Watching paint dry yesterday did not seem very productive so I thought I would play around with making some tap handles.
I had planned to make some unique beer-inspired (aka...drink lots of beer and get inspired) tap handles for each of the 6 faucets. However, after test-fitting the faucets I realized that I really don't have much room for handles as the faucets are spaced pretty close together.
I don't have a lathe, but thought about building one like this for my drill-press. But I wanted something more unique than just a turned handle.
I do some other projects for fun with reclaimed wood (cedar fence pickets and/or pallets) and wanted to keep this theme alive. I was going to cut out some simple handles and just figure out how to label them later. Something kinda like this.
So I kept searching. I found a lot of people are doing numbered taps. Most seemed too plain (like these) but some are more bespoke and rustic (like these) . All-in-all, numbers are pretty practical and it's basically the same thing many micro breweries do. Then - we can compliment the numbered taps with a chalk-board that lists the names, ABV, IBU, etc.
I decided rather than make a wood handle and put a number on it...I would cut the outline of a number directly from wood. I like the numbers in this font and it has the tall/thin characteristics I needed.
I opened an image of the numbers in Photoshop and stretched the image till it was really tall. Then I projected the image onto some heavy paper to use as template.
Next - I transferred the outline onto the wood and cut 'em out.
I modified the letter's design a bit to create a flat base for the threaded inserts. I found these threaded inserts on Amazon and they end up being less than 60-cents each.
I did some burning with a torch to make the edges (and back side) black.
I still have work to do...need to seal/varnish them and add the thread inserts. However - I'm pretty pleased with how they look. They are the height I wanted and are also narrow enough so they will fit the spacing between my faucets.