How much to make a keggle?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Sharkman20

Sharkman20

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
219
Reaction score
12
Location
Sacramento
I have an old 15.5 gallon keg that I'd like to turn into a keggle but I have no access to welding equipment. Has anyone here taken a keg into a welding shop and had them cut out the top for them? Do you usually have them cut as close to the wall of the keg as possible?

Also, for a job like that how much did it cost? I can't imagine it would be too costly for a job like that.
 
There is a thread here somewhere that shows you how to cut the top off with a grinder. I did it and it took less than 5 minutes. My tops are about 12" in diameter.
 
True, I could probably do it myself if I had the tools. Problem is, I don't have any cutting tools that could tackle a keg. Plus I live in an apartment complex so I wouldn't really have anywhere to do this. I figured it won't cost too much to have someone with a plasma cutter do it at a shop somewhere.
 
You can pick up the angle grinder and cutting wheels for under 30 sheckles at Harbour Freight. As stated above there are a zillion posts and lots of you tube clips on how to do it. Plus all the sparks make you feel like youre playing with KISS.
 
Most metal shops around here charge $70 an hour for the work and depending on their experience with these projects I would think that done properly it would take 2.5 hours to cut the top and deburr the edges, drill the holes for the couplings, prep the welding job and them weld two fittings. I'm sure that people will say that's over shooting the time but you can't rush quality.
 
Magnanamous said:
You can pick up the angle grinder and cutting wheels for under 30 sheckles at Harbour Freight. As stated above there are a zillion posts and lots of you tube clips on how to do it. Plus all the sparks make you feel like youre playing with KISS.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I didn't know they were that cheap. If I can do it out on my back patio without catching anything on fire, we might be in business. lol
 
If you ask around You might be able to get it done for some homebrew. That is what I did. Having it done in a shop is like taking you car to a mechanic $70 and up a hour minimum charge etc.
 
cheap angle grinder and a few disks and flapper wheel - under 50 bucks. fittings are about another 30/40

that is just if you want a pickup tube and ball valve - which you really don't even need if you wanted to just use a racking cane and tubing to transfer all your post boil wort in to carboys

so just to cut the top out would be around 50 bucks total investment
 
craigslist! You can get a grinder for 10-15 bucks. It really doesn't take long and its def not hard.

Or just post a listing on craigslist saying you'll pay someone 25 bucks per keg...

Or take it to a machine shop and just pay one of the guys under the table to do it during their lunch break/off hours.

If you have a couple to do theres NO reason to have to pay more than 50-60 bucks per keg. Since you already have the shell, even less.
 
Look on Craigslist services. I've found put of work guy to do this type of work for real cheap.
 
Well I figure for the cost of the grinder, I'll just go that route since I'm sure I'll find more uses for it in the future. I can debur the edges too with my dremel and I can drill my own hole and attach a stainless ball valve and eventually a thermometer. I'm not really looking to do everything at once, but I was just wondering on the cutting part since it was really the only job I'm not already prepped to do myself.
 
try putting an add up on craigslist you might get lucky and find a homebrew in the area that has already done it. I bet they would do it for free, but bring some beer for his time
 
Well, now that I'm thinking about it I'd rather do it myself for the experience. lol That way, I can keep my beer and still get my keggle done. ;)

I've used angle grinders many times at work for various things, I've just never priced them out before. I think I have another weekend project on my hands now. lol
 
Would your work not let you borrow the grinder ? If you buy one from harbor freight look for coupons!
 
I made my keggle with a 15$ grinder from harbor freight. Then I bought two 4 1/2 inch disks for 5$. I had never cut anything with a grinder before, and made it out with all my limbs in tact.
 
Make sure you get cutting disks and not grinding disks. The cutting disks are much thinner. They cut through the top like butter.
 
As a complete newb with no tools it looked like this for me. (I did have a drill)
This was for my hlt.


