More Recumbent Velomobile Parts Layout

After acquiring a good case of writers cramps I had completed the parts layout for the recumbent velomobile project.  I spent four hours today getting the third panel of parts set up from the full size drawings that I had completed weeks back.  This is the last of the 26 parts that I will need to trace onto the 4 x 8 foot styrofoam panels. Not a hard task but one I am glad to complete.  

This was my road map to place parts on two of the foam panels.  I worked this all out on my computer before I started and I'm glad I did as even with this map it was like a jigsaw puzzle to get all the drawings to lay down correctly so that I did not have any overlapping drawings once everything was traced out.  

Here my workbench is starting to look like my old drafting table when I had a lot of work piled up on it.  I will stash these drawings away if I should have to make repairs or if I want to build another body for another trike in the future. 

Here the largest drawing was laid out on the styrofoam.  This piece is like the keel of a boat.  It will be the main jig of the velomobile trike body structure.  The panel has a series of slots cut into one 4 x 8 styrofoam panel that position the ribs correctly while the body is being built.  The simplest part to make and the biggest.  This part I will not have to fiberglass as it is only a temporary part to hold the ribs of the body into place until they skinned with styrofoam like a cedar strip canoe and are glassed together. It will make more sense once I get that far into the build and you can see it all set up. 

Another big part for the velomobile trike project.  The curved drawings took longer to layout as I had to mark everything by hand.  

These photos show some more of the body parts laid out on the styrofoam and the complexity of the final structure.  I will fiberglass these parts on one side next.  Once this has dried I will do a rough cut of the parts so that I can glass the bottom side of the pieces.  Again once these have cured I will do the final cut out of the parts to get them into shape.  

  I figure to get the parts glassed and cut out will take me four days time.  This mainly because of the time it will take the fiber glass to cure. Total time to just transfer the drawings to the styrofoam comes up to seven and a half hours.  The amount of time to do the design work on the body I would suspect comes in at around 100 hours.  

  I'll keep a running tally of the total hours and the cost and let you know when I get this project put together.  A good step forward with the completion of this process of transferring drawings  now on to the next step of the build.