Tap Handles

[Josiah Bartlett]

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Hi,
I'm new to the forum, and I'm fairly new to turning too. I've been woodworking a long time but this is really my first spindle work. Here are two beer tap handles I did for my friend, one in walnut and one in maple, sprayed with satin laquer. The bases (not pictured) have threaded inserts in them to fit the taps.

A logistical question:

To turn these, I turned them between a live center and a ball bearing dead center, and that was fine. Then I bored the hole with a bit in the chuck, then inserted the thread insert. I then chucked a bolt into the lathe that fit the insert to do the final sanding and to hold while finishing, and to turn off the tool marks on the ends. I found this didn't work to well, vibrated a lot and wanted to suck the bolt threads into the work.

Is there a better way to turn spindles where you don't want the dimples to show on the end from the centers?

[Ian Welford]

I think your problem is in the inserts- two possible easy causes and a solution-
1 The inserts are screwed into the tap- fine and they will go into the predrilled hole OK but is the screw thread in the insert actually trully parallell with the outside of the screw? And havs it been drivben home straight. You don't have to be off by much to get an off balance flywheel effect!
2 There must be a tollerance in the inserts for the screw threadsie the screw thread must have an allowance for the thread so it screws in readily- again this can lead to off balance when used to hold the handle and the off balance "screws " itsself out of or into the work.

Solution is to turn a sacrificial face plate in wood. Mount a piece of fairly hard softwood ( I know that seems a contradiction but egdouglas fir would be ok). turn or bore a hole slightly smaller than the piece you want to grip and sneak up on the correct size carefully. You then knock the piece into the cup chuck you've made, use the centre to check it's true and carefully turn away your dimples. Then reverse and turn away the other dimple ( enlarging hole in faceplate if needed).

Less accurate alternative is to use a geared scrolling chuck- I've got an Axminster super precision chuck. It's very good but you can still get some bruisig of the work if you're not very careful and it don't always run true first time.

Try the wood chuck method it works- used it for years.

Keep spinning - Ian

[Bill Grumbine]

Hi Josiah

I turned well over 1000 tap handles for a local brewery during a ten year period. I had it a little bit easier in that I could have a hole in both ends, but the process I used will still work for you, and generalizes to spindle work of all kinds.

Start with a blank a little longer than you want the finished piece to be. Drill the hole for your threaded insert first. I actually never used the threaded inserts - i.e the ones threaded on the outside - but rather knurled brass inserts. They pressed right into a 7/16" hole and were threaded for a standard 3/8" beer tap. I would glue them in place with polyurethane glue after turning the handles.

After drilling the hole, you have two choices. For your application, I would put the hole at the tailstock end of the lathe and use a cone center to keep it centered. Use a spur center to drive the work. Do all your turning and sanding, and then part down as far as you can at the headstock end where you want the piece to end. Remove it from the lathe, and finish it off with a saw and some hand sanding. This process allows you to keep everything running smoothly, concentric, and allows you to finish off the one end with no tooling marks.

Good luck with it.

Bill