School Bands a Thing of the Past?

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) can add a whole new section to those being adversely affected: School bands.

The ill-conceived law, written in the wake of lead in paint recalls of imported toys (the wording of which was guided along by consumer groups and the very companies that were issuing those recalls) sets lead content levels as legal or illegal with no regard whatsoever for risk. An example of this would be crystals. Typically high in lead content, but the amount of lead that is soluble if swallowed is negligable.

Today the Consumer Product Safety Commission met to discuss exempting Brass. Brass, the likes of which are found throughout houses and schools in the form of door handles, hinges and coat racks was today determined to be illegal. Actually, for children under 12, it’s a banned hazardous substance. So what else will be affected now? School bands. Let’s take a glimpse at what are now officially banned hazardous items for children 12 and under:

• Bells
• Bugles
• Cymbals
• French Horns
• Guitars
• Saxophones
• Trombones
• Trumpets
• Tubas

I’ve probably missed something, but essentially you’re left with woodwinds, strings and some of your percussion section. What kind of school band do you have at this point?!

I invite any members of Congress to explain here why this does not deserve an IMMEDIATE amendment.

Tools of the Loom by Greco Woodcrafting

Yes, it has been a while since I blogged, but I have good reasons. Really, I do! The end of the summer snuck up on us and we found ourselves thinking “Wait, we didn’t get to do this or go there yet!”, and so, much free time (is there such a thing?) was spent as fun family time I’ve been hard at work with the Handmade Toy Alliance as well and although frustrating at times, feel there may be some relief ahead on the CPSIA.

Probably the biggest news is that I’ve decided to open a new shop at 1000markets.com called Tools of the Loom by Greco Woodcrafting. The reason for starting it has a couple of stories. It began when I noticed how drawn people were to some of the more rare woods that I’ve been using lately. It wasn’t anything they said, it was in how they held the pieces, or the look on their face while running a finger over the wood. I started to think about what I could make that people would enjoy using, and that was made from distinct and exotic wood.

Some time after this, a friend called me up. She’s really into weaving (and is much better than she’ll admit), and she had a request. Could I make some tools for her from some really nice wood? We’re not talking about Maple or Oak, which are both nice in their own right (though somewhat common).  It had to be something that was as visually appealing as it was useful. A piece of Purpleheart later, and I decided this was exactly what I was looking for to add to my line. So what kind of wood do I use for the stick shuttles and pick up sticks I’m making now?

Bloodwood, Mahogany, Purpleheart, Walnut, Wenge, Yellowheart, and Zebrawood are all currently available. In the upcoming weeks I plan to add Bolivian Rosewood, deep red Cherry and Lacewood. I’ve decided to use my favorite finish on these- a hand rubbed mixture of tung oil and shellac. The tung oil penetrates into the wood and hardens while the shellac offers an additional protective coat. After the 3rd coat, the wood has a high gloss with a smooth as glass finish.

I’m still making my toys, and this isn’t a total separation from my original intent. I still get to make something that people will enjoy using. Of course my commitment to quality remains, as well as my partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. Just like my toys, for every 5 weaving tools sold a tree will planted through a donation.

As if this isn’t interesting enough, my friend is also sponsoring a “Not-a-contest Contest” where the winner gets up to $28 worth of my weaving tools in the sizes and wood type of their choice!

And so there you have it. I promise not to let so much time pass before my next blog entry, really

1 Year Later, Now What?

Today marks 1 year since the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act was signed into law. President Bush and all but 4 Congressmen felt great about what this law would do- after all, it was framed in part as a reaction to the many toy recalls Mattel had made just the year before.

But for a law with such a simple purpose, to keep children safe, so much remains up in the air over this law. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the folks who have been ‘empowered’ (and I use that word loosely) to oversee the implementation of this law, have been very slow in getting the word out about exactly who is affected and in what ways. Maybe they need some tips from the FCC, or whoever it was that was responsible for letting people know about the digital conversion for our television stations- I know I was seeing commercials about that several times each night I turned on the TV.

But in defense of the CPSC, they were given quite a daunting task. In addition to monitoring items entering the marketplace for risk, here they were first asked to ignore risk under the guidelines of this law- something, to my knowledge, not asked of the CPSC until now. Ignore risk? That’s what they do! Risk assessments. But Congress didn’t want silly things like ‘risk’ getting in the way of getting unsafe products out of our children’s hands. Take rhinestones for instance. High in lead, but not soluble by our digestive system. So even though swallowing one poses little to no risk of lead actually entering the blood stream, the CPSIA deems them a banned hazardous substance for children 12 and under.

