Secure Dishwasher Clean/Dirty Indicator/Sign (also makes a good fidget toy)

thingiverse

One of the most compact dishwasher signs to use a sliding-type mechanism. Also makes for a good fidget toy, lol. (NOTE: Please read the full description before printing!) Like my Custom Protractor that somehow got really popular, this design also has a story to go with it. I got my first printer back in 2017: a Monoprice Select Mini. I was a 3D printing noob back then, so my dad used it most of the time. One of the first things he downloaded was [rcaslis's DishWasher dirty / clean sign](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1430577) for our dishwasher. There were a few problems though. We managed the long parts by printing them vertically on their thin sides to fit our small bed; however, the biggest problem was the design itself: You had to directly slide a part to switch between "Clean" and "Dirty", and we discovered that also meant it could be accidentally switched if any of us rubbed against it. Unfortunately, our dishwasher door is positioned underneath the counter below our dishes cabinet, a "high-traffic area". This left the dishwasher sign very prone to accidental switches, and I always had to ask whether the dishes were actually clean/dirty or not. As shown by this post, after all these years I finally grew sick of it. I decided to find a better, more secure, "rub-proof" design that couldn't be accidentally switched. One of the first designs I found was [MiddleFingerBoss's Sliding Word Changing Dishwasher Sign](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3078497). I really loved this design, especially how switching each "individual" letter rather than the whole word really compacted the design; however, it was still operated by sliding, had too many parts and was giant, so I was a little sad and disappointed. I then thought that the best mechanism would be a knob, since it seemed like it wouldn't be as prone to accidental switching, and eventually I found [arustoni's Dishwasher Clean/Dirty Sign](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4130573). It used both a knob and the individual-letter-sliding concepts, so I thought I was in luck; however, when I looked at the parts more closely, I found that they were poorly designed, and the overall the design was still too big to not obstruct info while also being easily seen and accessible. So once again, I decided to make my own design from scratch that would include everything that I needed: A compact design, individual-letter-sliding, and operation via turning a knob.