"polishing your keg" is more than a clever euphemism

[Bobby_M]

Is it brewing equipment or art? Why choose?

Before and After, or I guess it's after and before..

Here's what they looked like before I got obsessed:

*Edit: Since my learning process and results were spread out all over this thread, I consolidated everything into a single article on my personal website. I also added some additional insight that may be of value if you take this project on. www.suebob.com/overbrook

 

[JimiGibbs]

That looks nice... please be sure to show us the finished product.
Jimi

 

[shafferpilot]

does the packaging say, or can you give us a guess as to the grit equivalent of that pad?

 

[BuffaloSabresBrewer]

Looks damn fine.
The keg not the grit.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

That will work on cornies too, right?

 

[Bobby_M]

I'm sure it will work on cornies and I'm gonna hit them next. The pad on a grinder works really fast too. The pad is actually similar to a 3M scrubby so it's really hard to relate to a sandpaper grit. I'd guess it's doing something like a 220-400 finish. The gator stuff is available at Lowes. I also picked up a buffing pad for the grinder and got some polishing compound. It's hard to see in the pic but even the shiny spots that I finished have swirl marks that I hope the polishing gets rid of.

 

[tbulger]

Ah man one more project to add to the long list.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Very nice. I'll be swinging by Lowes soon.

 

[Soulive]

Nice, I'm gonna try this on cornies. I need to polish some up for my rehearsal dinner...

 

[Jester369]

Nice! I generally don't care about my cornies appearance, but I might have to pick a few of the nicer ones and dress them up for events.

 

[The Pol]

Awesome, my keg is getting this treatment before I roll my rig into the driveway to brew this spring!

 

[the_bird]

After you sand them, do you have to worry about re-passivating (that the right term) the stainless steel? You can do that with just some BKF, right (which I finally found the one place in Berkshire county that sells it, freakin' Linens N Things... )

 

[Bobby_M]

That's a good question about passivating. I wet sanded a few cornies last year and didn't have any rusting but come to think of it, I was using a BKF-like stainless polishing compound along with it. I guess I'll find out the hard way. Now if I can just figure out a way to keep the bottom skirt from discoloring from the heat.

I just found BKF in Shoprite by the way.

 

[SuperiorBrew]

This guy used this stuff on his after he polished them and no rust or problems.

 

[BlackenedBrew]

This guy used this stuff on his after he polished them and no rust or problems.

I can only dream that mine could look that good. My future Father-in-Law just got 4 Sankes for me, and I have yet to see them. With any luck I'll have the possibility of making them look that good.

 

[The Pol]

Makes me wish I had more kegs! LOL

 

[Bobby_M]

This crap hurts my back. Even though I'm not really spending all that much time, it's still a lot of work. Here's a spot that I hit quickly with the polishing compound.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

If I do this I'll end up with "pretty" kegs. I don't know if I can have that.

 

[Bobby_M]

I might have to get some gold teeth so i can fit in with the brewery.

 

[NitrouStang96]

I would think that a wire brush on a corded drill would be better than 100 grit! Wouldn't a wire brush be perfect for this... Maybe a scotch brite pad if you don't have a drill.

 

[Bobby_M]

Only if the wire in that brush is stainless and that would be really expensive. A plain steel wirebrush embeds particals in the stainless that will rust forever.These grinder pads are the cat's ass. They have ones that are a little bit more abrassive if you need to do some heavy cleaning but for most kegs, the blue gator grits seem fine. Believe it or not, stainless is hard enough that 100 grit doesn't do that much damage. I wouldn't recommend it though.

 

[Jekster]

You're going to have to wear sunglasses around those things during the day when you brew. Nice job man.

 

[NitrouStang96]

Very interesting, Bobby! Thanks for the info.

 

[Vels]

Only if the wire in that brush is stainless and that would be really expensive. A plain steel wirebrush embeds particals in the stainless that will rust forever.These grinder pads are the cat's ass. They have ones that are a little bit more abrassive if you need to do some heavy cleaning but for most kegs, the blue gator grits seem fine. Believe it or not, stainless is hard enough that 100 grit doesn't do that much damage. I wouldn't recommend it though.

Also any grinding/polishing tools used on steel should not be used on ss afterwards, as the same thing wil happen.

