Christmas Beer Tap Handle

For the past 3 years, myself and 11 friends have participated in a Beer Advent Calendar. This year, I was tasked with creating a trophy for the Best Beer Per Year.

With 12 participants, each guy buys 2 different types of beer (12 of each). This means that there should be 24 different beers to try - one per day leading up to Christmas! They all get wrapped so that nobody know what they'll be having.

We get together to exchange them every year. The first year, it was held in a garage, hence the name. The organizer spreads out cards from Ace to King (13 cards in total) face down. Each guy grabs a card. Ace = December 1st, Queen = December 12. Each guy stands up and gives a brief description of his beer (without giving too much away) .The twist is, if you get the King, you have the option of picking any day. In the second year, I drew the King and chose to bump the beer from the 12th because that's my birthday. Once the first 12 are done, we re-draw cards for the second half and do it all over again. Then they get distributed to each guy and we all have the same beer on the same day. Everything is tracked in the Untapped App and we give ratings for each beer. And at the end of it, the beer that scored the highest that year is the winner and the buyer gets his name on the trophy.

As I didn't take as many photos of the trophy body, this instructable will just be about the tap handle.

Materials

1. Wood (I used Red Oak) - any type should be fine, but hardwood, when carved, creates a cleaner finished product than carved softwood.
2. Acrylic paint - I thinned mine with water so it wasn't as vibrant
3. Epoxy - This was just used to secure a threaded insert into the tap handle
4. Clear Coat

Tools

1. Scroll Saw - This is to get the outline of the final design
2. Sand paper - To clean up faces and edges
3. files and rasps - because of the tight corners, you may not get in with sandpaper alone. Rasps and files will help immensely with the tight details
4. Chisels - If you're doing this by hand, a variety of chisels and gouges to create texture and depth
5. Table saw or Mitre Saw - this is to make a square cut at the top and bottom to facilitate easy drilling
6. Drill or Drill Press - To make a hole for the threaded insert

1. Prep your wood so it's as smooth and nice as possible before you do anything. Once you've drawn on it and cut it out, you don't want to have to smooth it. Doing it with a rough chunk of wood will be the easiest.
2. Sketch the outline of your design on the wood
3. Once you're happy with how the design looks, use a mitre saw or table saw to square off the top and bottom of the rough piece.
4. Use the drill press to make a hole in the "tree trunk" for the threaded insert
5. Use the scroll saw to cut out the design
6. Sand and file any rough spots

Use your chisels to carve in the details. Work slowly and patiently. You can always take more wood off if needed, but if you take too much, it's very difficult to add back on.

SAFETY NOTE!

New chisels are very very sharp and often times, we find ourselves getting into a carving groove and working without paying attention. It is very easy to accidentally cut yourself with a chisel. Be very mindful of the direction that you're moving the cutting tool and what is in it's path if it decides to carry forward. You'll notice in my pictures that I have an increasing number of bandaids on my fingers... Learn from me, not from experience!

For this step I used acrylic paint. I thinned it with water because I wanted to try and get a semi-transparent look. I am very happy with how it turned out.

I used a satin clear coat (upsidedown picture) and sprayed it on in even, light coats. There are probably 6-8 coats of clear.

At this point, you want to secure the threaded insert into the tap handle.

1. I found a nut in my garage that fit on the beer tower's threaded end, then found a bolt that fit, took it to home depot and matched it to the insert.
2. screw the insert all the way down onto the threaded end of the beer tower. Ensure it's snugly to the bottom. You want to ensure it can't turn any more because when you epoxy the tap handle on facing forward, it'll come out corrked later if the insert can screw on more.
3. protect everything below the threaded part of the beer tower. You'll be using 2 part epoxy and getting it off the beer tower will be a problem!
4. mix up the 2 part epoxy and spread it into the hole on the tap handle. You shouldn't need a ton, but enough to ensure the metal and wood bond together
5. Slide the tap handle onto the insert and ensure it's straight. Once the epoxy dries, there's no adjustment.