Which Finish Should I Use On My Toys?

It's not a simple choice when you intend to sell them or even give them away. You have to consider the age of the person the toy is designed for. There are several finishes to choose from when finishing wooden toys.

• Drying Oils
• Non-Drying Oils
• Polyurethane
• Shellac
• Paint

There may be others, but these are the ones I have used.

If I am making a toy intended for a child under three years old that puts everything in their mouth and likes to chew on things No finish at all is probably the best choice. These toys should be very simple and made from woods like hard maple. Although ti its used by many toymakers, I would not put any sort of oil on these toys.

In my totally unscientific testing, I find that kids will almost always go for the painted toys. I have seen a few exceptions to this, but not many. Where the kids get to look at the toys, the painted toys may rule the day. If selling online adults are usually the shoppers. They seem to like to see the wood grain, but not always. I have had customers tell me that they prefer the rustic look. Then there is what colors to use. If you want to sell your toys, you have to pick colors that someone you do not know will like.


For kids three years old and up, my target market. My rule is anything but non-drying oil finishes is good. All of the finishes are nontoxic when cured.

In my online store and in social media that gets the most views is a pine bodied hot rod finished with shellac. It is rapidly overtaken by a pinewood car finished with polyurethane. Being sure what drives these things is very difficult. In this case, I think that the photography may have something to do with it. The difference is quite significant. Within the first week, it passed the longstanding top listing that had been there for more than a year.

32 Ford Sedan Hot Rod finished with amber shellac, and a bit of acrylic paint is the current leader for the last 12 months in my Etsy shop.

A Hot Rod 27 T-Coupe is the up and coming challenger poised to overtake the leader after only a short time.

My top five listings are a mix of polyurethane, shellac, paint and unfinished toys. I know this is not really a scientific method, but I work with the data that I have. Recently I posted a link to a painted car I was making on my Pinterest board. After the posting, my Pinterest views went up by more than 300k. I have a suspicion that this one will upset the apple cart. How did I pick the colors? I didn't, my grandson picked colors that I never would have chosen.

Wooden Toy Car - Bad Bob Motors Coupe - Amber Shellac - Green - Yellow

Confused yet. I am.

My current take on all of this is that it depends. I work a lot with pine. If the grain looks nice, I will use polyurethane. Otherwise, it will get paint or shellac. When I make custom orders, I make extras. Just in case one is damaged or broken I have more than one and I don't need to start over. Sometimes one of these will have some beautiful grain. I will save that one to finish with polyurethane. Playsets pretty much demand paint. Toys made from MDF always get painted. I never apply any of the wood blocks I make and would not use any kind of finish on blocks.

Finishing toys are difficult. You may find that finishing is the most time consuming and difficult part of making toys.  It's a complicated issue. I have only touched the surface of.  I have more posts planned to discuss it.

Using PVC For Toys

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 round holes in toys because of this.

I would not hesitate to use PVC a toy if I had a suitable safe use for it that wood wasn't good for. One of my grandson's favorite toys is a bucket full of short 3/4 inch PVC pipe and a bunch of fittings. I made this for him after watching him fascinated with some PVC pieces he found in my Aquarium junk box. He is four now and has been playing with these since he was two. PVC has sharp edges but this is easy to fix with a bit of sandpaper. He doesn't put them in his mouth. Never has that I know of. Is it safe? All of our water flows through PVC.

Working with PVC provides some challenges. It's slippery so you need to be extra careful to hold it securely. You can cut it with a saw but I don't do this unless it is too big for the  PVC cutter. The PVC chips go everywhere when cutting it with a miter saw. There must be son static electricity. The PVC chips stick to everything. PVC Bends easily when warm. If you heat it enough it can be bent to just about any shape you want. I have made handles out of it by heating in the pipe an oven and bending it to shape on a form. Once it is cooled it will retain the shape.

