DIY Tap Handles

So my father build a bar in his backyard last year and has wanted to upgrade. He wants to get a tap tower on the bar. I got him the tower to mount on the bar for Christmas and decided to try my hand at making tap handles for him. I was going to make the tap handles from my kids to him. They call him papa. Here are the pics of my first attempts.

This is the wood cut to size for 3 tap handles. I bought a single block at Home Depot.


I marked the center of each piece to accurately place on the lathe


Here is the block mounted and ready for carving.


I finished rounding out the block:


Next I started shaping the cylinder.


This is what one of the handles looked like after finishing the shape on the lathe.



This is them off the lathe and ready to be cut down.


I cut the tops and bottoms down to size.


I bought the letters at Michaels and painted them white.

I stained them dark to match the bar color.


I bought the hanger bolts, ferrules, and finials from kegworks. The finials were bigger than I thought and didn't look right on these handles so I omitted them from this project. Also, I do not own a drill press so I had to drill the holes for the hanger bolts by hand. They are not completely straight but I still think the taps came out looking pretty good.


I tried my hand at engraving but it did not come out near how I would have like it so I bought the letters at Michaels. This was after I had already stained them or I would have sanded a flat surface in order to glue the letters onto. Instead I used a hammer and flattened it a bit which gave me a flat enough surface to glue the letters on. They seem to be holding on nicely but only time will tell.


Here they are drying on my kegarator. I am going to shellac them as well.


I will take a picture once the tower is mounted on my father's bar to show the finished setup.

Nice job man! A lathe is a nice toy to have around the shop I bet. My hat goes off to anything custom like that. Plus you can make them how YOU want them.

Thanks. I actually bought the lathe for this project. Figure I can make a bunch of tap handles.

Shoot I would make em and sell em. Custom designs and the whole shebang. I would buy some! But me being a DIYer I would more than likely make my own as well.

I would love a lathe. Can't tell what kind it is from the pictures...care to enlighten me?

NCGrayson said:

I would love a lathe. Can't tell what kind it is from the pictures...care to enlighten me?

Click to expand...

Got it from Harbor Freight:
Benchtop Wood Lathe - 8" x 12"