Cutting top off keg

[Dan]

Anyone know the best way to cut a keg? I've just bought one on TradeMe and now need to make take the top off.

I do have a jigsaw, is it possible with metal cutting blades and cutting oil or will I need an angle grinder or plasma cutter?

Any recommendations of places in Wellington that can do this at a reasonable cost if it proves too much effort to do myself?

Cheers

[oliver]

I've done it with a cheap angle grinder with cutting blades, took ages though :p. There's probably easier ways, there's a few videos on youtube on how to make a neat circular hole too. Havn't tried with a jigsaw but I imagine it'd be a bit of a struggle.

[Dan]

Thought that would be the case with a jigsaw. I guess I'll have to find somewhere to do it professionally with a plasma cutter.

[Nathan Murrell]

Check with Karl Hayes at All Grain...he bought one 6-8 weeks ago and got the top cut off somewhere in Wellington from memory

[Karl Hayes]

Yup, I went to FoodMaid, 11 Rhodes St Newtown, and they whipped the top off with a plasma cutter. Lovely clean cut but did require a bit of smoothing with an angle grinder.

[mattd2]

I have done a couple freehand using a 115mm grinder and 1mm cutoff discs. Not to hard to do - used the chime as a guide to rest the guard against, keep the grinder vertical and don't try and go through in one hit. You need to keep going round going a little bit deeper each time, from memory it took about 10 revolutions to get through. And when you do don't let the disc sink in to far as it makes things harder and potentially it might shatter. Last tip for any way you go, fill the keg half way with water to catch any sparks.
Good luck!

[Dave]

I got mine done using the plasma cutter, the only thing was hot little pieces of melted metal stuck to the inside of the kettle. You could fill it with a bit of water to combat this, plus you can reuse the keg top as a lid, three triangle tabs spot welded to the edge works well.

[Sam]

Chris banks (in Wellington) can do a perfect circle with a angle grinder, he's a brewer and a professional stainless steel welder and does impressive work.

Another way I saw on the net is you can make a rig with pvc pipe and threaded rod, I started making a rig myself to convert some spare kegs I have but only got as far as cutting out part of the skirt (leaving the rim) for easy cleaning and picking up, and cutting out a oval for a corny keg lid on another keg.