Odin's Toy Factory

This is a copy from my post in the ToymakingPlans.com Community Forum on using PVC.  Some of this will apply to any tubing, Not just PVC. If you want to see the whole thread click here . Wooden Toy Space Ship Using PVC Tubing   My one safety concern about using PVC pipe is the size of the hole. No round hole in any toy should be small enough that a finger can get stuck in it. If a child gets their finger stuck in a round hole it can cut off the blood circulation and possibly cause the loss of a finger. Kids are going to put their fingers in a hole. If PVC pipe or any small tubing is used on a toy there needs to be a plug in the hole so it is not deep enough for a child to get their fingers caught in it.  This means that the pipe/tubing must to large or short to get a finger caught or filled with a plug.  I got this from the testing document published by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. I have almost stopped using r

I've made a lot of toys over the years. Most of the toys I made were not finished or had a little polyurethane on them. I didn't paint any of them. Then one day I saw some painted toys. that looked really nice. I decided that I wanted to try this out for myself. It seemed to me that air brushes would be the way to go. I had an airbrush that I had picked up at a yard sale years ago and an air compressor. I also went to school to learn autobody painting and worked as a painter for a short time. How hard could it be? It didn't take long before I realised that airbrushing toys was a lot more complicated than I had expected. The paints were very different and worst of all I could not just google up some videos about how to airbrush toys. Most people that were finishing toys were using mineral oil concoctions or rattle can paint. I didn't find a single tutorial how to about painting toys with an air brush. I was going to have to figure this all out for myself. I started

First Prototype of the Bad Bob's Custom Motors Coupe is done. All of the parts were painted before assembly. Paint blocks the pores of the wood and prevents the wood glue from penetrating into the wood. To get a good bond you must leave the contact surfaces free of paint. This is much more difficult than it sounds. Handmade Wooden Toy Car - Bad Bob's Motors Coupe - Green - Yellow Getting the fenders mounted without damaging the paint was a real challenge.  I had to line them up on the body of the car and trace around them with a pencil so I could see where not to paint. I painted over the lines while painting the body but only a small amount. I should have painted more aggressively leaving a much narrower strip bare for the glue. The tracing failed to account for the rounded corners of the fenders and I had to do some touch-up painting. Handmade Wooden Toy Car - Bad Bob's Motors Coupe - Green - Yellow Al the rest of the parts were easy because they fit i