Thread: How do you make mushroom head screw cover buttons?

Have you tried here...............Timber Cover Buttons | Plugs | Knobs | Wooden Handles

Do you own a woodturning lathe?

They appear to be a fairly simple turned item, and making them yourself would allow you to use a variety of different species and colours.

However, questions you should ask yourself include:

If you don't already own a lathe, how much would a suitable sized / featured one cost? How long (in terms of lost toy production and sales) would it take you to learn to flawlessly turn the buttons you need?
At around CAD $0.01 each (for 250+ from this lot Mushroom Style Wood Plugs in Birch, Maple, Oak, Pine, Cherry and Walnut - Bear Woods Supply ) even if postage is $100 for 1000, the cost per button is only CAD $0.11 per button -- which is well under half what you are paying at Bunnings and Mitre 10.
this mob WidgetCo: Button Top Wood Plugs | screw hole plugs are another option


My point is -- stick to what you are good at and pay a reasonable price for someone else to make the cover buttons.
if after tooling up and learning how, you could make 100 buttons an hour -- which equates to one every 36 seconds -- you are at best earning around $6 (after material costs) for that hour's work. I imagine, the completed toys are giving a better return than that.


Of course, if the toys are being made for the grand kids, then by all means get a lathe and learn to make your own buttons.

Thank you George Marvis and Ian.

All questions comprehensively answered.
Thank you also for the web site references, costing break downs and the other suggestions.
All duly noted.

Regards

The Cooroy Toy Maker