Why Use Acrylic House Paints for Toys

Water Cleanup

For me the greatest advantage to using the acrylics to paint wooden toys is the use of water for a solvent. About as non toxic as you can get and nearly free. Where you really see the cost savings is in the cleanup. Other paint thinners cost $10 to $20 a gallon and all of them are toxic.

Wooden Toy Car Hot Rod Freaky Ford Deuce Coupe Body Painted With Behr House Paint - Axle Hubs with Metallic Craft Paint - Wheels With Amber Shellac

Oops Paints Are The Winner

Oops paint is the hands-down winner for cost $0.50 US for 12-16 oz, although the colors are limited to what you can find. "Oops Paint" is a term only used when referring to incorrectly mixed paint purchased at Home Depot. I make it a practice to walk through the paint department whenever I'm in Home Depot and see what they have. I usually buy only brighter colors. So far, I like the satin finish exterior paint/primer the best. 

One coat coverage is possible using house paint. However, In practice, wood toys will always need at least two coats of paint. The first coat seals the wood and stiffens up the fuzzy wood fibers so they can be sanded smooth. I sometimes use shellac for the first/primer coat. It seals the wood. Amber shellac also enhances the grain, so I get one that looks too nice for painting once in a while.

 

 

Wooden Toy  Truck Trailer Painted with Blue Behr Oops Paint from Home Depot

House Paint vs. Craft Paint

House paint is an excellent choice for wood toys. It's durable, nontoxic, and easy to apply. The color choice is just about anything you could want, and they will mix what you want. I have found that they don't have metallic, candy, black, and high gloss paints. 

Once for once, house paint costs about the same as craft paint when buying craft paint at my local Wal-Mart vs. buying house paint sample cans at Home Depot. I've seen 2 oz bottles of craft paint selling for $2 or more in some cases. So it depends on your needs. I use metallic craft paint for the axle hubs. It's more expensive than house paint, but house paint doesn't come in metallic colors. It only takes a drop of paint to paint an axle hub. One of those 2 oz bottles will paint a lot of axle hubs. Cost-wise, house paint and craft paint are about the same, depending on your needs. 

The lower-cost craft paints are all flat. If you want flat paint for your toys, this can be very inexpensive. Apple Barrel brand paints are $0.50 for a 2 oz bottle at Wal-Mart. I get mixed results using craft paint; some of it covers very well and is quite durable. Others are not so good. The ones I don't like are all the more expensive ones. I have stopped using uncoated black craft paint because of its tendency to leave black marks on other colors. 

If flat isn't your thing, you can always topcoat acrylic flat paints. I have used clear shellac, polyurethane, or any of the clear Krylon rattle can paints. Clear coating adds extra steps and cost, but you can get pretty much any look you want. I like to keep it simple, so I use satin finish house paint if I have the color I want. 

Orange Play Pal Wooden Toy Truck Trailers Painted with  Acrylic Craft Paint

Durability

I don't have any objective scientific evidence to back this up, just my limited experience. House paints, especially exterior paints, should be much more durable than craft paints. After all, they are designed to hold up to sun and weather, not to mention pressure washers and cleaning chemicals. Well, at least the better ones are. Craft paint is not designed for this. However, this doesn't mean that they are not durable. There are toys in my grandson's toy box painted with craft paint that has been in play for a couple of years. There are a good many dings and dents, but the paint hasn't failed.

If I have the colors I need, I'm going to prefer acrylic house paint. If I need to buy the colors, I want to go with what makes sense. For example, painting an axle hub takes about a drop of paint. A 2 oz bottle of acrylic paint may spoil before I use it all. 

I think the acrylic house paint is more durable, but not where this makes the decision. The exception would be for outdoor toys, which I would probably choose house paints. 

Color Availability

You can't walk into a craft store and get them to mix up some paint to match the color of your cat. Some paint companies have apps that let you pick colors to mix from photos. Sherwin Williams has one of these apps. I met a young lady that works in the paint department at Home Depot who asked what I did with all the Oops paint. When I told her, she got pretty excited about it and wanted to see some toys. She says she can mix me some very hot pink paint. When I can catch her at the paint desk, I will take her up on it. When it comes to color choices, house paint is the clear winner.

Handmade Wooden Toy Wooley Mammoth

Handmade Wooden Toy Wooly Mamoths

 

After visiting the Florida Museum of Natural History, my grandson developed a fascination for mammoths after seeing their skeleton. He gave me marching orders that I was to make him a mammoth for his birthday. Fortunately, I had a pattern in one of John Lewman's books I had purchased. These patterns presented me with several small challenges.

The patterns were in color. I prefer simpler patterns with plain black or red lines and no shading. I find these much easier to see and to cut accurately. Some of the parts required multiples, but there was only one pattern.

