A Laser Cut Trolley

I have scratch built a number of Mr. Rogers style trolleys that are running at Pittsburgh's Children's Hospital and at the Children's Library in Mt. Lebanon, PA.

Over the years of building them I gradually moved to making some of the parts with my laser cutters. I finally decided that it would be an interesting challenge to do 100% (or close to it) of the build using laser cut parts.

This web page shows how I designed and built a laser cut trolley. All of the design files are available as both CorelDraw and PDF files should you want to give it a try.

The Base
The base was cut from 1/4" plywood and 1/8" acrylic. The top section (upper right image) has a cutout for the motor block as well as square holes for the grab poles and front/back curved skirts.

Three of the part in the upper left were cut from 1/4" plywood and one of the larger section (lower left) was cut from 1/8" acrylic. The lower right part goes above the grab poles.

The Grab Poles
The poles and grab handles are made from 1/8" plywood. Ten are needed.

The Curved Front & Back
What I thought would be a very challenging part turned out to be easily accomplished.

The Interior Benches
The trolley has five benches, three are double sided and two are single sided.

The Main Roof - Laser Cut Clamps, Too!
The design has a large roof and a smaller one that sits atop the clerestory.

The Clerestory and its Roof
The clerestory is a simple design with a number of windows. Its roof is constructed in the same manner as the main roof.

Construction & Painting
The parts of the trolley were all primed then painted. I used red, black and green spray paint