The CPSC has been making determinations on what items can be exempted based on the amount of lead they inherently have in them. Things like my unfinished wooden toys, textiles and plant or animal based materials. But as of today, if the item has more than 300 parts per million of lead, it is a banned hazardous substance regardless of the risk. So what has made it to this list?

• Rhinestones & Swarovski crystals
• Ball point pens
• Bicycle tires (currently given a reprieve)
• Youth ATV’s (currently given a reprieve)
• Books printed before 1985 (unless specifically tested to show the ink meets the lead requirements)

The list goes on and on. What’s worse is that mothers and fathers, many of whom started home-based business specifically to provide safe children’s goods, are now required to meet the same requirements as companies like Mattel. Well, except for the fact that those Moms and Dads don’t have their own CPSC certified testing facilities like Mattel does.

That’s right. One of the companies specifically responsible for the creation of this ill conceived law has also been the first to get their own laboratory certified as a ‘firewalled’ lab. And it’s not only lead and phthalates (a plastics softener) that these Moms and Dads need to test for.

A lesser known aspect of this law requires ASTM F963 to go from a recommended guideline to mandatory. For those who don’t know, this is a toy industry safety manual. Since it’s mandatory the CPSC is probably providing it, right? No. you can purchase it for $58 from the ASTM website.

Once you’ve gotten this handy guide, you’ll find that you also need to have Use and Abuse testing and Flammability testing performed on all of your toys. For each toy style, Moms and Dads have to submit 6-12 toy samples to be tested for Use and Abuse, plus another one for the lab to torch. The results are good for one year, then they must be repeated to be F963 (and ultimately CPSIA) compliant. The labs, by the way, are still waiting for more guidance from the CPSC on the number of samples required for testing and the length of time the results are valid, expected in November. Yes- that will be 1 year and 3 months later from this piece of legislative-wonder becoming a law.

Speaking of testing, February 10, 2010 is when third party testing becomes mandatory for lead and phthalates. Manufacturers that are using non-exempted materials will need to have General Certificates of Conformity available to give to each retailer that carries their items or for customers, if asked. And if you use an item that was already tested to be lead free? You will have to retest it in your finished product at a cost of $50-75 per component, unless you send it to a lab in Asia where they charge as little as $15 !! So we’ve got that to look forward to.

And let’s not forget about today, the birthday of the CPSIA. Lead in products must be no greater than 300 parts per million, lead in paint or surface coatings must be no greater than 90 ppm, and tracking labels become mandatory.

The tracking labels have really been an issue for many manufacturers since guidance on what was required was only passed down 3 weeks ago. I wish I was kidding. These labels must include company name, City State & Country of manufacture and date of manufacture. If your company is not a small biz, it must also include lot/batch/run number. To my knowledge, no description of what constitutes a small business has been provided.

Now you might wonder why this info is required. There are 2 reasons. The first is to make sure if somebody with no internet access gets the item that they have an idea of how to contact the company (in my case, they could contact the state of NJ and ask for the contact info of Greco Woodcrafting).

The other reason for tracking labels to include this info was so consumers could make an informed decision. If there was a recall taking place from a particular area or region, the buyer should be able to decide if they want to buy anything at all that also comes from there.

…..because if there’s a NJ based recall, surely there might also be a problem with my wooden toys?

The second reason, in my opinion, is absolutely ridiculous. Which I guess makes it a perfect fit for this ridiculous law. Happy birthday, CPSIA.

8 Days Until Price Increase

Unfortunately, August 14th is rapidly approaching. That’s the date that the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act mandates tracking labels. I will be able to fully absorb this cost on some of my more expensive items, but I will have to pass along some of that cost to my customers on the lower priced toys. I wish I could fully absorb the cost of travel time to the laser engraver, gas and engraving fee’s but it wouldn’t be profitable to continue making those toys if I did.

So please, take advantage of the pricing while you can, because on the 14th there will be a price increase.

CPSIA – Tracking Labels

With the August 14th date for tracking labels being required rapidly approaching, manufacturers, crafters and artists have been waiting anxiously for guidance from the CPSC to find out exactly what they need to do in order to be compliant. Small manufacturers and crafters will not need to create and track lot or batch numbers as long as they can keep adequate records of materials used.

