Toy Road Closed Barrier
Instruction
There is a variety of props that can enhance children's imaginative play. A simple 'road closed' sign is one such prop that is easy to make and requires minimal materials. This project walks you through the design and cut out of this sign, which can be customized to create a variety of additional sign variations.
The first step is to create the supports for the sign. The simplest and most effective design for this task is a basic triangle shape. XCS has several basic shapes built in and we can utilize these to help build more complex shapes.
I thought the design may look a little more polished to have an inner cut out for the support. This is easily done by copying the triangle and resizing the copy to be about half the size of the original. Now just center it up inside the original.
This is the most complicated part of the design. We need to make a notch in the top of the triangle to hold the sign that will span across two supports. To achieve this, let's insert a rectangle. We need to size the rectangle to the same thickness as our material. For this project I am using 3mm basswood plywood, so I made the rectangle .125 (3mm) wide. The height is not as important, but I made mine about ½ of and inch.
You may need to adjust the thickness of this notch to work with your material. It is rare that material is exactly the same thickness from piece to piece.
Now overlap the rectangle with the top of the triangle and ensure that they are centered horizontally. Don't forget XCS has a handy tool to help with alignment. Just select two or more objects and you will see the tool in the toolbar.
Now that we have the support created, let's select all and copy it. We also will need to create a rectangle for the sign.
Next we need to add in the text for the sign. I am added “road closed”. Agan use the alignment tool to get this centered on the part that will span the design.
The settings listed are for a D1 with a 5W laser. Be sure to adjust settings so that they are appropriate for your laser.
Next let's set up the laser to cut out the design. Be sure to follow all the safety guidelines for your laser and always wear personal protective equipment.