Customizable Miniature Burma-Shave Road Signs Redux by RiverRatDC

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

I have vivid memories of the Burma-Shave roadway signs from family vacations in the late 1950s & early 1960s when I was a tike. My siblings and I would have contests to see who could spot a set first or read them from furthest away. Then we'd recite them in unison sign-by-sign as my lead-footed Dad roared by them (SLOW DOWN PA/SAKES ALIVE/MA MISSED SIGNS/FOUR AND FIVE/BURMA-SHAVE). They definitely helped keep kids occupied on roadtrips.
I immediately fell in love with TheNewHobbyist's "Customizable Miniature Burma-Shave Road Sign" (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:751540) when I saw it and used it as a basis for this remix. Thanks, TNH! Having a single extruder printer, I wanted to be able to print the signs and signpost(s) seperately, as well as have the option of printing short signposts so one can lay the signs out horizontally, in sequence, like they were on the roadside's of America. Also wanted to be able to vary the size of the text on individual signs in a set as these mixed word sizes were the way the originals were painted. These modifications were implemented in OpenSCAD and then uploaded to Customizer. The signs are a snug press-fit on the signposts and don't require adhesive. If you have a single extruder printer, pause your print before the text begins to print and change filament to create the contrasting text color on the signs. If you slice the signs at a layer height of 0.20mm, this pause will be between layer 18 and layer 19. Recommend that you use 20% infill on the signs and 100% infill on the signposts.
For more historical info on the Burma-Shave roadway signs see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave
See the full Burma-Shave sign jingle archive from the 1920s to the 1960s & find your favorites for a Make!:
http://burma-shave.org/jingles/