Yay! Right?

Hold on. Although that bit is good news, there’s some info that IS required. Specifically, Company name, location of manufacture which is to include Country, State & City, as well as the date of manufacture. And how do you know if you fall under the “small manufacturer” category? Your guess is as good as mine- I haven’t seen anything defining it by sales or units produced.

Now, I brand all of the toys I make with “Handcrafted by Greco Woodcrafting”. On some of my toys that just barely fits. Now it will have to read:

• Greco Woodcrafting
• Sewel, NJ USA
• Month/Day (if made in one day)/Year

This means two things. First, the branding Iron I spent almost $150 on is now absolutely worthless. Second, it looks like my best bet for getting all of that info on there in a consistent, legible manner is to have it laser engraved. The problem with that is the cost- the best quote I’ve gotten in my area is as high as $5.00 Per Toy!

Unfortunately, that’s not a cost I can just absorb, so I’m faced with either increasing the price of my toys for the added fee, or to eliminate my less expensive toys. Of the 10 lines of unfinished toys I currently offer, I would need to eliminate at least 6, maybe 7 if I choose to keep the prices the same. Those lines account for approximately 80% of my sales.

I think my prices are fair. My customers get a toy that will be handed down from generation to generation at a price that is good for both of us. But it seems over the next couple of weeks I’m going to have to make a tough business decision, one way or another.

They say there’s always a bright side. Maybe I should be happy I don’t live in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. That might cost $20 to get engraved!

UPDATE: Arrangements have been made with a local laser engraver where I will be able to absorb some of the costs and only raise prices slightly. I think this is as close to a win-win as I will be able to get.

A Must for Dust

Two dust masks, side by side. The new one on the left has a crisp, almost hospital-like cleanliness about it. The used one to the right, is worn out and ready to be replaced. It did its job well, but to use it much longer would risk sucking those particles already trapped deep inside fully through, negating any benefit it may have otherwise served.

When people think about shop safety, they usually think of things that can cause immediate injuries, like saw blades cutting a finger or hand, or a saw kicking back and throwing a piece of wood at you. But saw dust can be much more than a nuisance, and it deserves as much respect as saw blades.

Although I do have a dust collector hooked up to my machines that can pull 850 cubic feet per minute of air, saw dust still gets into the ‘ambient’ air. The air that you breath. There are machines to remove saw dust that is floating freely, but I don’t have one. So instead, I make sure to always wear a dust mask while I’m working.

The worn out mask you see above is discolored from working with Padauk. Padauk (pronounced pa-dook’) is a beautiful orange-redish wood that is very dense. Cutting and sanding it makes almost everything around the work space turn red, including my dust mask. And it’s a good thing I was wearing it- Padauk saw dust is known to cause nasal irritation, vomiting and asthma. And that’s just if you breath it in! Repeated contact with your skin and eyes may lead to dermatitis, itching, eyelid swelling, and act as a skin sensitizer.

And Padauk isn’t alone. According to Wood: Identification & Use – Revised & Expanded there are 5 pages of listings that detail the types of reactions our bodies can have to repeated exposure to different types of saw dust. More odd yet, if somebody has no reaction to 1 type of wood, then comes in contact with a type that gives some sort of reaction, like a rash, your body may now have similar reactions to the previously non-reactive wood. And we’re not talking about only immediate reactions to be wary of- over time, some wood can cause nose bleeds, bronchitis and nasal cancer.

So what’s a woodworker to do? Take the proper precautions.

Wear tight fitting long sleeves. This will protect your arms without having dangerous loose fabric that can get caught on machines.

Wear eye protection. Aside from the obvious benefit of stopping large pieces of wood, they can eliminate some of the saw dust from going directly to your eyes.

Wear a dust mask or respirator. The masks shown above are available at most hardware stores for about $7 a pair. If you have a lot of work to do, you can find online retailers that sell a box of 10 for about $15.

Happy woodworking!

In the Beginning…

I’ve been faced with a small problem for a while now. My current shop set up doesn’t have a dedicated space for my miter saw, and worse yet, it doesn’t even really have a temporary space for it. I’ve resorted to using the table saw to support it, as you can see in the first picture.

