Cutting Kegs Help 2

[popester]

Thanx for all the advice. I tried the angle grinder and sawz-all. The angle grinder won for me. The angle grinder is slower than Christmas but makes up for it in control and precision. The sawz-all was great and fast but, it was to hard to keep it from running off of my line. The damn thing did not want to turn. Hoy Vey! I would not want to do that for a living. FWIW: I will drop some coinage for haveing it done with a plasma cutter.

[Lufah]

If you have one cut with a plazma cutter make sure they put a lot of water in there to catch the slag from the cut. I had a friend cut mine. It turned out to be a nice cut.

Travis

[KrOtChRoTT]

ditto on the plasma cutter. Took the welder 2 seconds to cut through. I traced a glass lid from one of my big stock pots with a perm marker. The guy was able to cut my trace without a problem. Now the lid is a nice tight fit. And yes, you do want a bit of water in the bottom to keep all the melted steel from dropping and fusing to the insides bottom.

[N8]

I've had one of my kegs cut with a plasma cutter, turned out really nice. Another one was done with a Dremel tool and several cutting wheels. Took awhile, but it got through it. It too looks very nice.

[Rob Evans]

I don't recall there being any water added to the keg when the guy cut mine...but there was some leftover beer in it.

There was such a God-awful smell in that place afterwards...the only description is: "Death Vinegar"

Cripes, that smell has etched such a nasty memory in my mind...

[dj]

I took a bit different approach, I used a cast iron blade for my sawsall (available at most Home Depot like stores). They are about as expensive as it would cost in gas for a plasma cutter ($6-$8 per 2 pack) and I'd guess a lot safer to use. I drilled a tap hole of maybe 5/8 inch to begin the cut, after that it was pretty easy, just staying in the lines. Edges were ground down with a dremmel using the stone/grinding wheel.

[Triple Freak]

I second the plasma cutter route. I had a guy cut my kegs (all 4 of them) for $30. I had to finish grind them, but it was a lot faster than cutting with a grinder or a Sawzall.

[hoosierhomebrew]

I purchased a keg from the junk yard last weekend for $15. I could only find one metal fabricator who would cut the top off of the keg for $35-40. They aren't open on weekends so, I would need to take off work early and get there before they close. I thought that the $35-40 was too expensive so, taday I used the recip. saw and took it off myself. I'm pretty handy (home maintenance / repair for the past 20 yrs.) but, cutting the lid off of that keg was a real pain. Clean up of the edge was no walk in the park either. I wanted to get it smooth so it wouldn't cut my hands or arms during cleaning. Those splinters of SS are nasty.