Made a castle, need some tips!

[hopester101]

Morning all

My name's Chris, from Warrington and first of all I'm not a joiner/ carpenter, I'm 37 and have had no training on the subject and actually work in an office - but I've renovated my own house and and self taught on all things wood and creative. I love working with wood, my grandad was a carpenter and I'm looking to start a joinery course soon. I dont have a workshop and everything I do is just with handtools, bar a drill and jigsaw.

I've made a few things over the years, garden gates, hifi stands, cupboards etc which usually go ok - but my little boy turned 3 recently and I decided to make him a castle. My granddad made me one when I was little and I played with it for way too long, ha.


Anyway I would really appreciate some feedback about what you think, and any tips you might be able to give. I'm making more to hopefully sell but they take ages!

Walls: 6mm ply 'sandwiches' with pine 3/4" rails running top and bottom so they are hollow but have the thickness
Corner towers: 2x2 pine
Battlements: Oak strips that I jigsaw cut and chiseled out
Steps: short lengths of 1x1 glued to a pine strip
Base: MDF
All glued with no more nails, so no pinning, screws etc

Then handpainted the lot (waterbased interior satin and artists acrylics)

Chris

 

[Lord Kitchener]

I'm not familiar with the requirements of that particular market, so can't advise on the appearance etc, except to say that it looks just fine to me. As a paying hobby, as long as you are getting fun out of it, then continuing would make good sense. Seeing as you don't have a workshop a powered sroll saw might well speed things up, and they don't make a lot of noise or mess.

How are you proposing to sell them? It doesn't look like the sort of thing that would be appropriate for eBay, I should think you need to get them, and yourself, in front of the customers.

 

[hopester101]

I'm not familiar with the requirements of that particular market, so can't advise on the appearance etc, except to say that it looks just fine to me. As a paying hobby, as long as you are getting fun out of it, then continuing would make good sense. Seeing as you don't have a workshop a powered sroll saw might well speed things up, and they don't make a lot of noise or mess.

How are you proposing to sell them? It doesn't look like the sort of thing that would be appropriate for eBay, I should think you need to get them, and yourself, in front of the customers.

Thank you. Yes pu tsome pics on Ebay as a listing and was getting offered £40-£50 roughly, which covers materials and a bit more which isnt worth it for a week or so work on each. Will try and find an outlet if people think they are worth selling!
Thanks again

 

[marcros]

efficiency is the key. can your supplier cut the ply and mdf panels to size for you, so you only need to do the more intricate parts? Could you get a router and make a jig to do the battlements? Can you get a small stock of pine strips etc that are the correct size to just assemble. For things like battlements, they would be easy to make 10 at a time with a router and just slice off on a table saw to thickness, but I know that you dont have the machinery to do so. It might be worth seeing whether you can persuade a local joiner/forum member to supply you with them, and you do the value added work of assembly, painting etc. It wouldnt be worth getting a timber supplier to do so.

However, just bare in mind that a production line for something may take a lot of the enjoyment out of doing it.

Also, check that any paints and glues are child safe if you are selling them, and whether you need any insurance to cover you (I dont know if you do).

But good luck with it, i like what you have made.

 

[hopester101]

Hiya, thanks for your reply - I'm getting the timber merchant to cut the ply panels to size and the MDF bases like you said, I've given them my measurements and they just run a few off when I call them which is nice of them. Then its just a case of sandwching the walls, and glueing painting etc like you said. I have a small stock of various lengths of wood ready so its just like a jogsaw that needs putting together each time. Only have 2 or 3 in progress as I dont want to make a load if they dont sell. But yes very good ideas and much appreciated.

I know what you mean about the production line effect! I'm only hoping to do 2 or 3 a month at most though.

Also re the child safe paints and glue etc and the insurance, I've talked to trading standards and all toys have to be tested and accredited but it runs into the hundreds of pounds. Happy to do that but need to know if there's a market for them first!

I use interior satin paints with a VOC of 0 - 0.29% and artists acrylics which are non toxic. Only thing I need to check is the glue, which is No More Nails interior as its so strong (and its good for gap filling too) but would love to hear suggestions for alternatives!!

Out of interest, what would you and others sell these for price wise? Materials cost me £20-£25 roughly.

 

[MickCheese]

Just a thought, can they be made flat pack?

Much easier for eBay.

Mick

 

[hopester101]

Just a thought, can they be made flat pack?

Much easier for eBay.

Mick

Fair point, courier costs are £20 odd as its about 8kg. However not really no, I make each side, glue the end towers on so I'm left with 2 walls with towers at each end, and 2 walls without... which basically I just put no more nails on, glue to the base and to each other. So I could ship as flat walls but I dont think anyone would want to glue everything together. Plus the paint covers any glue so it would prob look a bit messy.