Initial Problem: I use a Teflon spray to coat the beds of my tools. This means the table saw is nice and slippery- great for sliding wood into the blade. Bad for setting a miter saw on top of and proceeding to use it there. Aside from the possibility of scratching the table saw bed, this is just bad mojo. The miter saw regularly slides around as I am trying to use it, since the table saw doesn’t allow for it to easily be clamped down.

Secondary Problem: In the background of the first picture, and shown more clearly in the second picture, is my router and router table. The router table has short metal legs, which are bolted to some MDF boards, which in turn are clamped to a pair of sawhorses. This not only makes getting my sawhorses out to use a bit of a task, it also takes up more space than it actually needs. I don’t use the router as often as I use the miter saw.

The Solution: The miter saw will soon have a table, approximately 10 feet long, to call it’s home. Some 2×4’s, some 3/4″ plywood for the saw, some 1/2″ plywood for shelves and some hardboard for the tops. The hardboard is fairly slick, so lumber will move along it nicely as it slides across the bed of the miter saw, which will be flanked by a 4 foot table on each side.

The router table will be removed from the little metal legs it uses currently. With some piano hinge and a couple of hydraulic arms, I will attach it to the rear of one of those 4 foot ‘wings’. When not in use, it will rest folded down. When ready for action, the hydraulic arms will be extended and locked in place.

“But John,” you say. “What kind of problems are you going to run into that you haven’t thought about?”

Good question! And if I knew, I wouldn’t run into them. Of course this is exactly what goes through everybody’s mind whenever they are trying something new. I’ve built workstations before, but the whole hydraulic arm thing will be interesting. Maybe it will wobble? Maybe it won’t be able to support the downward pressure? Maybe even something I haven’t come up with a ‘maybe’ for?

I’ll be documenting the progress for all to see, so stay tuned!

PS- If anybody can name the wood that was being cut in the first shot, I’ll give you a shout out on twitter

Thank You

Greco Woodcrafting at the 2009 Philly Flag Fest

I want to start by taking a moment to thank my customers from the craft fair this past weekend. It was great getting to meet each of you, and I hope your little ones all enjoy their new toys!

Over the course of the two days there, I was able to get some really great feedback on my current toy line, as well as some ideas for new toys (a mini version of my planes was mentioned several times and will soon be in development). There were many kind words offered, but there were also many words that went unspoken. Children passing by would look at the toys and just begin to smile. One child whose parents bought him a car sat down in the road and immediately started to play with it. I loved getting to see firsthand how much the kids enjoyed my toys- it was truly a unique experience.

The fair as a whole was fantastic, weather aside. The first day we had about 20 minutes of downpour that caused some flooding in my tent, followed by periods of drizzle. The second day started out looking dreary, but turned out beautiful. I would estimate only about one-third of the registered vendors showed up, leaving some open space on day one. For day two, the vendors who did attend were pulled in closely, giving a great sense of community that I think the patrons really enjoyed.

I have already told the organizer to count me in for next year. I hope to see you all again!

Meet Greco Woodcrafting!

Greco Woodcrafting at the 2009 Philly Flag Fest

This weekend will be Flag Day, and what better way to celebrate than by going to the birthplace of our flag? The 13th and 14th I will be a vendor at the 2nd annual Philly Flag Fest, taking place at and around the historic Betsy Ross House. The map above shows approximately where I will be setting up my stand with my toys.

In addition to getting to stop by and chat or buy any of my toys (I will have both Executive and Children’s versions of my biplane on hand, as well as helicopter craft kits , cars, trucks , push bunnies , pull bunnies , Mahogany bunnies , and Oak bunnies ) there wil be a Midawy filled with 10 cent games for the kids, tours of the Betsy Ross House and all sorts of events in the Betsy Ross Courtyard and up and down Arch Street. Here’s a list of the scheduled activities:

Saturday, June 13 – Betsy Ross House Courtyard:

