Tap Handle

For this project I was assigned to designed a new tap handle for a local microbrewery called Tin Whiskers. It was founded by a former electrical engineer, so their motif is circuit boards and robots.  They wanted a form that allowed them to quickly and easily change colors, depending on which beer they serve. The owner also noted that their current design is not legible if it gets rotated in any way, so he wanted something that could show their brand from all angles, despite being crooked.

I played with many different forms, and decided to choose something simple, ergonomic, and clean. To make the body I took a 1 inch x 1 inch aluminum bar to a table saw. I used a CNC router to engrave the letters, then spray painted it and disc sanded the surface. The top and bottom were threaded using a drill press and a tapping wrench. 

The top form symbolizes a Wheatstone bridge, a type of electrical circuit, that I cut out with a water jet cutter and finished with an angle grinder. I drilled and tapped a small hole in the bottom, and tapped the threaded rod that screws into the handle. Finally I laser cut acrylic, added red vinyl, and glued magnets to the back of the vinyl and back of the Wheatstone bridge.