Category Archives: Tap Handles

Darth Vader Tap Handle

(NO SPOILERS HERE, DON’T WORRY!!)

In honor of the long awaited release of Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens I’m showcasing my Darth Vader Tap Handle.

 Difficulty: level_5

Due to the investment in a 3D printer and the amount of time it takes to get one dialed in and making parts, this one gets a high difficulty rating.

You also must posses some CAD design skills to generate the required files to send to the 3D printer.

Time Required:

This one was fairly easy, but printing time was about 6 hours total.

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Required:

  • Existing tap handle
  • Tap handle topper (In my case the Darth Vader bust)
  • 1/4″ wooden dowel rod
    • About a 1 to 1.5″ length
  • Glue
    • Super glue is best
    • It works well with the ABS plastic and the wood
  • 3D printer

3D Printer

Ever since I first saw my first rapid prototyping machine in college and then to a greater extent, seeing that this technology was nearly affordable for a DIY person like me, I’ve had a child-like fascination with these awesome machines.  It may sound goofy, but I’ve got the same level of amazement that I did when my Dad bought our first computer in the early ’80s and I was able to type my name and have it appear on our television.

I got the Flashforge Creator and I am very happy with it.  It had the right balance of cost, dual-extruders, reliability, non-proprietary filament and has required me to do a little bit of tinkering that has allowed me to better understand the capabilities 3D printers.

Great Fermentations

Celebrate by brewing the Milleniale Falcon beer kit from Great Fermentations.  Today only (December 18th, 2015) is a special 38% off deal. No promo code needed for the deal; just add the kits to your cart and go! Click the link below to see the list of eligible light and dark side beer kits!

6_deal_days_day4_cat

Process

It is really simple, once you have your handle and the topper printed.  I just used a 1/4″ dowel rod to attach the topper to the tap handle.  Drill a 1/4″ pilot hole in the top of the tap handle.

023-Vader Dunkel Side 3DP Front

Text creation for tap handle

At the time, I couldn’t find a font that looked similar to the Star Wars font, nor could I find a font generator, but now there are a few out there.  Here is one for example:

Font Meme

Tap Handle Creation

Just follow my guide for Super Easy Tap Handles

Darth Vader Bust

If you have a 3D printer and want to print one yourself, go to Thingiverse to download the STL files and build your own.

Darth Vader Tap Handle Topper on Thingiverse

Don’t have a Thingiverse account?

If you don’t have a Thingiverse account or have no interest in creating one, you can download the CAD files by subscribing using the form below:
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

By clicking on the download, you agree to the terms of this license and to be added to the awesome fermware.com subscriber list. Don’t worry, you won’t receive a bunch of trub in your inbox.
[lab_subscriber_download_form download_id=26]

 

023-Vader Dunkel Side 3DP Side

Mein Bierwagen in July/August BYO

Ok, now for the third time this year, I’m honored to have one of my DIY’s featured in another great brewing publication.  Only this time, it’s a real article authored by yours truly.  It’s in the 2015 July/August BYO!

It is a full write up of Mein Bierwagen.

There was even an additional Reader Project feature of my DIY tap handles.

BYO Tap Handles

I really hope to see some variations of this for the 2015 Oktoberfest parties.

I’ll be brewing for Strausstoberfest in a few weeks!

Prost!

Difficulty: level_3

BYO also has been kind enough to allow me to post the article on my website, so just read my section of the article, then go over to BYO and start a subscription!

Download the article by subscribing:

By clicking on the download, you agree to the terms of the copyright of BYO Magazine and to be added to the awesome fermware.com subscriber list. Don’t worry, you won’t receive a bunch of trub in your inbox.

 

 

3D Printed Kombucha Tap Handles

Since introducing my 3D printed WBHY tap handles, I’ve had other requests for custom work.  This one required me to tap (no pun intended) into my artistic side.

This one in particular for the Pekoe Kombucha Bar in Toronto was pretty cool.

021-Kombucha Tap Handle - standard handle

I made a standard tea leaf with their logo in two colors as well as alternate versions that had icon toppers that reflected the some of the various flavor offerings.

021-Kombucha Tap Handle - all handles

This summer (2015) Pekoe Kombucha Bar will be serving at Front Street Foods in Union Station in Toronto as part of the summer market.  If you are in the area, stop by and try some of their kombucha and see the tap handles in person.

Check the original 3D Printed Tap Handles thread for current info on purchasing a tap handle or getting the link to download files to print your own!

If you want to see other creations, check out my Gallery of Customer 3D Printed Tap Handles showing some of the tap handles already made for customers.