PVC cutting tools are cheap. Harbor Freight sells one that works well so long as you are careful to keep everything straight and square while you are cutting. The Harbor Freight blades are soft and the edge bends quite easily, With careful use, it works well.  It costs $6.99 for the Harbor Freight tool. Better quality tools run in the $35 range.

Gluing PVC to PVC requires a solvent-based glue. It cures very fast you only have a few seconds of working time. With PVC pipe, I like to dry fit and mark all the parts so I know where to align them. A Sharpie pen works great for this. I have never tried it but I don't think PVC would work well with wood glues. You will probably need to use epoxy to glue it to wood.

Will I use PVC for making toys? Probably not. Using PVC would add complexity to the build. More parts mean it takes longer to build and costs more. If you're selling your toys you will need to sell it for a higher price. There might be some reason to use it but I today I can't think of one.

What Airbrush Should I Buy For Painting Toys?

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 with the airbrush I already owned soon discovering that it needed a bit of help. Fortunately for me it was a Badger and they have parts and support for old air brushes and I was soon able to get it up and running. I wanted to use acrylic paints mainly because the others I looked at required the use of expensive solvents with warnings on the labels about brain damage from inhaling fumes. They were also flammable.

My yard sale airbrush didn't work. I started buying airbrushes and trying them with a variety of acrylic paints. Most of them just didn't work with the paints I wanted to use.

I now own about 10 airbrushes. Badger and Chinese imports. The Chinese airbrushes work if you want to use the expensive paints made for airbrush artists. They didn't work for acrylic house paint or the $0.99 bottles of craft paint they sell at WalMart.

After lots of experimenting, the airbrush I recommend you start with is a Badger Anthem 155. It will spray anything you might want up to and including acrylic house paint and automotive paints. It will spray them all with the same needle. Badger airbrushes have seals that will stand up to lacquer thinners and other harsh solvents. Parts are available cheap from Badger, Amazon, eBay and other sources. You will break something. Drop the needle on a concrete floor and it will be toast. Parts and support are important. Badger will rebuild your air bush for the cost of the parts. Badger is a US company and all their parts are made here.

Badger 155 Anthem Airbrushes

Parts for Chinese air brushes are hard to come by and believe it or not expensive. I broke the tip in one of mine and the replacement cost more than I paid for the airbrush. In some of the Chinese air brushes lacquer thinners and other solvents will eat the seals. Good luck with finding the seals. Essentially they are disposables. If you don't mind buying a new airbrush everytime you breaks a part these may be just the thing you need.

Master Brand Made In China Airbrush Purchased On eBay

I spent way more time and money than I should have to to figure all of this out. The biggest problem was that most of the information that was available on the internet was totally unrelated to what I wanted to do or posted by people that really did understand paints and how they work.  I spent money on things I didn't need just to try them for myself. I have lots of airbrush stuff that I will probably never use again. Save your time and money.

Buy the Badger Anthem 155.

I don't work for Badger and they are not a sponsor.

First Bad Bob's Custom Motors Coupe Is Complete

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 into deep holes. All I had to do was paint half of the dowel put a small amount of glue on it and slide it home.

Handmade Wooden Toy Car - Bad Bob's Motors Coupe - Green - Yellow

 I have nine more of these in the queue. The next one is a sedan probably painted a solid color. The green and yellow colors were requested by my grandson and quality assurance tester. As always he gets the first ones to test.

Handmade Wooden Toy Car - Bad Bob's Motors Coupe - Green - Yellow

Some Thoughts on Scroll Saws

I started with a cheap Taiwanese cast iron saw. It immediately became apparent that the pin end blades were not going to hack it. I installed a modification that let me use good quality pinless blades and I was on my way. I made some nice Victorian fretwork pieces with that setup. Blade changes were difficult.

Oak Scrollsaw Fretwork Shelf Cut On An AMT Castiron Scrollsaw

These were made in Taiwan and sold under several different brands. They also made several models. There are a lot these scroll saws still available on the used market. You can pick one up for $50 or even less. Pinless upgrades were still available last time I looked.

