Have a keg. Will make something out of it. Any ideas?

[theroguedeluxe]

Hello, all!

A long week has just ended, and since I want to spend as much time on my local climbing wall this weekend, I thought I'd get all my chores out of the way tonight. Kitchen is admin-ed, laundry is under way, and lounge was about to get reconfigured into a REAL lounge rather than the extra room we store bikes, weights, climbing + camping gear and various random things, when I started to get the hoover out of the dread cupboard under the stairs, which is home to many many things accumulated over the last 2 years, and is affectionately referred to as Limbo.

And to my delight I found this:

apologies for crappy light - it's 10.30pm and the nicest way I can describe my lounge lighting is to call it "moody".

If memory serves, I rescued this after finding it in a London park. Evidently, I packed it away in Limbo, and completely forgot about it.

Since I recently joined this forum and have been pretty impressed with some of the amazing things people have made, I thought I'd have a crack at a bit of DIY

I'm no DIY wiz, but I'm handy enough and can get hold of a fairly comprehensive set of handtools, plus I'm stubborn as hell so I'm fairly certain I can bend this to my will. If in doubt, I have sledgehammers and a bearclub to convince to Keg to do as I say.

Rough specs:
* Haven't located my tape measure yet, but I used my NL1 as a rough guide and it's about 15.5in in diametre and 14.5in tall
* Keg capacity is 30l - Staropramen, in case you were wondering
* It is made of stainless steel, but can't really be much more specific than that

Now all I need is inspiration.

...

So, what shall I make of it?

 

[spamel]

Do you have a large shed? It'd make a nice wood fired stove. Just get some metal ducting to make a chimney and cut out a section on one side to chuck wood in and you'd have a basic affair. yo0u could attatch a disc brake to the top which will hold heat and create somewhere to put your whistling kettle on and maybe add a place to cook a baked potato, etc. Could be a nice little project! Look around for inspiration as a few people here have made them from the old calor gas bottles that seem to get dumped everywhere these days. Also, check out Ludlowsurvivors website as he has some on there to!

 

[primitiveliver]

Fill it with beer and make a party... I have seen them used as a gas tank on hot rods in the US. I have seen people make crab pots out of them as well. Mybe a bush toilet, BBQ or a flower pot

 

[Stew]

Turn it into a bbq....

 

[firebreather]

Just beware the keg might have a spike in the pressure top. As you turn it if it is still under any pressure then it will shoot up and impale your arm ( I have seen it happen). One way of solving this is to use a knife to break the seal around the pressure screw and let out the pressure before you turn the screw.
Not all barrels have this spike just some, so you might be ok and I am getting a bit paniky but I would rather let you know and you waste a bit of time being careful than hearing you have skewered your arm.

Good luck

Greg

 

[theroguedeluxe]

I'm leaning towards the stove option, I must say - perhaps a bit ambitious for a first project, but what the hell; what's the worst that could go wrong ?

Spamel, I'm going to search the forums for those calor gas bottle projects and see how I can adapt that to a keg - any thoughts on how you'd go about it?

Firebreather, that's terrifying - big thanks for the heads up!

 

[demographic]

I'm leaning towards the stove option, I must say - perhaps a bit ambitious for a first project, but what the hell; what's the worst that could go wrong ?

Spamel, I'm going to search the forums for those calor gas bottle projects and see how I can adapt that to a keg - any thoughts on how you'd go about it?

Firebreather, that's terrifying - big thanks for the heads up!

You would be better off using a proper gas bottle, at least that way you don't have to buy expensive stainless steel welding rods or stainless MIG wire and you can get away with using 6013 (rutile coated mild steel) rods or mild steel MIG wire.

Welding most food grade stainless's is easy enough though and is no more difficult than mild steel as far as I am concerned.
If you have to weld it to mild steel you will have to use a rod thats got a higher chrome and nickle content than you barrel, for instance if the barrel is a 18/8 stainless you would need a 24/12 rod (or thereabouts) to weld it to mild steel. Your local welding factors will be able to give you some advise on it all.

Heres a link to one of the threads where I did a gas bottle conversion though.

 

[walkswithnomoccasins]

hiya
When i used to go away with my scout group we used to have a beer keg that had been converted into "puffing Billy". A rustic afair for heating up water used to boil a hogs head of water in 20-30 minutes. Would be great for a semi permanant camp.
its easy to rig up as well just one pipe which sits at the highest point when it is over the fire and a steel funnel for the side. When you are ready for the hot water just add cold water (all the hot water rises and the only way it can escape is via the pipe) I will have a word with my old scout leader about it see if he still has the plans.

 

[ManOtheWoods]

You could always follow the tutorial on making a 5 hour forge? I'm sure you could get someone to do the welding bit for you then you'd be able to play around and pherhaps do some self taught blacksmithing there is a nice download on this site to I believe.

 

[Still Waters]

That would make a nice hot smoker for meat fish etc

 

[stuartmac5]

I've got 2 of those,
did the most useful thing with them too.........
Filled em full of home brew!!
if you want to make a burner, I'd follow Demographic's lead and stick to a gas bottle, since you really need 2, one for the donor door and the other for the burner.
And they are easier to weld.
My advice would be:
Take the spike out with a pair of molegrips holding the centre pin, push down, grip it and unscrew. file off the flanges once you get it out and you can refill it yourself.
pm me if you want some fittings to get the beer piped to your sofa!!!

