Polishing Beer Kegs

[Brewdino]

I have 3 legally obtained kegs that I wish to polish and I am looking for the must effective way to polish the to a near mirror finish.

Any advise would be great, thanks in advance.

[Brintiff]

Read the free polishing manual, come back with any specific questions, there is no way to answer your question without know what it looks like now.

[gcdrummer02]

i hope they were relatively new. Otherwise they will be scratched to hell.

[Brewdino]

I understand the compound regiment. My question is more what wheel and mandrel would work best with a 7” polisher to obtain the best results.

[Rasper]

We need to know what condition they are in to answer that. If they have been rolled across the sidewalk in and out of a hundred bars you will probably need to sand them with 80 grit. If they are new it's a different story entirely.

R

[Brewdino]

The kegs I have are in vary nice shape, My sister in law is the chief bean counter at a firm that referbs kegs for the major brewery's.

[Rasper]

Analyze the scratches on your keg. Scratch some aluminum test pieces with various grit sandpapers: 80, 150, 220. Compare with the scratches in your keg. If they are coarser than 80, you need to begin sanding with 80 grit. And so on.

I sand with 80, 150, 220, 400, and 600. I begin, of course, with the finest grit appropriate to the beginning surface. Then I use a coarse stainless compound on a cotton wheel. And usually a white chrome oxide for the finish. I don't use sisal wheels. I would rather sand the scratches out than buff them out. Personal preference only. I have not had much luck with emery on stainless. Stainless is so hard it seems to break down the emery too fast.

You must - I repeat - you must sand out all of the preceding scratches before moving up to a finer paper. If you don't, what you will have is nicely polished scratches.

R

[andybrown]

Mirror polished beer keg, nice.

Yes as above, it all depends on what state its in to start with. I'm sure many people have different standards that they get the metal to before they start polishing but personally i prep alloy to 400grit and steel to 800 grit before i start with a sisal mop and a coarse compound.

What size is the keg? Try and get some pics up.

Don’t underestimate the job, this could potentially be a big job to get the results that you are working towards but the finished item will look fantastic. Good luck!

[Rasper]

What I didn't say is that you must use a machine to sand stainless. You won't live long enough to sand a couple of kegs by hand.

R

[andybrown]

Agreed, use electric tools / sanders with plenty of paper to get the keg smooth prior to polishing. Protect yourself with dust mask / respirator / sprayers mask to keep the metal particles out or your lungs.