The blade changing left a lot to be desired and the built-in blower was worthless. I replaced the blower with an old aquarium pump. It's a good idea to have a few extra blade clamps. When a blade breaks the clamps sometimes flying across the shop.

As far as cut quality goes it cut very well. Glass smooth surfaces were easy to get in hardwoods and sometimes even in pine. If you can tolerate the blade changes it will do a good job for you.

Cast Iron AMT 4600 Scroll Saw 

Years later I picked up an older RBI Hawk that needed a little work. After refurbishing it I was off and running. It was a way better saw and I could stand up and cut. I have never been a fan of sitting down to cut

Blade changes were still a problem. I upgraded it to toolless blade holders and that helped a lot but I still had to take the bottom clamp out to change the blade. The bottom clamp must be removed from this saw to change the blade and it takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it. If the blade breaks the lower clamp might go flying. I've spent some time on my knees looking for the clamp.

The saw cuts great. The blower works. Replacement parts and support are available. RBI saws are designed for continuous use one might say industrial use.  

The only thing I really don't like about RBI saws is the table. It is made out of aluminum. I would much rather have iron or steel. Castiron with a little wax on it is slick and smooth. No matter how much you wax and polish aluminum it will never be as smooth as cast iron. I use magnetic lamps and like to use magnets for jigs and fixtures. Magnets will not stick to aluminum tables.

These are not common on the used market but they do turn up from time to time. I paid $100 for this one and spent nearly that much refurbishing it.  If you are patient you can find these in good condition for 300 to 400 dollars.

RBI Hawk Scroll Saw

Then I saw a video of someone making through cuts on and Excalibur EX21. I must have one so I set up automated searches on Craigslist and eBay. After about a year I scored one for $400.

The blade clamps are fixed to the machine. No more chasing blade clamps around the garage. Blade changes are simple once you get used to it you can change blades very fast.

Bottom or top feed? You can do either. I like to bottom feed probably because that is the way I always did it before I got this saw. However, once in awhile I have a project that requires top feeding. With this saw, you can do both.

The blade tilts not the table.

The table is steel so my magnets work great with it.

Blade tensioning is almost automatic. There is an alignment procedure in the manual. If the saw is properly aligned the blade is tensioned with the flip of the lever.

Excalibur EX21 Scrollsaw - RBI on Left - AMT On The Right Side

For about a year these three machines were side by side in my shop so I did some experimenting. The larger more expensive machines cut thick stock better. I routinely cut 1.5-inch wood for my toys.

For smoothness of cuts. The RBI wins but the Taiwanese cast iron saw was right behind it. The cheap saw would cut a piece of 1/4 inch oak and leave a glassy smooth edge. EX21 was a close last for smoothness. Not that it doesn't cut smooth. It's possible to adjust the aggressiveness of the cut on the EX21. This might smooth out the cut. I have never adjusted it.

Don't buy a saw that uses pin end blades no matter how cheap it is.

Buy good quality blades. It doesn't matter how good your saw is if your blades are junk it will not cut well. This is true for any saw.

Buy used. In my area, the population density is low and good used tools are hard to find. I keep several searches going all the time on Craigslist for scroll saws and other tools. About once a week I see new listings for scroll saws. Dremel and Craftsman saws seem to be in the majority. Many are barely touched and occasionally there is one new in the box.

Practice! Using a scrollsaw is a skill that you must learn by doing. The more you cut the better you will get at it. When I first started I cut out small animals from one of Patrick Spielman's books. They were simple, small so they use very little wood, and best of all when I was done I had a toy that I could give to kids to play with. My kids are grown and now my grandson plays with these.

Wooden Toy Animals and Puzzles Made While Learning To Use My First Scrollsaw

There are lots of practice patterns but when you are done you have firewood or trash. I say jump right in and make some small things. If you ruin it you haven't wasted any more time or wood than you would be using for a practice pattern.  You can get a free toy pattern at ToyMakingPlans.com.

