Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi fellas, I am keen to break into all grain soon and in preperation for setting up I need a mash tun :dance:

I have a 50L keg that I would like to remove the top from but keep the handles and top rim.

Has anyone got any tips for removing the top of a keg to be able to use as a pot? I have an angle grinder but this cant get all the way to the rim. I also have a dremel but that would take ages :angry-banghead:

How have you blokes done it? Would it be best to remove all the rim but leave the handles? I am getting a wort pump so transferring liquids won't be a problem (won't need to pour)

Thanks

Do you know anyone with a plasma cutter?

BIG D wrote:Do you know anyone with a plasma cutter?

I wish! ^:)^

My BIAB keggle isn't cut all the way to the edge and it works just fine
I actually cut it to the diameter of a large frypan lid so I can sit the lid on top whhen mashing, then wrap the whole thing in a couple of blankets/sleeping bags to insulate it
I used 2 blocks of wood nailed together, one with a hole cut in it just big enough to go over the keg coupler, then wedged my angle grinder in between this and the rim of the keg
here's some pics of the little jig

Gday mate, i did mine with a cutting disc on the grinder and left a lip around the edge and cleaned it up with a flap disc. You have to go over the line a few times until you gradually break through but it does work. I had to flip the grinder over so i could get close to the top ring and handles.

punchy21 wrote:Gday mate, i did mine with a cutting disc on the grinder and left a lip around the edge and cleaned it up with a flap disc. You have to go over the line a few times until you gradually break through but it does work. I had to flip the grinder over so i could get close to the top ring and handles.

ditto, Plus I find a small lip good for splash suppression. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Hey mate cut it with a grinder as close as you can get it to the edge then put the grinder inside the keg and trim the last bit worked for me :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Urrazeb wrote:Hi fellas, I am keen to break into all grain soon and in preperation for setting up I need a mash tun :dance:

I have a 50L keg that I would like to remove the top from but keep the handles and top rim.

Thanks Urrazeb, you incited me to get out into the shed today and do the same. I cut the top out using the big angle grinder. First up I cut off the fitting on top centre of the keg so I could sit a lid on the top and mark out a cutting line to stay inside of with the grinder. I used a cutting disk, not a grinding disk, and started to cut into the keg a couple of mil inside the line with the grinder around 35 degree off horizontal. Once the grinder has cut in a bit I pushed it out to the line. This allowed me to maintain a bit of control over the position of the cut, and the cut is semicircular which makes it easy to follow the line.





Here is the keg with the lid fitted...



To finish off I use a sanding disk on a small grinder.

Did mine with a standard angle grinder. Went to bunnings a asked the bloke what would be a good disk as I was cutting stainless. Gave me a stainlees one and said I would probably need at least 10 to cut the hole in the keg so walked out with 10 disks, started to cut the hole and did the whole thing with 1 disk and probably only used 1mm of the disk :angry-banghead: peace od piss though took 5mins

Ok following the advice I have got here I managed to cut with a regular grinder and stainless disc, but the stupid batteries in the cordless grinder I got would last about 5 min and then stop.. I'll finish tomorrow.

Glad I incited you to cut a keg up APR! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks for the help fellas :handgestures-thumbupleft: Punchy I took your advice and just kept on the line till she broke.. such a fkn noob with steel... :angry-banghead:

could've just just used my plasma cutter :teasing-tease:

MacStill wrote:could've just just used my plasma cutter :teasing-tease:

:angry-banghead: :text-lol: :text-thankyoublue: