base for free-standing road sign

[Gil Liu]

Hi All,

I'd like to build a small free-standing road sign for my toddler son's room that has pointers to the towns where his grandparents live. The sign will be 4-5 ft tall. I'm looking for pointers on how to build the base. I was thinking of a plus-shaped footprint with diagonal braces connecting the base with the post. I guess I'll try recessing the post into the base with a mortise-tenon joint.

[Lars Thomas]

Cute idea. What about a foot-shaped base?

[Jim Becker]

Lars hit on an interesting idea...something whimsical would be great! Like a big "Ronald McDonald" foot/shoe thingie... (big for stability)

[John Branam]

You may want to look at some different coat tree/coat racks that you see in office lobby's.

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

I have a suggestion:
Cut 4 pieces of wood that would fit around the post
Maybe 12" tall, maybe not - your choice.
Cut a sliding dovetail slot into the center of each
Make your foot (that fits the sliding dovetail slot)
Check on the length of each foot - remember that 9" ='s 18" plus post thicknes and wood thickness - does that make sense.
So maybe 6" feet would be good, or 7" feet. eh!
Daniel

[John Bush]

Hi Gil,
I would make a cutout in the shape of the US and have the arrows pointed in the direction of the actual geographic location. You could outline each state, show capitals and other points of interest for each region, etc. Make it a real lesson in geography. I would also add gussets to attach to the post. May also be a good idea to use some type of soft/flexible material(Nerf type) for the arrows so if it falls or is pulled down, no ooowwwwweeeeesssss will happen. Another idea could be to use two baseball bats doweled together at the grip end as your post and show all the major league teams and cities on the US map( if a Baseball fan). Man, I should copywrite this stuff!! Best wishes for this Xmas gift.JCB.

[Randal Stevenson]

The fact that you said toddler son would make me do things differently. Instead of a freestanding post, that he might pull over on himself eventually, I would make a fake town post, and screw it to the wall, with a picture of either the USA and stars for the towns, or a road next to your street signs.

[John Schreiber]

Knowing a thing or two about toddlers, you can bet he will try to climb it, knock it over, hang from it, hang his friends from it etc. The base should be either quite massive and broad or it should be mounted to the wall.

I love the idea of an outline of the USA.