Quantumbrewer's Tap Handles

[jonocarroll]

I finished making my new tap handles just in time for the SA case swap and I thought I might post the step-by-step guide here for others to see how easy it is to make your own tap handles and replace the cheap resin ones that come standard (and are prone to losing their thread grip) . This pretty much follows the guides you can find around the net, but with locally sourced parts.

Equipment:

- Ballustrade or chair leg (half the number of handles you want to make)
- Saw
- Various grades of sandpaper
- Wood stain
- Estapol (or varnish)
- Drill
- Spade bit/drill bit
- Nuts - mine worked perfect with M10 nuts from Bunnings.
- Superglue
- Tap-in-need-of-a-better-handle

STEP ONE: Get a ballustrade or chair leg that you think is turned nicely and will suit your setup. I ordered mine from a woodturner, but some of the big sheds do stock a small range of these. Mine worked out to under $7 per (eventual) handle, delivered. Now cut the wood in half to produce two (roughly) matching handles.



STEP TWO: Sand the wood with progressively finer sandpaper to remove any chips or unsightly marks.

STEP THREE: Stain the wood with your choice of colour -- I went with Jarrah -- and leave to dry.


STEP FOUR: Coat with Estapol or varnish to protect and give it a nice shine.


STEP FIVE: Drill a hole the width and depth of the nut (I used a #16 spade bit) in the end to be attached to the tap bolt (yeah, yeah, next time I'll find the middle properly). Drill a little deeper with a normal bit to allow room for the top of the bolt. I put a bit of superglue in before the nut to make sure it stays put, but it was a nice tight fit - one tap with a mallet and it was locked in place.

 

[jonocarroll]

STEP SIX: Screw the handle to the tap bolt (with or without the ferrule that comes with the tap) - the M10 nut was a perfect fit for the bolt in my micromatic. Your mileage may vary, but with any luck you'll find the right one.



STEP SEVEN: Pour beers with your very own hand-made tap handle.



TOTAL COST: ?

The raw materials used were the wood ($7 each including delivery), the stain and varnish (mostly remaining, but maybe $2-3 per handle), and the nuts ($0.29 each). Everything else I happened to already have (perhaps excepting the mitre saw I bought on the same trip - that would probably up the price-per-handle a little). In the end it was a fun little project, and probably did work out cheaper than a professional handle anyway.

 

[raven19]

Simple and effective. Next you will be buying a wood lathe! :icon_cheers:

Pours a decent beer too btw.

 

[jonocarroll]

Simple and effective. Next you will be buying a wood lathe! :icon_cheers:

Meh - these are done great and at a low cost to me. Now, if I already had a lathe, yes - I'd give it a crack.

 

[Silo Ted]

Excellent work, and good thinking. Im not a kegger, but now I'll still be out on council cleanup week eyeing off all the old chairs. There's some very ornamental stuff out there.

 

[Steve]

Thanks for sharing. Good info and picks. I did think you were going to drill the hole for the nut on the bottom of the squared bit and have the roundy curvy bit as the handle though.
Cheers
Steev

 

[jonocarroll]

I did think you were going to drill the hole for the nut on the bottom of the squared bit and have the roundy curvy bit as the handle though.

I do get that comment a bit - the shape as-is fits the hand quite nicely. I am however considering lopping the squared bit off one and turning it upside-down to resemble this a bit more;

but to be honest, I think these look like... feminine entertainment products.

If I do keep them as they are now, I'm thinking of attaching magnetic labels to the front flat sides of mine.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

yeah yeah necropost.

I'm pretty keen to give this a go. The dining table chairs are looking pretty good, I wonder if SWMBO will notice if one goes missing?

QB seems to have covered everything, but has anyone else here made their own handles?

I also wouldn't mind doing something like this with a big ol' stick.
Any tips with regards to selection of timber? or is it as simple as grab a dead branch (not green), chop, sand, stain, varnish, and away you go.

cheers

 

[kymba]

yeah yeah necropost.

I'm pretty keen to give this a go. The dining table chairs are looking pretty good, I wonder if SWMBO will notice if one goes missing?

QB seems to have covered everything, but has anyone else here made their own handles?

I also wouldn't mind doing something like this with a big ol' stick.
Any tips with regards to selection of timber? or is it as simple as grab a dead branch (not green), chop, sand, stain, varnish, and away you go.

cheers

why limit yourself to dead trees? chop, stain and varnish a possum i say!

 

[np1962]

A couple of threads to read through
HERE
and Bonj's hand carved job

 

[Liam_snorkel]

thanks for the links Nige, I did search but my google-fu wasn't strong yesterday.

Kymba - AussieHomeTaxidermy.com

 

[jonocarroll]

Simple and effective. Next you will be buying a wood lathe! :icon_cheers:

Meh - these are done great and at a low cost to me. Now, if I already had a lathe, yes - I'd give it a crack.

I never did get around to staining the other handles, or finishing the current ones for that matter.

On the plus side, I now *do* have a lathe, and will be having a crack at making my own handles from scratch someday. I'll be using plain ol' boring pine though - have you seen the cost of good wood here?

I've also invested in a drill press, so getting that hole for the nut nice and centered shouldn't be so bad this time 'round.

@Liam - have a look at the big sheds for currently-not-in-use-by-someone-who-might-kill-you-in-your-sleep-for-ruining-a-perfectly-good-chair options.