(9) Tram - Building the bodywork

The bodywork began by using the dimensions from the 'Going Electric' article (below), but updating them for my design.

Going Electric Article

I used this information to design a CAD drawing, which i could use to produce plywood templates on the laser cutter, including the final design for the control board

My next step was to produce the beach blanks that would clad the entire body. I began by ripping some strips of scrap Beech on the table saw down to 5mm

Another shot of the strip ripped down with the plywood jig behind

This then needed to be thicknessed down to the correct dimension of 3mm and to remove any saw marks. To do this each strip was stuck on to a crap piece of plywood with our CNC double sided tape. They could then be fed through until the exact thickness was achieved.

The strips were then passed back through the table saw to produce planks of the correct width

Showing some strips all cut to the same thickness and width

The last step was to pass them under the overhead router. This was done to produce a slight bevel along the two long edges, which creates a more realistic plank effect when they are stuck side by side. A similar process was done to produce the square framing section.

A snapshot of testing the laser cut plywood body panels 

 

Testing the correct thickness of the planks against the body

Beginning to glue on the planks which have been cut and sanded to size

   

The finished front end of the Tram with the light fitted

The new control unit being glued up

The nearly finished control panel (just missing the horn button)

Picture with side panel half glued up.

Nearly there - one more side to go!