Polishing keggles sucks

[JollyMon]

Or so I've read. Since I'm building my electric brewery at some point I'm wondering, Can I paint the keggles? I don't care about shiny bling.

I haven't seen anyone do this. Anyone out there got any thoughts on this?

 

[acidrain]

Why? If you don't care, leave it all scratched and dented.

 

[MX1]

I am sure that you would need to rough up the surface, and then prime it...Google painting SS, then make sure you use a paint rated to 212F

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

You can paint your kettles.

Source: I painted my kettles and wrote about it on this very forum.

 

[brewmcq]

You can get "high heat" paint pretty much anywhere... I picked some up at Walmart, I think it was, to paint the baseboards in my pub.. it is flat black and goes on just like regular paint (ie. with a brush). Rated to 1200F, I believe.

This is actually a good idea... I might paint my keggles with some of the leftover paint.. it would look pretty badass.

 

[sasky7777]

Didn't someone on the forum powdercoat their keggles? They looked as good as polishing. Can't find the thread, but I know I saw it in the last 2 or 3 months.

 

[theknub]

i also saw someone (somewhere) wrapped their kegs in insulation then had them rhinolined.

 

[alien]

+1 on insulating, although Bad New's paint job does look pretty impressive.

 

[JollyMon]

You can paint your kettles.

Source: I painted my kettles and wrote about it on this very forum.

Badnewsbrewey, I can find where you wrote about painting your kettles. Can you direct me?

 

[passedpawn]

I polished mine. It's worth in IMO. After a couple of years, they look as good as when I polished them.

NOTE: bling won't make better beer, but there is art in the process as well as the product.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

On my phone now but shoot me a PM and I'll see what I can find.

 

[alien]

BNB sent me this very helpful PM a while back:

Hi there, I have a dented keg and no way am I polishing it, but painting it sounds about right. It'll be an electric HLT. Any tips?

I rushed the project a bit, and as we have always learned, cutting corners does no one any favors. I think with some good prep, it would have turned out better. Clean off all the gunk on the outside with some goo gone or goof off or whatever. One step I skipped was roughing the surface up with a wire wheel on a grinder or some emmery cloth / sand paper or something. Then wipe it all down with a microfiber / lint free cloth and some rubbing alcohol. I did a few coats of BBQ grill / high temp paint to make sure it didn't suffer any heat damage. I couldn't find a high temperature primer. I made a stencil out of painter's tape to paint the 'BK' on the front with some high temp engine paint I had sitting around, and when it was still a little wet / tacky, I hit it with a mist of the BBQ paint to blend the edges and make the cracked look. Make sure you tape off any holes you have from the inside, especially the top. I just started taping around the inside, working my way in until I had a good few inches of tape (sticky side up) around the rim and couldn't fit my hand in any more to put more in. Then I just put a few strips sticky side down to cover it up - worked great.

Let me know if you have any other questions. It's still more work than doing nothing (as you can see, my other keg has nothing done to it) but it turned out better than I thought it would. One tip - after you paint it and everything cures, hit the very bottom lip with some sand paper to take the paint off from where it sits on your table / stand. I didn't do this, and when I scoot the keg around for whatever reason, it leaves black streaks. Oh well...