Understand what you're saying though! Perhaps find a way of screwing or bolting together, hmm.

Think I might have to find a nice little independant toy shop somewhere, probably in a fairly affluent town as I'm thinking of charging somewhere between £80 and £100 each for them.... which sounds a lot but all the hand painting alone kind of justifies, well I think so anyway.

We'll see!

 

[marcros]

also, have a look on parcel2go for couriers- a box 50x40x50cm @ 8kg is from £6.50 + VAT.

 

[Wildman]

whilst the paint is still wet chuck sand on for a real stone finish. good luck.

 

[marcros]

i have been having a look at this and your other thread again. Could you make the sides slot into the 4 posts from the bottom, so that they can easily be assembled and disassembled into 4 walls and 4 posts. This would be easier for storage at the far end, but also for shipping from your end. If you could find space for a router table (could be home made), I think that you would both reduce the time taken for each castle, but also improve the product from a repeatability point of view. A few simple jigs should make parts from 1 castle interchangable with another- as well as things like corner posts being able to be fitted in any of the 4 corners.

 

[hopester101]

Very good idea thank you

 

[Wildman]

I remember my father making castles, dolls houses, farmyards and garages to sell to the neighbours, I made my son a castle/fort but never got around to selling any. Maybe an idea to drag up again

 

[Giff]

Aldi in Stockton Heath still have the routers, table and cutters that were on offer at the weekend. Not expensive and may help with the flat pack angle. Geoff

 

[Shultzy]

Masonry paint gives good texture but I don't know if its child safe.

 

[redmoorphil]

Hi Chris,
I particularly like the stone effects around the windows on your castle.
I have attached a pic of one I made a few years ago for my Nephew's xmas present.
This was taken after a couple of years of being bashed about so it doesn't look its best!
I found the easiest way to make the crenellations was to drill holes and cut between them cretaing a strip of wood with oval holes in it. Then cut the wood in half and you have instant crenellations.
You could even just drill one hole and cut through the centre but i wanted them slightly larger. Either way its much easier than cutting them square.
I had built a couple of simpler castles before that but found that kids really liked having either a keep or a large tower to play with - I just left this open at the back so they could put their figures in.
They also love a gate or portcullis that they can wind up and down.
I had some trouble finding the correct size figures so I scaled this one to use Playmobil figures - easily available and a nice selection of accessories too.
I had the same intentions as you to sell them but because of the availability of pretty good quality imports at cheap prices it just wasn't worth it for the time they took.
If you were to make something substantial though out of timber there is always the educational market as schools require really solid stuff.
Good luck,
Phil

 

[graduate_owner]

Hi Chris,
I've just come across your forum entry while browsing, and I don't wish to pour cold water on your idea but you need to be careful when selling childrens' toys. I read an entry yesterday, again purely by accident while browsing so I can't remember the thread origin (I've just looked again, without success), but a number of members commented on the dangers of selling toys. Apparently there are strict regulations regarding paint type and all sorts of other issues. I would strongly suggest you get some reliable advice, e.g. Citizens' Advice Bureau and perhaps scour the forum for the thread before embarking on your scheme and spending money on resources you may not be able to use. I think someone mentioned that you would not evade legislation by using eBay or similar so do be careful on this.

K

 

[hopester101]

Hi Chris,
I've just come across your forum entry while browsing, and I don't wish to pour cold water on your idea but you need to be careful when selling childrens' toys. I read an entry yesterday, again purely by accident while browsing so I can't remember the thread origin (I've just looked again, without success), but a number of members commented on the dangers of selling toys. Apparently there are strict regulations regarding paint type and all sorts of other issues. I would strongly suggest you get some reliable advice, e.g. Citizens' Advice Bureau and perhaps scour the forum for the thread before embarking on your scheme and spending money on resources you may not be able to use. I think someone mentioned that you would not evade legislation by using eBay or similar so do be careful on this.

K

Hi yes that was a thread I was commenting on, you were probably reading my posts!

But thanks for the heads up, think Ive shelved the idea now anyway, time involved just doesnt wannt what people are willing to pay... get the feeling people and just being conditioned to cheap Chinese imports and have forgotton the values of handmade quality....

Cheers

 

[Odo]

I planned on going this route as a little hobby, selling toys.

I hit a massive wall when I realised the red tape involved, it makes it impossible to do on a small scale.

 

[Louise-Paisley]

However.. there is no such red tape making forts for crazy cat owners to put kitties in, or crazy rabbit owners to put rabbits in..