Light Construction

Yesterday, I got lots of work done on the physical light.  I fabricated the light using sheet metal in the auto body shop in my school.  I started by downloading a 3d model of a traffic light and scaling it to about 1:2 using the popular Google Sketchup.  I traced the measurements onto a Bristol board template.  Unfortunately, I no longer have these templates and files as I did this sometime last year.  I traced the Bristol board template onto sheets of steel.  I bent the pieces using a brake and spot welded them together.  Next, I spot welded each of the three lights together and MIG welded some caps onto the openings that I did not want to be seen. 

I primed it in the school's spray booth, then waited 15 minutes while the spray booth baked the primer at 150 degrees Fahrenheit.  Once the primer was dry, I gave it about 3 coats of yellow Tremclad paint.  This gave it a great finish.  I left it to dry overnight and was then ready to install the electronics.