Odin's Toy Factory

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...

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 alm...

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...

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 har...

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 eas...

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 eBa...