The book I have was in digital format so I do not need to scan the page. I used Gimp to load the page and remove all of the color, shading and extraneous text. From there it was a simple mater to select the parts one at a time and copy and paste them into Inkscape.

Handmade Wooden Toy Wooly Mamoths

 

In Inkscape traced the bit map to produce an SVG path and create the duplicates I needed. Save it and print. When I am done, I have all the patterns I needed on a single sheet of paper.

I run almost all of my patterns through Inkscape to produce SVG files for several reasons. 

• I want to create a pattern that I can see and cut easily.  
• I can put multiples on a single sheet of paper. 
• Once the pattern is in SVG format, it is very easy to resize patterns to fit the material I have.
• The lines printed from SVG files are sharp and clear with no jagged edges.

I finished these with shellac and rubbed them with 0000 steel wool and paste wax. I'll not use this finish on wooly mammoths again. With all the corners and crevices rubbing them was a real pain. The next time they will get an oil finish.

Handmade Wooden Toy Wooly Mamoths

The tusk overlay I made from shop made plywood. I glued three thin peices of oak together to make much better plywood than I can buy locally. I used plywood here because I was sure the tusks would break if I used solid wood.

My grandson was very happy with his new mammoths.

Some Thoughts Airbrushes and Why I use Badger 155 Anthems When I Spray My Toys

Two of my Badger 155 Airbrushes

Click on the photo to see some examples of my toys.

I am not an expert on airbrushes or how to use them. I paint toys with them, and that is it. This post is just a jumble of some things I learned about airbrushes the hard way.

I use airbrushes and spray acrylic paints, and shellac.

Acrylics are no big deal for cleaning up. I use generic window cleaner to clean my equipment. It cost about $1 for half a gallon the last time I bought some.

Shellac is more expensive to use, but the cleanup is simple, and if you don't get it all out, a bit of denatured alcohol will loosen it up. Shellac is very forgiving. Just don't spray it when the humidity is high. The alcohol will pull water out of the air.

It would be best if you strained your paint and shellac. I use the Harbor Freight paint filters and those disposable droppers to strain the paint. If you don't strain the paint, you will get clogs. Depending on the paint you use, you may need some additives to slow down the drying time.

 You can spray shellac right out of the can. But you do need to strain it.

I own three Badger 155 Anthem Airbrushes and highly recommend them. Badger airbrushes will spray anything. Badger makes their airbrushes in the USA, and not only can you get parts for them, but Badger will rebuild them for shipping and the cost of the parts. My first airbrush was a Badger I had picked up at a yard sale for next to nothing. It sat on a shelf in my garage until I started messing with painted toys. I didn't know what I had, so I emailed Badger a photo, and they got right back to me with the model number and the parts I needed to buy and offered to do it for me. That's hard to beat support. The airbrush was more than 30 years old.

But what about those $9 Chinesium airbrushes?

I consider my Chinese airbrushes disposable. I use them when they will work for something I need and throw them away when they break.

I have several of these, and none have tip sizes big enough to spray acrylics other than the expensive made-for-airbrush brands. I can spray acrylic house paint through my Badge Anthem and use Behr Oops paint from Home Depot that costs me fifty cents for a sample can or $3-4 if I have it custom mixed. I also spray craft paint that I buy at WalMart. The Chinesium airbrushes will not spray acrylic house paint and do a poor job with the craft paint.

Sooner or later, you are going to need parts. You will break or bend the needle for sure, and a nozzle likely. At best, these parts are not readily available for the Chinese airbrushes. The first time I needed a nozzle and some needles for one of mine. It took weeks to find them and get them shipped here from Singapore. I did find a US seller that had a complete kit of all the parts, but it cost more than I paid for the airbrush. I can buy Badger parts on Amazon, Badger, or from many other sources.

You can spray lacquer through a Badger airbrush. It's a crapshoot to do lacquer thinner through one of the Chinese airbrushes. The solvent will dissolve the seals in some of them. I have cleaned out one of my Badger airbrushes with acetone without harming them.

I went through a lot of pain to figure all of this out. I have a drawer full of airbrushes. There is a lot of info out there, but 99% of it is for artists. I had to fit this all together with bits and pieces I gleaned here and there. The turning point came when someone gave me a Badger 155 Anthem. The first time I used it, I knew this was what I had been looking for all along.

 I use my shop air compressor with a filter and regulator just for the airbrush. I also have a cheap Harbor Freight compressor for airbrushes. It works just as well, but it runs all the time.

Handmade Wooden Toy Car Hot Rod 1932 Ford Sedan Hot Rod Freaky Ford Orange Black - 536462157

Handmade Wooden Toy Car Hot Rod 1932 Ford Sedan Hot Rod Freaky Ford Orange Black

Item details

Handmade item

Materials

Solid MDF Body, Birch Hardwood Axles, Birch Hardwood Wheels, Non-Toxic Acrylic Paint, Non-Toxic Wood Glue

A handmade wooden toy car for adults or children three years old and older, sturdy, durable, and made to withstand a little boy's play. With a bit of care, they should still be around for the next generation.

