[Joe Sr.]

In Illinois they don't test the pipe if you have ODB.  Last time I saw them do this was on my old '86 Merkur.  They also pulled the front wheels up on the rollers to test it "at speed."

Since they were idiots not paying attention, they failed to realize the car was rear wheel drive.  Luckily nothing was damaged, but they lit the rear wheels up pretty good.

But we're way off topic.

[beveragebob]

"I had the emissions tested on my car earlier this week.  They plugged a cable in to something under the dashboard and that was it." Tom, that's the computer port to check the various system codes on your car. Saw this last night on late night infomercial:
http://carmd.com    supposedly you can check your own codes hooking up to your OB computer then it figures out in plain english what's wrong. Looks pretty cool actually.

I got all of my kegs free (~75-80) from the Coke distributor back in the late 90's. I just skeletonitize  other kegs when I use parts and put a note on the one I took the parts on in case I  need to pick up any parts for them someday. They are mostly Firestone Series IV and V's so everything is compatible..

[tschmidlin]

I had the emissions tested on my car earlier this week.  They plugged a cable in to something under the dashboard and that was it.  When did they stop sticking something in the tailpipe to measure emissions?

At least since 1997, probably a few years earlier.  Honestly.

That's believable, this is the first car I've had, built after 1997, that I've had to have emissions tested.  They give you six years or so in WA, and my previous car was totaled before it got to that point.

[gsandel]

Thank you all so much, Gentlemen.

It sounds like used kegs are the way to go.  I have no fear about working with them, just wanted to make sure there wasn't a dark side.  So, tell me, is there a preference or preponderance for types (ball or pin locks)?  Or is one rarely avaliable compared to the other? Should I buy an expensive quality stainless faucet or just a cheapo party tap?  I eventually will build a collar on my temp controlled chest freezer, but was just thinking of going with the cheap party tap until I got the hang of the process.

Do you prefer force carbonation or adding priming sugars to keg for carbonation?  I kind of like the idea of using priming sugar for carbonation.....is it a romantic notion I ought to abandon for quick and easy force carb?

 

[tschmidlin]

I force carbonate, but you can do either, and you're never locked in to one or the other.  Try it both ways and do what works for you, although which you like better might be different for different beers.  For high gravity beers you might have trouble getting good carbonation with priming sugar.

Start with a picnic tap, they're useful to have anyway.  But eventually a forward sealing faucet is the way to go IMO.

And I can find ball lock kegs and parts easily.  Not so with pinlocks,

[euge]

After 3 years I still use a Cobra tap. This year I also went to just priming the keg. It's just a tool that suits me very well for the moment. Forcing carbonation like using agitation is also appropriate and so is passively connecting to a set pressure to achieve desired volumes.

I'd like to do a real setup with 4 taps.

[gordonstrong]

One of the last kegs I bought had that rubber issue.  What product do you use to fix that?  It's irritating.

This is one: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accessories/Mothers-8-oz-back-to-black-trim-liquid-treatment/_/N-25ke?itemIdentifier=519036&_requestid=5889718

I'm sure there are others.

Paul

Thanks.  I'll look for it while running errands today.

[gordonstrong]

And I can find ball lock kegs and parts easily.  Not so with pinlocks,

+1