DIY Tap Handle?

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We picked one up at Lowe's on Friday. HWMBO made these tap handles out of some table legs (cut from a three dollar table) and some of those wooden plaques you can get at a craft store for about 50 cents.

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Laminated the labels and then attached them with a removable sticky, so we can change them out; simple, cheap, and looks good (we think :) )
 
My roomate had a Mannequin that we put one of the northern brewer adaptors on the hand of.. thing looked like it was straight out of clockwork orange i will try to find pictures
 
We picked one up at Lowe's on Friday. HWMBO made these tap handles out of some table legs (cut from a three dollar table) and some of those wooden plaques you can get at a craft store for about 50 cents.
...
Laminated the labels and then attached them with a removable sticky, so we can change them out; simple, cheap, and looks good (we think :) )

I did the same thing, only I figured that the plaques were so cheap I could just sandwich them back-to-back, decoupage the label on, and tap a threaded ferrule into them, making one for each style of beer. I guess I went the hard way. BTW, I used candlesticks as the actual taphandle.

Here's how I put them together:
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And here's what they look like when they're finished:
IMG_1001.jpg
 
Steering linkage? Shifter linkage? Whatever it is, it looks great.

Those redwood burl handles look fantastic, too!
 
I could use the old shifter off my 69 Mustang and use it for a handle...

Or, if I could find a small carving of a hand ready to armwrestle, I could mount that on the faucet and to pour you just grip it and pull...
 
gratuitous tap handle pic
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1) Triumph 500 connecting rod
2) Bronze female sculpture I made in art class
3) Cool looking PSI guage
4) St. Arnold tap handle (cool gift)
5) Bronze male sculpture
6) Piece of handlebar with throttle and brake lever
 
I looked at Lowes today. Tha\ey had it. Not the right size though. Every time I go there, they have every size, but the size I need. I will try the local hardware tomorrow.
 
it's 1/4"-20
As far as I know, all taps are 3/8"-16. The metal ferrules at the bottom are threaded 5/16"-18 on one side and 3/8"-16 on the other.

So to make your own taphandle, you want a 3/8"-16 threaded insert. Check out McMaster-Carr for 10-packs at a fantastic price. Less than $5 I think.

-Joe
 
I am using a Kenworth enblem i pulled off a wrecked truck cant upload pics at the moment doin the whole mobile brewtalking at work........Now i just need to find a wrecked peterbilt and steal the emblem off of that
 
I made these 2 tap handles for a party that I am having this weekend. Basically they are made from a table leg and a cabinet drawer handle for the finial. All made from DIY tips that I picked up here at HBT!

These pictures are of poor quality, but the handles look pretty good and were cheap.

Stout_Handle_Small_.jpg
IPA_Handle_Small_.jpg


Mike.
 
The local brewpub made a bunch of 6" or so tap handles out of some kind of modeling clay or plasticine. They formed it up on a dowel of some kind and had each employee grab one and put their finger impressions into it, then let them harden and sprayed them all silver.
 
For about 3 bucks each you can get these lovely wooden mini table legs from Lowes.

TapHandles.jpg


For a small fee, I know a woodworker who will make personalized tap handles like these.

i saw some that looked just like that at a sex toy website, but they were made of rubber.
 
I made all of these with the exception of the St. Arnold, which was a gift from my favorite bar. The nudes were a sculpture project in school, made of bronze using the lost was process, the throttle and connecting rod were spare parts around the shop, and I just liked this old pressure gauge from an old compressor the bit the dust. Two perlicks are on their way form a group buy to replace the last 2 chrome faucets, I like the plastic creamer one and the Stout faucet was one of those with a HUGE guinness handle that had to go.
IMG_3520.jpg
 
I was searching around taphandles.com, and I saw this, and I thought that this was a VERY cool idea...
BellsTapHandles.jpg


I'm thinking you could do those with some referbished billiard balls that you painted. If you could find a good looking way of adhering the logos on there, I think it would be very cool. I don't even have a kegging set up yet, so I've got a ways to go before I get here, but it's fun to think about.
 
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