Children's Construction Zone Play Signs and STOP/SLOW Paddle

An ideal gift to encourage imaginative play in young children. I made this set as a Christmas present for my grandsons.

This is a set of traffic control signs like the ones you’d see on a construction site, hand-drawn with reference to the Nova Scotia Temporary Workplace Traffic Control Manual.

What you’ll need besides the printed parts

• A kid’s construction helmet, small 'Work" gloves, and a hi-vis vest (Amazon or another source)

• A 1" diameter threaded broom handle (any hardware store)

• A 1" cane tip for the bottom of the pole

Panels
The panels are 300 x 300 mm, so you’ll need a printer that can handle that size or you’ll need to scale them down. All panels are 5 mm thick except the STOP/SLOW panel, which is printed as two 2.5 mm halves and glued together.

Every panel is two-colour except the STOP/SLOW panel. The colours sit at different vertical levels, so even without a multi-colour setup you can pause at the right layer and change filament.

The stand holds the triangular end of the sign and can be printed in any colour you like. My local filament supplier sells "Random Colour" filament at half price, so I used that up.

STOP/SLOW panel and pole
The STOP/SLOW panel has three M4 holes at the bottom where it fastens to the pole end, and another M3 hole at the top. These let you keep the two halves perfectly aligned while gluing. Any fast “Super Glue” works. Once assembled, fasten the pole end to the STOP/SLOW sign with three M4 x 20 Bolts and Nuts. I used Lock Nuts that fit into the hexagonal indentations on the pole end. Print the Pole End with a good 15 cm brim, with the threaded end and chamfer facing up. Make it stronger than the panels with either a gyroid or cubic infill at least 30%. I made the pole end of black PC-CF. It is much stronger than PLA or PETG but less miserable to print than PA6-CF20 or the like. This is the only part I printed at 50% infill and 4 walls.

The pole end threads onto the broom handle. I cut mine to about 40" to suit the size of my grandkids, and the rubber cane tip goes on the cut end. 

Materials
I printed everything in PLA except the pole end, which I made in PETG-CF. It may be overkill, but I wanted it strong. The sign stand is PLA, with small indents in the bottom for 1 mm-diameter non-slip silicone buttons. I used regular PLA for the signs (Orange, White, and Black) and White PLA Silk for the white parts of the STOP/SLOW panel to make them look a little bit "reflector-ish".

Print settings

• 0.2 mm layers

• 3 walls

• 15% Adaptive Cubic infill

N.B. -- There is a "Ball End" that screws onto the end of the pole instead of the STOP/SLOW panel. I made it to create a convincing walking stick I could fly with on the airline to deliver it during a visit.