled upper lip is strong.

Bobby_M said:

There's no harm in opening that hole up to almost the keg walls. You'll lose a tiny bit of strength, but not too much. That rolled upper lip is strong.

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I did mine with about these dimensions (either 10 or 12 inches - whatever the diameter of an Ale Pail is) so that I could fit a lid on, when heating sparge water and when first bringing the wort up to boil.

the_bird said:

Just be patient with the grinder. Let it take a couple of passes. It's easy once you get the hand of it. You're just going to guide it along the line, once the first pass is done, it'll want to stay in the groove you made. Then, yeah, get a file (a half-rounded one worked great for me) and some 100 or 150 grit sandpaper, and you'll be good to go. Make sure you clean off those burrs, it's easy enough to do and I guarantee that you'll slice yourself open if you don't.

Can we now safely move down the sawzall on the list of preferred tools to do this job? Is it tied with, or behind, the Dremell?

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I gotta put the Dremel near the bottom. I haven't tried a dremmel on a keg yet, but seeing how the metal in my kegerator pwned my $86 Dremmel, I don't think I'd ever test it on a job like that again. Good call on convincing me to get a grinder.

Yuri,

It really must be a regional thing. I can probably get enough kegs to fill my garage if I tried. There were about 12 at the scrap yard I got mine at, and that was just one of the many around here.

Then there's the whole sale of stolen good rap I'd be worried about.

Bobby_M said:

Then there's the whole sale of stolen good rap I'd be worried about.

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You show me a police force that goes around looking for stolen kegs and I'll show you a town where I want to raise my kids.

I'm pretty sure I could get away with growing pot in my basement too, but it doesn't mean I'm going to. But I just might sell some kegs ;-)

At least if you get your keggle from a scrapyard, there is a good possiblity that it is not stolen. If you get it from a distributor for deposit price, then you know for sure that it IS stolen. The scrapyard is a much better way to go.

Bernie Brewer said:

At least if you get your keggle from a scrapyard, there is a good possiblity that it is not stolen. If you get it from a distributor for deposit price, then you know for sure that it IS stolen. The scrapyard is a much better way to go.

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Actually, I doubt either makes much of a difference. A bar willing to part with a keg for the deposit price is most certainly participating in a poor business practice (stealing). However, I read not long ago (wish I had the source) that many bars/restaurants actually just send their kegs straight to the scrapyard because the price of stainless has risen to a point where it's usually more profitable to scrap the keg than exchange it for the deposit. Do I believe that is a very widespread occurrence? No. But I don't doubt that a few establishments would be more than willing to do such a thing. However, I think that practice would soon raise the beer distributor's eyebrow, probably making it more difficult for the bar/restaurant to continue business with that distributor.

Now, was I after a stolen keg when making those calls? Certainly not. I was hoping that someone had a keg that had outlived its shelf life in the commercial beer distribution industry. I was completely unsuccessful in the immediate area. I may call the scrapyards in a neighboring (bigger) city, about 60-70 miles away. Perhaps I'll have better luck.

That looks like my handiwork.. now you just need to tape on some razor blades for good measure.

Hopleaf said:

That looks like my handiwork.. now you just need to tape on some razor blades for good measure.

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Yep. I'm looking forard to reaching in there with a scrubby to clean that bad boy out.

Have you though of taking it to a muffler shop to see if they would use a plasma cutter on it to clean it up? I bet they would only charge you a few bucks to do it, or maybe take some HB up there.

I had mine cut by a plasma cutter. Nice and round and I won't slice my arm off using it.

On the upside, if there's ever a stray bear in your neighborhood, you already have equipment to trap him!

the_bird said:

Bah, I'd buy one. I have a cheap Ryobi (I know Yuri wouldn't approve), but it works great and is surprisingly handy at all kinds of projects.

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I paid $6 for my angle grinder, and yes, it was brand new. The brand was Tool Shop, which is about the cheapest brand of tools I've ever seen, but the thing works great for what I needed it for (namely, cutting a big hole on top of a keg...it may work good for cutting SS braid in the future). As little as I use it, this one more than serves its purpose.

greg75 said:

I paid $6 for my angle grinder, and yes, it was brand new. The brand was Tool Shop, which is about the cheapest brand of tools I've ever seen, but the thing works great for what I needed it for (namely, cutting a big hole on top of a keg...it may work good for cutting SS braid in the future). As little as I use it, this one more than serves its purpose.

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Ah, the Menard's line. What junk. Yeah, I have one too. It does work, but I don't expect it to last. He's better off with a Ryobi, but like you say, if you don't use it much.......

I have a RotoZip.

Would a cutting wheel attachment work on that?

Bernie Brewer said:

Ah, the Menard's line. What junk. Yeah, I have one too. It does work, but I don't expect it to last. He's better off with a Ryobi, but like you say, if you don't use it much.......

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I have a Ryobi power drill, which is really nice. Yeah, the only reason I went with the Tool Shop grinder is because I couldn't justify the cost of a better brand for as little use as I'd get out of it. To be honest, it's better than I expected. Like I said, I now have a keg with a reasonably round hole on top!

P.S. I went up to see Marc at Point Brew Supply yesterday. I went up there on a spur of the moment thing. I had to drop my older son off in Oshkosh, and my youngest was sound asleep in his carseat. I saw HWY 45, and thought, "Oh, hell" and made the trip. Picked up some grain for an IPA I'm going to brew next weekend. They're moving to their new location at the end of the month. Their last day at the current building is April 27, and they'll be open at their new place in Plover in early May. They'll also have a brewery going at the new place. There's a restaurant next door which will be selling their brews. I'll definitely have to go check that out once it's up and running.

Ah. Wisconsin. My Dad grew up in LaCrosse, WI.

Haven't been there or seen my "extended family" there in over 20 years.

Bad relations now. But boy, I sure feel a connection to Wisconsin.