Pony Keg for Cask Ale

[JMaslar]

The house I live in once belonged to my grandparents and is now owned by my aunt and uncle. They said whatever I find, I can have/use. While searching in my garage/shed today, I found a 7.5 gal AB pony keg (minus the spear).
I was going to try and buy a pin or firkin soon, but I am just going to modify this!

So I have a few questions on dimensions; is the shive hole on a pin/firkin the same size as the hole on a reg keg? I can drill a hole for the bung for serving (I will be using gravity at this point, as I do not have a beer engine). Also, does anyone know the exact size the bung hole should be? (jokes are more than welcome!)

I can measure the opening with calipers soon, but I thought I would ask around first. If anyone else has done this before, let me know. Google did not turn up any results for me.

Cheers!

 

[brewmonk]

if it's a gravity-fed cask-ish system, then:

why not just add a fitting, or a ball-valve directly.
if you add it to the side, at the bottom, you can adapt pickup tubes inside.

you can also use it later for a boiler, or a mashtun, if you cut off the top to fit a lid.

 

[JMaslar]

Yeah, that's what I am planning on. Going to order the needed plugs and parts tomorrow. The opening is 2" so I think that will work. I'm then going to drill a 1" hole for the faucet. I will do a write up on how it all goes.
When this works, I'm going to try one of the mini Labatt kegs. Not the small Heineken ones, but the ones with the sankey taps.
First on deck: cask dry stout