So after a load of faffing about for the last few months with the T500 I've managed to find a keg to use as a boiler. I'm planning to try building a version of Samohon's pot still design from the Diagrams and Plans thread. I've never soldered anything before so it looks like a good starting point, I was going to try a boka but I can't get the hang of making a coil at all. Anyway, that's getting off topic a little bit; my first hurdle is removing the valve from the keg. I've read the guides for the US kegs with the ball but this keg doesn't appear to have one of those. There's a small hollow centre post in there. I did try Googling this site for other keg adapter threads but couldn't find any that looked like this.
Has anyone else removed one of these? If so any tips on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. Presumably I just press down on this centre post to release the pressure (keg on its side) as you would with the ball?
Thanks for the links. Looks like I have one of the more tricky ones to open, bugger! I've done a wider google search on removing these and it appears to be a valve used by Guinness. Looks like quite a few people have had problems with them, unfortunately all their tutorials appear to have been deleted. Bugger again!
have a guinness keg as well. Don't worry, you did not screw up.
Heres how I did mine:
1. Bleed the pressure off. I did this by pushing a screw driver in the middle and had a rag over top to prevent spray. (My keg was 1/3rd full of old guinness)
2. There is a brass nut with little ramps on it almost like massive threads. This is what the keg coupler would lock onto.
3. Drill a 1/8 or 3/16 hole (drill as deep as the bit is wide) right on the top of on of the threads. Not straight down on the top surface of the nut but 90 deg to the surface of the thread near where it meets the top surface of the nut.
4. Take cold chisel or old screwdriver or whathaveyou and using the little hole you just drilled tap the brass nut counterclockwise until unthreads and then the spear can be lifted out.
Drilling the hole is just to give you a place to put your chisel.
Sorry, I forgot to say that I did this to make a BK not to reuse the keg as intended.
I got a guinness keg, and a 2" tri clamp, only to discover that the U system flange is about 2 7/8" diameter, and the 2" tri clamp is grooved for flange just over 2 1/2" - so I can't use the clamp as I had hoped. I'm still trying to work out how to do it...
As to how to remove the ring - I took a slightly different approach. I drilled two holes straight down through the brass ring, then used a file to open the sides of the holes up to the inside of the ring. That gave me a notch straight across the ring. Then I used the corner of a garden hoe as essentially a giant slot screwdriver to unscrew it.
I still have the ring, and one of the ways I'm contemplating connecting to the keg is to hack up some kind of adapter that will get me from the ring's outer diameter of just under 2", up to full 2" pipe (2 1/8" OD). I may just end up looking for another keg...
It was a standard right-hand thread, incidentally, in my case.
Sorry didn't see you had replied to this. Not sure if you're still having a problem but I have a keg triclamp adapter kit from mile high distilling and it fits the keg perfectly. I still haven't managed to get the damn valve out but the triclamp definitely fits. It sounds like what others were saying about you maybe having a smaller triclamp could be correct.
If you can get the spear out there is always a way to reuse it. I have an old aluminium keg with a screw in valve that I use as a steam boiler. Once I got the spear out I took it apart and only retained the outer part of the valve. I brazed a stainless threaded insert into this and refitted it to the keg.
Onto that I just screwed a threaded compression adaptor to take 1.4" tube but you could go up to 2" tube if you wanted with the right adaptor.
What I rigged up works fine as a steam generator.
The last pic is out of date as the steam keg now has a layer of concrete/vermiculite insulation over the shroud, but the point is that you can use any valve type with a bit of work. Good luck.
