Making projects for kids is one of the most fun and rewarding things you can do. Here are the top 5 CNC project plans you can download to make your kids smile.

Whether the kids are your own kids or these are items you are looking at selling, these projects are sure to put a smile on their face.  Each one of these projects are ones that I have made for my own kids and they loved all of them!

I take great pride in the plans and accompanying instructions that comes with them.  They are aimed so that beginners and more experienced CNC owners alike will be able to follow the plans and learn something from the project that they can take into other projects as well.

5. Growth chart – This is an easy project to make that will also teach you about painting your carvings without any bleeding or extra sanding and how to do tiling jobs to cut parts longer than the cut capacity of your machine.

I made both of my kids growth charts and they are a huge hit.  They love seeing how much they’ve grown throughout the year by walking up to it and asking how much taller they are than their last mark on their birthday.  Then when the birthday comes around they can’t wait to add a new measuring mark on the growth chart!

4. Maze Game – A super fun project to make that combines wood and acrylic.  The plans walk you through all steps and you will learn how to find the offset of your machine for a perfect fit to inlay the acrylic.  This also talks about the differences in cutting styles of the bits to achieve the cut quality you’re looking for.

I originally made this for my daughter and at least a couple of times a week she will pick it up and relearn how to solve the maze, now my son is old enough and beginning to learn how to manipulate it as well.  It helps a ton with developing fine motor skills for kids as they are moving the ball around getting it where they want it to go.

3 – Step Stool – This slightly above beginner level project teaches a lot of techniques for how you can create flat pack items on the CNC.  It goes over finding the offset for your machine so the material fits in perfectly, how you can slot material in without having to create dog bone corners for the edges of the pieces and how to do multi color pieces without any additional cleanup.

The step stools I made for my kids are easily the most used thing I’ve made them.  Multiple times a day they use them to access the sink.  These are very sturdy and they love that their names are carved into it.  My son, who is 2, runs up to his stool points at his name, says it, then gets up on his stool and doesn’t try to take his sisters; I call that a parenting win as that was a struggle before these stools!

2 – Animal Alphabet Tiles – This is a very basic beginner level project as all tiles are v-carved.  This set of plans goes over how to set up a v-carve toolpath and how I achieved the look of these.

These tiles were an excellent tool for my daughter helping her learn her alphabet as she would walk by them and say the letter and name of the animal.  My son is now old enough that he is doing the same thing.  One thing I didn’t consider when making them is how much the kids like the tactile feel of the carving.  Both of them will run their fingers over the letters and the animal almost tracing it.  This was a super fun project to make and I love seeing the kids interact and learn from them.

1 – Alphabet Piggy Bank – This is an amazing project that combines wood and acrylic that is great for your own kids or something that would sell extremely well if you’re looking to do that.  The plans walk you through all steps and you will learn how to find the offset of your machine for a perfect fit to inlay the acrylic, v-carving acrylic and getting everything to work well together.  You can purchase all letters in the alphabet or purchase an individual letter if you just want to make a single letter.

Kids love finding change and this gives them their own space to keep it that is just for them.  Every time my daughter finds some change the first thing she says is “this is going in my C bank!”.  It looks amazing sitting on her dresser and is definitely functional as well.  She loves it any time she can add some change to it.  This was a very rewarding project to make!

To also help people get started whether you’re using our plans or not, be sure to check out our master tool files for Vectric and Fusion 360 software complete with all of the bit information and speeds and feeds set for you for the Amana Tool bits we sell.

In conclusion, these have been the projects that my kids have enjoyed the most and the ones I’ve enjoyed making as well.  The reaction from kids when they receive something you’ve made makes any amount of effort put into it worth it, there is nothing better!  I hope you will make one or more of these projects, if not, hopefully they have at least inspired you to make something else similar.