Keg Rebuilding, Pt2

So I slowly moved along on the path of rebuilding kegs today, I think I might like this less then bottle prep.

Brushed Kegs 1

So, I am a little hesitant in putting these kegs back together since I essentially mixed up all the pieces. It appears as if there are different posts for gas intake and liquid output, figured those all out. It appears as if there are some posts that will only fit on certain kegs (“skinny” – 2), and some posts that fit on all the kegs (“universal” – 2). It appears as if there are two different size poppets. I still have not determined if one size belongs to gas and one size belongs to liquid or if one size belongs to the “skinny” posts and one size belongs to the “universal”. So besides even putting the kegs back together I still need to thoroughly clean and sanitize the inside (very important) and clean the outside (only important to anal-retentive types, like me). So to avoid playing with my pieces I decided to mess around with cleaning the outside of the kegs.

Brushed Kegs 2

So, I’ve been talking to my friend Craig this week to see if he has any suggestions on how to clean the outside of these kegs since he has access to a lot of power tools – my thinking is let the tools do the work not me. He says he has an eraser-wheel (red handle above) which will clean them right up, removing the stickers, and grime, and some of the scratches. Great, I’ll give it a shot. I go over to his place to try the eraser-wheel and it works OK. It totally ate up the stickers on the kegs, but left a residue on the kegs I didn’t like. Craig said that I could use a solvent to get it off. I was still under-impressed with the eraser-wheel. So I ask if he has anything else that will do a better job. He offers me his surface grinder (silver handle above). This has a small abrasive pad on it. I initially start by targeting just the left over residue from the eraser-wheel, it seems to take it off fairly easily, but I notice that it actually scratches the keg as it is removing it. Now I have to decide: do I not use the surface grinder any more, surface grind all the kegs where the sticker was but leave a scratched/brushed finish, or try and use the surface grinder on all parts of the keg on all four kegs. I chose the last option. It took about 20 minutes per keg and one surface grinder pad only lasted for two kegs, would have been even better to change per keg.

They look OK. They definitely look cleaner and less scratched than they did before, but they also look a little amateurish. The brushed finish is nice,but it is inconsistent. I tried to go only vertically but the grinder didn’t really work that way. I don’t know if I’d do it again when I buy more kegs, but it is an option I would still consider. According to Craig I can buy finer discs which will give it a more consistent finish. But 20 minutes per keg twice is a lot of time to clear up something that doesn’t need to be cleared up. We’ll see.

3 Responses to “Keg Rebuilding, Pt2”

  1. Garrett Says:

    The poppets for a given keg should be the same size for both liquid and gas – they pretty much relate to the posts that they go in, and kegs should have the same sized thread on both posts.

    I think you found the reason I just go with a Barkeeper’s Friend polish on the outside of the kegs – Even with powertools, its alot of work. I’ve got some stuff to put on my drill to buff out particularly nasty dings and blemishes, but most of the time I don’t bother.

    Don’t sweat the rebuilding, seriously – It will all work out. I’ve got a ton of “universal” poppets if you need some, and even some funky ones if you need those…

  2. Brian Says:

    OK, that’s good to know about the poppets, I’ll try to match them that way.

    Yeah, the Barkeeper’s Friend was definitely an option, but since you had already proven that to work at 20-30 minutes I was looking for a similar (or better) solution that would be less time intensive. I’ll have to keep looking for now.

    I know the rebuilds will all work out, doesn’t it always? It’s more the feeling of I have no idea what I am doing to a degree and that always bothers me may it be keg rebuilding, fixing something around the house, or creating something new. But I guess that’s where a sense of accomplishment also comes from.

  3. Garrett Says:

    Dude… I totally understand about the “doing something new”.

    When I wired our house for ethernet a couple weekends ago, I was convinced that we were probably going to have to call Verizon to come out and save us from my own stupidity. I imagined the unpleasant conversation with my wife where I said “honey, I killed our internet”, and the embarrasing confession to a Verizon tech of “well, I *thought* I knew what I was doing…”. Nothing was as nerve wracking as when I finally cut the wires Verizon had installed… And I felt like a total bad@$$ when everything worked perfectly, no call to Verizon needed.

    I suspect when you reassemble your kegs, you might get one that needs a little tweaking, but most will hold pressure from the get-go, guarenteed.

    And now I go forth to brew a Singel…

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