Note, this should have been first, but Craftisian doesn't have a good way to go back and add a new entry out of order, as far as I can tell.
We've got a couple kids in the neighborhood now. They were both born in December 2025, and I gave them both rattles. For Christmas 2026, I decided to make a couple toy cars for them, based on ones I saw that Crowie had made a few years ago.
The parts are all finished on their show surfaces before assembly. Ring-porous woods (oak and russian olive, mostly) get a coat of shellac, followed by sanding with progressively finer sandpaper. I typically work up the grits going 60, 120, 220, then 400.
Then I finish using three to five coats of RMP Half & Half with a quick buff with 0000 steel wool after each coat cures. This leaves a pretty dang good matte surface.
And then Assembly, followed by touch-up to remove any glue squeeze-out and either a final coat or three of shellac, or a quick buff with carnauba wax.
Thanks. One of my "spares" already went to another friend who has a 2-year-old grand-kid. Figuring out how to make axles that rolled well was the major thing I learned from these, I think.
Dave, what I want to know is with your back issues are you able to crawl around on the floor while playing with it? I have a mental picture complete with motor sounds. 😂
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
Since I've had extra time before I need to wrap these up, I've padded on five coats of shellac mixed with the 50-50, buffing with 0000 steel wool between coats. They're getting a real nice deep shine now.
I especially like that the shellac dries fast enough that I can apply it in my dusty shop, and still manage to keep a good looking finish.
Nice work on the car, Dave. The kids will love them. We have an14 month old great grand son and he is now playing with the wooden pickups I made 20 yrs ago!!!!!!
Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day
