When I look at how much time I have in this project, I can only laugh at myself… But, it’s done…
MoreBeer has recipe sheets with real nice artwork that they supply with any of their beer kits. I buy from them primarily, and I almost always test new styles with one of their kits. Often I keep brewing that kit because I don’t really see any need for improvement. So I have loads of those sheets with the artwork. Then, they sell tap handles that use those cutouts and screw right on your faucets. I’ve wanted some, but really I didn’t want black. Also, they’re $17 ea, and while I can see there’s a ton of work involved in making them, I need 7 or more for the faucets I have now, much less if I add any (which might happen). Also, I really wanted double sided ones, so I decided I’d make my own.
My first try more or less mimicked theirs and immediately I see they will not fit on my draft tower without interfering with each other. The faucet handles tilt back some and they’re simply too close. I have a Komos Kegerator (makes no difference, any with the round tower will have this issue) and never looked at the reviews on the things or I would have seen folks said they need to be turned sideways even on the 3 faucet tower.
Well, my first effort which I made out of pallet-wood (scrap) both needed stained and poly, and was done with not much design consideration. They didn’t fit the tower either… Ok, now I have 6 that can be used on individual kegs elsewhere, but not on the kegerator.
On to revision 2… I decided I have a piece of oak here, I’ll use that instead of the white maple used before. I hate the stain color I chose which was supposed to be Red Mahogany, it’s anything but. I put $11.xx in 1/2pt of stain…
This time I made the sides far thinner, a total of 1/4" in thickness even with the groove for the plexiglass panels. Mine will sandwich the label/artwork between two pieces of plexiglass which slide down in the handle for display. I could also write on the plexi with a marker, but… nah…
A friend who owns the local hardware store and who I got into brewing last year, donated the plexiglass for the project. One piece of scrap did 11 handles worth of plexi panels (23 in total). I cut those in the table saw.
These handles would be a slam dunk if they were square, but the sides are on 2 deg angles which makes all the mortising a nightmare. Furthermore, I had to thread them on a 5 deg angle so as to tilt the handle forward and plumb when in the close position. So I had to make the handles “deeper” front to back in order to facilitate drilling and tapping on an angle… I wasn’t happy with the way the tops of the first generation came out even after 1 revision of that, and so I completely changed the tops and made them from 4 pieces rather than the 2 that had been used for the first set.
I grooved my pieces for the sides and bases using the router and lift with grooving cutter. Then cut those pieces from the board from which they were taken. Then cut all the bases and sides. Glued those up with the tops open, then cut all the 90deg tops and assembled them. After they dried, I put the 47 deg angles on the sides of those so they’d fit inside the base frames, and later routed everything all nice and smooth, ready for sanding and finishing.
The oak finished up much nicer than the maple. The finish looks nicer on it even with only one coat and no additional sanding/steel wool. All said and done, I now have 18 of these in total (3 batches of 6 at a time), less the ones I gave to my buddy for his faucets he doesn’t even own yet. And a few of the newer style I’ll give him as well. I like the oak ones enough that I’m likely to just give away the maple ones, of which he already has 2. There’s nothing wrong with them, but they’re not going to match all the others I have… So there is that.
You’ve gotta open the images in a new tab because I’m too cheap to buy a security certificate.