Cheers
Jakob

 

[CodeRage]

These grinder pads are the cat's ass. They have ones that are a little bit more abrassive if you need to do some heavy cleaning but for most kegs, the blue gator grits seem fine. Believe it or not, stainless is hard enough that 100 grit doesn't do that much damage. I wouldn't recommend it though.

I got the heavy, medium, and fine pads and the heavy did a real good job knocking down the bad stuff. Then just reworked them with the medium and then did the whole thing in fine, havent polished it yet though. project for this weekend.

However..... Did you have a problem with the backing material melting onto the keg and leaving scuffs?


Also, I could not get that damn angle grinder backer to fit on my arbor with the pad. Ended up using a cut off wheel that was ground down a bit.

Oh and a smooth polished surface radiates less heat than a rough surface

 

[Bobby_M]

I had to take the large backing washer off the arbor before threading the backer pad on. The annoyance for me is that the spanner wrench for my grinder didn't fit the holes on the nut that came with the kit. I have to hand tighten and let the torque do the rest.

The trick I found to stop melting the pad's under surface was to not use too much edge. Try to lay it as flat as possible to keep from wearing it down too much. Also give it some time to cool every 10 minutes or so. Once the pad starts wearing down, you just have to move on to the new pad. I know, it's $9 for two but I'm finding it's going to take me exactly two pads of the finishing ones and two polishing pads per keg. Oh, the price for glamour!

I'm not so sure I'm going to have the energy or enthusiasm to do all three kegs. I might do just the top of the MLT because I plan to insulate to some degree anyway.

 

[CodeRage]

Oh, the price for glamour!

I'm not so sure I'm going to have the energy or enthusiasm to do all three kegs. I might do just the top of the MLT because I plan to insulate to some degree anyway.

Thanks man, I will give that a try.

I would go ahead and polish the whole thing. Some one on the v6 f150 forum I am on was a thermagorapher and showed images of a polished intake manifold and a regular one and I was amazed at the difference in radiant heat between the two.

 

[TheBrewPig]

Oh oh... PeteOz77 has seen this thread... I bet next time I look over the fence he'll be "polishing his keg"......

Time to build a taller fence.... LOL

 

[sirsloop]

LMFAO... when brewing great beer isnt enough! Break out the 100 grit and polishing compound and make it LOOK good too! HAHAH

 

[Bobby_M]

Ah, you assume my beer is even drinkable. If I didn't have shiny kegs, I'd have nothing

 

[sirsloop]

Oh its drinkable... I actually had one last night. If I knew it came from a shiney keg I would enjoy it more though! HAHAH!

 

[Brewtopia]

WOW!

You'll have a showpiece brewery when you're all finished. :rockin:

 

[WortMonger]

Dang, I can't wait. Should this take off the darker stains on the bottom of my kettle? That is just.....WOW!!!!!!!!

 

[Lil' Sparky]

So how many of each pad did you end up using and how long did it take?

Oh, and enough making things pretty. It's time to get that stand working. Make it pretty later!

 

[olllllo]

Just don't do this Bobby.

 

[Bobby_M]

I know, I'm not going to polish the remaining two until AFTER I brew on this damn thing.

It took two finishing pads to get it even, then two polishing pads, one for each polishing compound grit. Then I hand waxed it with carnuba cleaner/wax.

In all, I think it ran me $20 in supplies for one keg. I spent about 3 hours on it in all, spread over like 6 days.


Wait olllo, do you mean to tell me you CAN'T see my **** in that pic?

 

[Atl300zx]

so i wire wheeled mine, and used it for the first time saturday.

What can i do to make sure it doesnt rust from my wire wheel contaminating the SS with non-SS?

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I was also wondering, do you think this will make it easier to clean off burnt on boil-overs? I usually have at least a little boilover if I'm doing an 11 gal batch.

 

[BlackenedBrew]

so i wire wheeled mine, and used it for the first time saturday.

What can i do to make sure it doesnt rust from my wire wheel contaminating the SS with non-SS?

Ouch, I don't think I would have taken the risk of contamination... but seeing as the damage is already done, don't suppose you could put a clear coat on it? If it's your keggle, I doubt that would work with the heat. If it's not your keggle, a clear coat might work? Anyone else?

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Bar Keepers Friend works really well, but I don't know how it would do in your situation. Worth a try, though.