 

[theroguedeluxe]

Ahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! (Partridge-like)

Hit a snag which may put paid to a few of the ideas on here... Been chatting to various people and one of the things that keeps coming up is that a stainless steel beer keg may not be particularly resistant to heat...

So, the barbecue and smoke pot options are probably still viable, but a stove or even a mini-forge are out... I can picture it now: you get the heat nice and high, get a good grip on the tongs, grab your hammer and... the bottom of your forge starts pooling around your feet. :yikes:

I'm trying to find out more but now that I think about it, the combination of fairly thin stainless + high heat is probably not a good one... I suppose insulating the inside might help, but not sure how much - Anyone know more about stainless kegs and insulation?

...

Demographic, lovely stove! Now I need a couple of empty gas bottles to have a go.

Stuartmac, I like the idea, but I can really do without without another reason to stay firmly ensconsed in my sofa!

 

[demographic]

Its not that the stainless will melt, its likely that as stainless has a
high thermal expansion coefficiency it's more inclined to warp because of the heat.

I have found that when welding stainless it warps a fair bit more than mild steel but its usually possible to weld it up in such a way that this is minimised.

 

[dommyracer]

Just beware the keg might have a spike in the pressure top. As you turn it if it is still under any pressure then it will shoot up and impale your arm ( I have seen it happen).

Seriously, take heed of this advice - make sure it is COMPLETELY depressurised before you don anything with it. I worked in the pub trade for a long enough time to see one of these injure someone, and it wasn't pretty......

 

[ilovemybed]

Ah! Staropramen. I can smell the brewery from my house if the wind's in the right direction.

Why not try adding wheels?
http://www.fourseasonsamusements.com/fullimages/beer_keg_trikes_f.jpg
http://www.partyoutfitters.com/itempics/games/kegracer.jpg

 

[Dr Onion]

THE LAST ONE!!!! DO THE LAST ONE!!!!!!

ROFLMAO!!!

Dr O

 

[pothunter]

BEER, fill it with home brew, polished it will make a nice addition to you new lounge (cant see my wife allowing it in the lounge but her taste is a bit suspect )

There are plenty of gas bottles about to make BBQ's.

Pothunter.

 

[Nightwalker]

theroguedeluxe its great to see you making use of that thing. Perfect timing actually... I too have had a project like this on my mind and just last night I picked up an gas bottle that had been dumped down at our local resivoir. Its perfect for what I want and im going to turn it into a wood-burner / stove for the balcony in the summer. I've never done this sort of thing before but basically I want to have proper door, adjustable air-intake, chimney & Hot-plate on the top for a light bit of cooking. I'll see how I can jazz it up and probably draw some designs. I plan to document the whole process from start to finish at my site www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk

Good idea regards the break disc Spammel, I think I'll try that one. I thought if the project turned out well I could even use some black exhaust paint to finish the thing. I've not used the stuff before but I think I heard some exhaust-paint could withstand up to nearly a couple of thousand degrees C is that right? Keep us updated on your project!

 

[Lostdreamer]

If it's stainless I would have thought you should be reasonably ok with it.

I mean, you probably can't make a forge out of it, but then a forge's function in life is to melt metal. I think a stove would be allright. The displacement kettle thing mentioned by walkswithnomoccasins will be fine. It's always nice to have hot water on tap too.

Infact,now that I think about it, if it is stainless that makes it almost perfect for a hot water container.

I would take a slighlty different approach to temperatre control on it too. Instead of making sure it was well insulated to prevent it getting hot, I would try and make sure it was well cooled. If there is plenty of airflow etc around it then I would have thought it won't get hot enough to fall apart because it will bleed excess heat into the atmosphere. This may be self defeating with a water boiler, because you want that to keep the heat in the water.

With that said, my copper braizer does get quite soft in use. It is rarely the same shape at the end of the night that it was at the start.

If you do want to use insulation, my best guess for a starting point would either be the glass fiber stuff they use in car silencers, or sand.

Hope my waffling helps
LD

ETA: Can't find any pictures of the widget that I am thinking of, but what you have - if I remember it correctly - is:
A kettle/water bucket/whatever with a cyildrical liner that divides it into two chambers, and inner chamber and an outer chamber. There is an overflow spout at the top of the outer chamber and holes at the bottom of the inner chamber to allow water flow between the two. You add cold water to the inner chamber, which displaces water that has already been heated from the outer chamber through the spout. The net effect is constant hot water.

I do hope someone will come along soon, realise what it is I am trying to describe and provide you with a better description/pictures.

 

[Nightwalker]

I do hope someone will come along soon, realise what it is I am trying to describe and provide you with a better description/pictures.

So do I!

I will be progressing on my gas-bottle wood-burner / stove and keeping a log of the process here:
www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk/making-gas-bottle-wood-burner.htm
As I start the project I will probably sketch a few different designs and I will hopefully document all of it on that page, so if your interested it might be worth bookmarking it. No doubt I'll be asking for advice and ideas back here on BCUK in not too long.