Keg. $50 Craigslist
Grinder $23. Harbor freight
Cutting wheels $5
Step drill bit. $40
Weldless ball valve. $23
Sight glass with thermo well $35
See through lid from Ikea. $9


Experience and time alone in the garage without being bothered for a few hours. Priceless

Also made my bk the exact same way and my mlt was pretty similar too

image-1115418516.jpg
 

Attachments

  • image-1187034604.jpg
    image-1187034604.jpg
    13.9 KB · Views: 513
  • image-943762308.jpg
    image-943762308.jpg
    7.7 KB · Views: 508
Tomtanner said:
As a complete newb with no tools it looked like this for me. (I did have a drill)
This was for my hlt.


Keg. $50 Craigslist
Grinder $23. Harbor freight
Cutting wheels $5
Step drill bit. $40
Weldless ball valve. $23
Sight glass with thermo well $35
See through lid from Ikea. $9


Experience and time alone in the garage without being bothered for a few hours. Priceless

Also made my bk the exact same way and my mlt was pretty similar too

View attachment 48479
Click to expand...

Nice, I was going to ask what you guys used for lids since you wouldn't be able to use the part that gets cut out.

I've been looking around and I see some people using a couple of 1x4's attached to the angle grinder with a pivot in the center to help guide the grinder around so it makes a perfect circle. I've been trying to find a thread on it on here, but I can't find anything. Has anyone else done that?
 
Also, what's the point behind the sight glass anyway? I never liked the idea of having something on my kettle that if broken would drain the wort all over the place. lol
 
Sight glasses are for volume measure. Not nessesary, but kind of cool.

As far as using the wood template I didn't find it very useful. I built one and tried using it, but ended up removing it and just freehanding the cut.

Just use some string tied to a sharpie and make a nice even circle to guide your cut.
 
Definately buy a grinder and do it yourself. For the cost of the grinder you could have it done elsewhere, but doing it yourself you get to keep the grinder.

Sight glass is personal preference. I think they are useless and not worth it. My buddy put one on his and would not do it again. Others will think differently, so it's all your choice.
 
Sharkman20 said:
Nice, I was going to ask what you guys used for lids since you wouldn't be able to use the part that gets cut out.

I've been looking around and I see some people using a couple of 1x4's attached to the angle grinder with a pivot in the center to help guide the grinder around so it makes a perfect circle. I've been trying to find a thread on it on here, but I can't find anything. Has anyone else done that?
Click to expand...

This is what I did. It was cheap easy and very clean

'newbie keg jig'
 
Make the jig. It took me 15 minutes to make mine, and now I can cut tops off in under 3 mins perfectly circular.
 
TheMan said:
Definately buy a grinder and do it yourself. For the cost of the grinder you could have it done elsewhere, but doing it yourself you get to keep the grinder.

Sight glass is personal preference. I think they are useless and not worth it. My buddy put one on his and would not do it again. Others will think differently, so it's all your choice.
Click to expand...

I've always just hit my gravity I was shooting for anyway and not paid too much attention to the volume. I'm always a little over or a little under 5 gallons but that doesn't matter too much to be as long as it's close.

But yea I'll be picking up a grinder soon and just doing this myself. I also saw some threads about polishing up the kegs with the grinder as well, so I'll probably just turn this into a whole big project since I'm usually bored on my weekends. lol
 
There is also a thread on using the cut off top as a false bottom. im on my phone so I can't look for it nee, but thought you might find it interesting.

Also, alot of people think that cutting off the bottom is better and using the hole in the top of the keg as a bottom drain is the way to go.

I haven't done either of these yet, but I am in the same "research phase" as you are. I just need to get myself a keg.
 

Similar threads

R
Checking kegs for leaks
2
Replies
48
Views
2K
redrocker652002
R
SanPancho
Custom s/s work table planning
Replies
3
Views
440
OakIslandBrewery
OakIslandBrewery
GratefulBear
  • Poll
Corny Keg Showdown
Replies
30
Views
3K
mashdar
mashdar
G
Equipment crossroads.
Replies
36
Views
1K
Bobby_M
Bobby_M
J
How much water is needed to make your wort
2 3
Replies
89
Views
3K
balrog
balrog
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top