10am – 7pm Meet Charles Weisgerber

10:30-11am Victorian Magic Show

11-11:30am Punch & Judy Puppet Show

11:30-11:45am Mixed Pickles Dancers

11:45am – 12pm Baseball Trivia Contest

12-12:30pm Victorian Magic Show

12:30-1:15pm Give & Take Jugglers

1:30-2pm Punch & Judy Puppet Show

2-2:45pm Fralinger String Band

2:45- 3pm Baseball Trivia Contest

3:00pm – 3:15pm Mixed Pickles Dancers

3:30pm – 4:00pm Punch and Judy

4pm – 4:45pm Vaudeville show

5pm – 6:00pm Ragtime Guitarist

Arch Street

11:00am – 1:00pm Uncle Sam

11:30am – 12:15pm Big-wheeled bike demonstration

12:30pm – 1:00pm Mixed Pickles

1:15pm – 1:45pm Chemical Heritage science experiment

1:30pm – 3:30pm Organ grinder and Django the fortune-telling monkey

2:00pm – 2:30pm Auburn Heights steam car demonstration

2:45pm – 3:30 Big-wheeled bike demonstration

3:45pm – 4:15pm Mixed Pickles Dancers

4:30pm – 5:00pm Chemical Heritage science experiment

5:15pm – 5:45pm Auburn Heights steam car demonstration

6:00pm – 6:45 Big-wheeled bike demonstration

Sunday, June 14 – Betsy Ross House Courtyard

10:30am – 10:45am Speech by Charles Weisgerber

11:00am – 11:30am Victorian Magic Show

12:00pm – 1:00pm Philadelphia Flag Day Association’s ceremony

1:00pm – 1:15pm Dime Contest Winner announced by Charles Weisgerber

1:30pm – 2:00pm Victorian Magic Show

2:00pm – 2:45pm Sousa Band

3:00pm – 3:45pm Mitchell & Ness History of Baseball Discussion & Trivia

4:00pm – 4:45pm Vaudeville show w/Jerry Brown

Arch Street

10:00am – 12:30pm Uncle Sam

11:00am – 11:30am Punch and Judy

11:45am – 12:15pm Auburn Heights steam car demonstration

12:30pm – 1:00pm Punch and Judy

1:00pm- 3:30pm Organ grinder and Django the fortune-telling monkey

1:30pm – 2:00pm Chemical Heritage “science experiment”

2:15pm – 2:45pm Punch and Judy

3:00pm – 3:30pm Auburn Heights steam car demonstration

3:45pm – 4:15pm Punch and Judy

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For more information you can go to the official Betsy Ross House website. Hope to see you there!

Google, I Call Shenanigans!

At 1000 Markets, there are a lot of tools available to help your items develop a presence on the web. One that I recently started to use is Google Base. I had given this a shot in the past through other sales venues I was on without much luck, so I was a bit reluctant to try it again. But the simple automatic updates really made it not only easy, but I suddenly found myself checking to see how my items were doing there.

What Google Base does, is it takes your items and lists them in Google Shopping results. When you log in, you can see how many times each of your items was displayed in somebody’s search and, from there, how many times people clicked through to the item directly after seeing it.

So there I was just the other night, looking through my Google Base results. Hey, will ya look at that! My helicopter craft kit toy has appeared in search results quite a number of times. Hmmm, nobody has clicked through to see it directly. I wonder why? Off I went to do my own search, using the words “helicopter craft kit”.

Now you have to understand something before I go any further. I go to painstaking extremes to make sure my toys are completely safe and splinter-free. Every toy goes through 4 stages of sanding starting at 120 grit and finishing at 400 grit. Sharp edges are given soft roundovers. I don’t ship out a toy until I feel it’s safe enough for me to give to my own kids. Because of what some might call a mild case of fanaticism over toy safety, I also make it a point to detail just how safe my toys are in their descriptions.

So imagine my surprise when the search for “helicopter craft kit” returned a truncated description that reads:

“This craft kit has a total of 12 pieces and even includes a 4 oz. bottle of … get splinters while playing with the helicopter and spinning the propellers.“

WHAT?!

I admit- at first I laughed. Almost hysterically. Then I thought to myself, no wonder why nobody clicked through to see my toy. Even I wouldn’t have clicked through to see it if I knew it would give me splinters from playing with it…and it was my toy!!

Of course, you won’t get splinters from my toy. Google chose to truncate my description immediately after the word “won’t”, leading readers to think this toy is only for those looking to inflict bodily harm. I went off and reworded my description, completely removing the word “splinters” so as not to even give Google the chance to cause this sort of mischief again.

Incidentally, it turns out that Google truncates based partly on the search criteria. Several searches that were slight variations of my original gave results that merely insinuated you might get splinters from my toy, whereas the original seemed to all but guarantee it.

The moral of this story is to be careful of your item descriptions and check them out afterwards. You never know what Google might choose to show shoppers.