How much are nicks and scratches acceptable

[Dan Hintz]

CPSC is a nightmare to deal with on an every day basis.

Please don't think making toys is just a case of buying an engraver Aimee, it's a whole lot more.

I'm helping a former coworker with with the same... making sure there's no lead in the paint, making sure the labeling is correct, etc. Making kids toys has become a royal pain, and I feel for the small business trying to compete in that market legally. She's doing her best to cross the t's and dot the i's, though.



Aimee, the flecks could be the wood grain (Google "oak ray fleck" and see if the images match up with what you're seeing... nothing you can do about it other than specify how you want the wood cut to minimize it), or they could be a product of an improperly maintained laser (tickle set too high, resolvable with some system tweaking... or engraving images that look like they have a pure white background but don't, also resolvable).

I can't get any more specific without knowing size, detail level of engraving, etc., but $30 for a set of 12 blocks, especially if they're a typical 1-1.5" cube, seems high for production level. And at $120/set for engraving, I can't imagine much profit margin being available when a typical set of alphabet blocks goes for around $15/set. Are these somehow aimed at a high-level clientelle?

[Dave Sheldrake]

Where does this come from? I never said anything of the kind...

I was just mentioning that the inspection costs at the prices you have given will easily outstrip the sale of 20 sets of blocks Aimee.

For engraving wooden blocks I'd likely be looking more at a small but high speed router rather than a laser, lasers are great but at some jobs they plain suck

[Roy Sanders]

if your pic is too large it wont pull in. you may need to resample to get it below the max kbs

[Aimee Coogan]

Dan,

This manufacturer---new is not charging me the above. He's charging me between $3 and $4 per block for the block AND the laser engraving.

Those other amounts were the original costs--untenable, of course.

I'll try to repost the photos again today.

Thanks--you mentioned oak grain. Does that also apply to maple--which is what these blocks are?

The other nice thing about this manufacturer is he's already cleared by CPSC and will provide me with a certificate that says that to be so. i'll still look into getting my product tested, but my understanding is that with his following all of the proper reqs for his wooden blocks, and the fact that there are no dyes or inks, just the laser engraving, it shouldn't be too bad.

THanks for your thoughts.

Aimee

[Aimee Coogan]

Thanks, Roy. I'll work on making it smaller. My son's the computer guy and hopefully can help me with that.

AImee

[Art Mann]

I was just mentioning that the inspection costs at the prices you have given will easily outstrip the sale of 20 sets of blocks Aimee.

For engraving wooden blocks I'd likely be looking more at a small but high speed router rather than a laser, lasers are great but at some jobs they plain suck

I own a precision CNC router like Dave mentioned. I can't say whether it would be a good machine for this product or not without more information but what Dave said is very true. There are some projects for which a CNC router is a much better tool. If I were you, I would at least investigate this alternative if you haven't already.

[Dave Sheldrake]

The other nice thing about this manufacturer is he's already cleared by CPSC and will provide me with a certificate that says that to be so. i'll still look into getting my product tested, but my understanding is that with his following all of the proper reqs for his wooden blocks, and the fact that there are no dyes or inks, just the laser engraving, it shouldn't be too bad.

HI Aimee, it's not the manufacturer that requires clearance, it's the product.

http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Business--Man...rens-products/

The individual / company / organisation placing the item onto the market for retail purpose is the person / company of note that is required to have the testing done.

[David Somers]

Aimee,

For what it is worth, I recently made a set of alphabet blocks with 2 graphic images per block, 2 letters in caps and 2 letters in lower case. I made my own blocks from poplar as tests, then the final from Maple. The Maple cut much better. I only did one set so far. It was a gift for 1 year old niece. I made the blocks first. Then I cut them. Finding a good way to lock them in place on the CNC was difficult and a number of times I had block break loose, which destroyed a number of blocks in the process. I need to be more creative in my work hold techniques if I want to do more of these on the CNC. It was pretty labor intensive, even with the better cutting that Maple gave me. They came out great, but I see that I need fine tune the process a bunch if I wanted to make more of these.

Lasering them once the blocks were cut and sanded would have been a piece of cake. Though I really preferred the look and feel of the CNC cut blocks.

I was not cutting aggressively by any means. I rough cut with an flat bottom 1/8" end mill and then finish cut with a 1/16 tapered ball nose for what that is worth.

Dave

[Aimee Coogan]

Dave,

Your experience is interesting. It sounds as though the look of the final product with the router is nice, but that it's not easy to get there, even for someone like you, who knows wood and woodworking.

I imagine the blocks are beautiful!

Thanks for the feedback.

Aimee

[Aimee Coogan]

Thanks, Art. I don't have the skills to do any of that; I'm a designer and want to delegate and pay for someone else to do the creating. I admire those who can do this, but that's not me. Which doesn't mean I couldn't hire someone else to use a router and make the blocks and designs with it. I'll keep that in mind as something to look into.

Aimee

[Aimee Coogan]

Ok Dave. I've got to look into that anyway. I think it shouldn't be too bad in this case, since the company I'm dealing with regularly complies with CPSC, makes wooden toys and blocks and has been in business for some time. Apparently they give certificates of adhering to laws/reqs of CPSC to other companies for whom they manufacture products. But I certainly have to check on that, to be sure.

Aimee

[Aimee Coogan]

Thanks, everyone. Dan was able to look at the photos of the blocks and determine that what I'm seeing is ray flecking. That was really helpful to know, that and that maybe I can have the laser operator vary the darkness of the lines within one drawing on one face. So I will approach the operator about some fine tuning.

I appreciate all of your feedback!

Aimee