Wooden Toy Car - Mini Van - Play Pal - Edge Painted - Blue

You can make nice stuff with a cheaper low end saw but they also cost you time. You can't get the time/life back. You can get more money. For this reason, I almost always use the EX21 for anything that has a number of inside/through cuts.

The RBI gets used mostly for outside cuts where I don't need to remount the blade much. It is also tall and I like to cut standing up.

The AMT I gave away to a friend. I didn't use it anymore and needed the floor space.

If I were in the market to buy a new scrollsaw today and money were no object. I think I would buy a new RBI.  A lot of the shortcomings have been addressed. they are simpler (less moving parts) and they are industrial grade saws made to run continusly. Made in the USA too. Support and parts availability are a big deal for me. RBI has this even for older saws.

Using a Plane When Making Wooden Toys

Stanley Block Plane Used to Smooth the Flat Surfaces of This Wooden Toy Car Body

I don't know why I never thought of this before. Possibly, because I have been conditioned to think of planes as something you use for making furnture or trimming a stuck door. I have watched many YouTube videos about making wooden toys. I can only recall one instance where a plane was used. I saw this yesterday.

Lots of toys have flat surfaces that could be planed. Some of them will require a bit of ingenuity to figure out how to hold the irregular shapes.

 I can cut a pretty good line with a scroll saw. However, it's almost never perfect. This is especially true with the thicker bodies where the blade will sometimes try to follow the grain. I can cut it smooth enough that I can't see the ripples with my naked eye, but my fingers know the difference. The imperfections can be amplified when you apply paint or other finish and it really shows when you sand between coats. Better and easier to fix it now than after the painting has started.

I usually use a belt sander for smoothing the flat surfaces on my toys. Belt sanders work well for this job but they are noisy and create a lot of dust and I can't use them when my grandson is in the shop with me I don't want to use most power tools. Planes are quiet. They don't make any dust and as long as I do my part correctly they can produce a dead flat surface ready to paint that is much smoother than I could ever get with sandpaper.
I planed the flat parts of 19 car bodies using two block planes. An old (antique) Stanley and a cheap Scotties store branded block plane made in Taiwan. The Stanley did a much better job due primarily to the adjustable mouth.

Shanley and Tiwanese Scotties Branded Block Planes I Used

Lessons learned. No Knots! I a couple of the bodies had small knots. I could not get an acceptable surface on these and they will need to be sanded anyway. You need very sharp blades. You are not hogging off wood. You want to remove very thin shavings with little or no tear out. Dull blades also increase the risk of breaking smaller parts.

Planes are always going to be used in my future toy making. Now I'm wondering if I could use my scrapers for the curved toy parts.

Tools - Jorgesen Heavy Duty Bar Clamp

Jorgensen Clamps are the best clamps I own. Especially the Heavy Duty versions. I had a few of and was picking up a few at a time until I I found out they were moving production to China. I went to every Home Depot in my area and bought all of the Made in USA clamps I could find.  They were pretty easy to spot because they all had wood handles while the Chinese made ones had the newer style rubber coated plastic handles.

When I heard the company folded I hit the stores again and bought what they had left that I thought were good enough.  These were all made in China. The fit and finish were not as good as the made in USA clamps but so far I really haven't had an issue with them.

These are big heavy clamps and I don't use them for everything. Every once in awhile when you really need to squeeze something hard these will do the Job. With 1500 pounds of clamping pressure it's almost like clamping. In a vise.

I still search for used ones. When I find them, for sale on eBay or Craigslist you would think they were made of gold. I read somewhere that someone had bought the brand and was going to bring them back. Home Depot still has them in their web store but none are in stock. Hopefully, they will return someday and I'll get a nice surprise.

3706 HD Jorgesen Heavy Duty Bar Clamp