Been working on this beer tap for a friends bar EVS in NYC. Not finished yet, have 2 more letters to wire and the back to mill, then decide on a finish. But the challenge of the part is it milled front and back as well as drilled for the lights all on the X-carve. Needless to say spent a bunch of nights pulling what’s left of my hair out figuring things out and wasting wood 
but it’s getting there! Sorry for the lousy pic
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This is looking great! I have been thinking about doing some tap handles. Love the integrated lighting. Will it be battery powered or plug-in?
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It will be battery powered. Going to go with a cr2025 as they are low powered leds and really don’t want it to bright anyway as it will be going in a dark bar, just want a warm glow.
Lookin good!
you probably dont need all that hair anyhow, just think of all the money you will save on haircuts, styling, shampoo etc. 
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Never been that guy who looks good bald, just can’t pull it off. Guess i’ll have to resort to the comb over 
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So I’ve been using this project as my learning project.
First I used it to accomplish a 2 part double sided carve early on
Then after wiring all the bulbs I was getting loose connections and shorts from all the wires being shoved in there. I then taught myself to make PCB boards on the X-Carve, So now I made 3 small boards(I didn’t have a large enough pcb in house to make one clean board) one for each letter and got rid of all those wires. It is being powered by a small CR2025 battery. Now I just need to dig up a small micro slide switch for the on/off control, put the back half on and my friends bar will have it’s own personalized light up beer tap (BTW EVS=East Village Social, stop by if you’re ever in NYC)! Well one of these days. But it’s been a great experience learning to make things and learning to make them better with the X-Carve.
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I’m loving the look of the EVS…looks like it’s got a great atmosphere!! Will pop in next time I’m in NYC!!!
The bar looks amazing!!! If only it could talk…I bet it could tell a tale or two!!
EAST VILLAGE SOCIAL
126 St. Marks Place
New York, NY 10009
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Fantastic work Brian!!! There’s a big market for eye catching, and unique beer tap handles!!!
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Flip milling and PCB boards in one project is quite the accomplishment! What was your software tool chain?
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Thanks @SamAlaimo,
I designed the Tap in Solidworks and used MeshCam to produce the g-code for it. I then used Chilipeppr to mill.
For the PCB’s I designed them in Eagle and milled them with the Eagle board import tool in Chilipeppr. I outlined that process(which is nice and simple) in a previous project
Brian
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If possible, you should incorporate a mercury/position switch that would light the tap when it is being pulled.
A small delay between each letter lighting up when pulled would also look cool!
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fantastic idea! find an old wall thermostat and rip the mercury switch out of it.
Wow! That is some incredible work @BrianSaban very impressive. Are the bottom screws of the tap handle that screws into the tap a standard size and thread across all taps?
Sounds cool, just not practical. if it only lights when tilted, the customers won’t really see it. 
Yes all standard or commercial beer systems use a 3/8", 16 thread-per-inch. You can buy the inserts at the big box stores ie. home depot for like $1 a piece.
Hope everyone had a safe and happy NYE! With the holiday’s over I finished the beer tap with a some old finishing techniques (hope you all like) so it will blend in nicely with the bar at EVS. All that’s left to do is put in a fresh battery and deliver her to my friend Dee at the bar and enjoy a nice cold beer! Then on to my next X-Carve “project” (inserting Dr. Evil voice). Pics with her installed at the bar in the next day or two.
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If that doesnt say “see me, try me!” I dont know what does.
Nice job!
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