I made the original set of Hot Rod Freaky Fords for my grandson Odin, my Quality Assurance Inspector when he was two years old. After more than two years of hard play, they are still going strong outlasting many factory made plastic toys. Like all my toys they are grandson tested and approved.
There are four cars in the Hot Rod Freaky Ford Series. Click the link below to see more:

Hot Rod Freaky Ford Series

These are great gifts. Use them to decorate a child's room, nursery or office space. One customer used a toy car of mine for a shower cake topper.

Length: 6 inches
Height: 3 inches
Width: 2.5 Inches

These are handmade from real wood engineered wood products. Each toy is a little different. The one you receive may not look exactly like the one in the photographs. The variations will be small and probably unnoticeable.

I combine shipping for multiple items and strive to give my customers the lowest rates possible.

Custom orders are welcome. I can make these from other woods Larger or smaller versions are possible. Please contact me for custom order pricing.

Handmade Wood Dragon Made From Poplar and Walnut Hardwoods - 980709962

Handmade Wood Dragon Made From Poplar and Walnut Hardwoods

Etsy Listings

I shipped this one to a buyer today. It's the only one I had in stock, and it is now only available as a made-to-order item. I'm not particularly eager to do this, but I don't have room to store many items that I can't wrap and stack in a box.

Reclaiming Wood For Making Toys or Other Projects - Is it worth the trouble?

Reclaiming Wood From a Futon with Staples Protruding From The End of the Board

I have used reclaimed a lot over the years. I have reclaimed wood from pallets, packing crates, furniture, and flooring. One thing I have come to understand is that reclaimed wood can be costly. Ruining one bandsaw blade or table saw blade can altogether cancel any savings you may get.

Making Compound Cut Bird House Christmas Ornaments From Reclaimed Wood

I recently ruined a new resaw blade when I nicked a bit of staple. If I had cut it, I would have only dulled the blade a bit. By touching the steel staple on one side, only the teeth were dull on that side, causing the blade to track sharply to that side so bad that I had to replace it. That salvaged wood cost me more than $25.

 

Making A Play Pal Pickup Truck From Reclaimed Wood

You also need to consider the time, labor, and material involved in disassembly, removing hardware and finish. It's probably much closer to $1.00 today. When I add all this together and ad the risk of damaging tools, the cost is a lot higher than free and, in some cases, more expensive than buying the wood at the big box store. 

Compound Cut Birdhouse Christmas Ornament Made From Reclaimed Wood

Do not forget transportation costs in the total.  Based on a study done by AAA some years ago, I figure $0.75 per mile to operate my truck. The latest figures I can find are for 2017 are $0.86 per mile. Using this number gives a cost of $8.86 for ten miles. Driving all over town looking for broken furniture to reclaim at yard sales can get quite expensive.

I still reclaim some wood. After looking at how much it cost me, I now only bring home wood to reclaim if it is in my neighborhood, someone brings it to me, or I happen to drive by a piece that has been put out for the trash.

If you have lots of time and no money reclaiming wood can be a good thing, but you consider all the factors and proceed carefully. Otherwise, that large pile of wood you are salvaging might turn out to be very expensive.

Handmade Wood Toy Car Hot Rod Freaky 1927 Ford T-Bucket Toymakers Shop Photos Orange & Black - 522656276

 

Etsy Listing
https://www.etsy.com/listing/522656276/

I make this toy hot rod in my toymakers shop using traditional woodworking tools.  The body is sprayed with nontoxic gloss orange paint. The black trim is hand-painted with flat black acrylic and top coated with clear shellac.  I hand-finish the wheels with amber shellac.

I make every effort to make sure my toys perform well. I carefully test each toy before it is put up for sale. My toys are made for play.

Approximate Size:
Length: 6 inches
Height: 3 inches
Width: 2.5 Inches

Other sizes and colors are available via custom orders.

Other Items You May Like

Hot Rods:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/odinstoyfactory?search_query=hot+rod

Toy Cars:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/odinstoyfactory?search_query=car

Toy Trucks:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/odinstoyfactory?search_query=truck

Shop Front Page:
https://odinstoyfactory.etsy.com

I make items by hand from natural wood and wood products. They can differ from one piece to the next. The one you receive may be slightly different from the item in the listing photos. Wood thickness may vary slightly from the stated size.

Not for children under three years old or kids that are still chewing things. If the toy breaks, small parts may present a choking hazard. Small children should not play with this toy without adult supervision.

Custom orders are always welcome in my shop. Don't hesitate to get in touch with me with your needs.

Handmade in Tallahassee, Florida USA