What you can do with a jigsaw...

...so now my wife and I own our own place and we have a little more room, I'm claiming a corner of one particular room for myself to house a little (actually it's quite large) toy. I'm building my own sim cockpit

Drawing inspiration from these and other custom builds and with a fair bit of redesign (to account for my shoddy workmanship and the door into the room that's only 655mm wide plus one or two other hardware adaptations) I want to end up with something like this:


Cut away view:



The design I spent some time trying to get the measurements right to give that snug feeling you get when sat in a single seater but still be extremely comfortable. Given it can get hot here, airflow/ventilation for both driver and equipment I figure will be important, as will trying to keep the weight down as much as possible. Hence the holes everywhere. I also want to be able to keep things tidy - a lot of custom rigs seem to have the PC off to the side or out the front, but I want everything to be neatly contained and accessible, so I'm going to put the PC on the shelf at the back and run all cabling to the wheel, pedal and screen neatly hidden away in the gap under the seat. I'm also attempting to make it so that the front bit can fold over the top to save space when not in use. This last bit has me a little concerned, however I will fumble my way through.

(This is all desperately nerdy I know, and I probably should be doing something more useful for the house, but everyone needs their little projects.)

So first up was constructing the seat. Using 16mm MDF I cut out two supports/frames on which the backrest and seat bottoms attach. All pretty straight forward - my mad jigsaw skillz aren't as bad as I feared. Once assembled, it's actually quite comfy as it is without any cushioning believe it or not. The seating position is reclined - but not too reclined - but when I do get around to cushioning it I can feel that building out the padding for additional lower back support will be a good idea. A few holes bored out to save a bit of weight and to allow for a wee bit of airflow.








Next are the sides. Again using 16mm MDF, I marked out the design and set about cutting. A few trickier cuts this time, but again I was mildly surprised to have cut pretty darn accurately (and to still have all my fingers). You'll see below where the seat is marked out to give an idea of how it'll come together.




I should point out that my work bench is our tiny outdoor table. Definitely not the safest however so far, so good!




A few screws, et voila!






Last bit for the moment is the shelf at the back. Using 12mm MDF this time to save on weight, this piece is a little delicate as it slides into the slot I cut at the back of the sides and also has two thin bits that extend along the sides. I was really nervous of these snapping off as I affixed the piece but they held firm and with a single screw on each side the shelf is nicely in place. Lots of holes.






So that's where I'm up to thus far. I have the arms rests and the front section all marked out ready to cut this weekend and start constructing and if I'm lucky with my available time I might be able to get these bits done this weekend. I will keep you posted with progress!

Has anyone else made anything similar?

That's a pretty good job so far. Waiting to see it finished and working.

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Mad skillz as they say! MDF does not support hinges that well, you may need some hardwood battens to support the hinges/weight if that's the way you are going to go. Maybe consider making the front section de-mountable. Dome head bolts with wing-nuts on the inside could also work as a hinge mechanism, but you would still need some hardwood pieces for the bolts to pass through. MDF is fibrous as you know and the holes would eventually enlarge. Other than that, a really good job.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

Thanks Mal for the advice. I know exactly what you mean about a hole enlarging around a narrow bolt, so I have a plan that I hope will work... the plan is to use 35mm dowel mounted the centre of 70x70mm blocks from the back section, with the front section pivoting around the dowel. I hope that by using a bigger 'bolt' that will spread the pressure around better and the dowel being wood I hope will be less abrasive.

So I've made some pretty good progress! The back bit is finished and front bit has been made. I still need to join the two using the method above, whack on some casters so it's movable, fill all the holes and give it a few coats of paint (okay so there's a bit to do!) but it is drivable now and is really good fun!

The front bit:




I've made it so the shelf the wheel sits on can slide back and forth - I'll put on a bolt lock/latch on the underside so that it can fixed to the preferred spot.




The pedals can also be set to a few different positions:




The two bits together. The back section now has the arm rests and a totally wicked rear wing for max downforce. When I've got the two sections joined, the front bit will be able to flip up and over something like the second shot.






So here it is with wheel, pedals and speakers on. Ignore the cushion pattern - these are old cushions that came with the couches we bought a while ago and we've never used because they're fugly. They do however fit PERFECTLY. And once I've got a little spare cash (as well as some new fabric for the cushions) I'll be getting myself a nice shiny HD screen because the lappy doesn't quite cut it haha






It's going to be a month or two before I can finish it off but I'm looking forward to showing some more pics.

Well done, some car speakers built in might be the go, if theres somewhere to mount them. Park it in front of your 50"HDTV and you're all set.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

Some pics coming this weekend

Ok, so we have the cockpit done! None of the cuts are straight, nothing quite lines up, there's no right angles anywhere but dammit I don't care!

I've whacked on some casters so I can wheel it about easily. A nice sleek gloss white and black paint job. Some nice chrome-style hex bolts to look extra racey. Barrel bolts under the shelf where the wheel attaches so it's nice and adjustable. Ditto for the board the pedals sit on - that can move about 15cms. The front bit folds back over onto the back like I wanted.

A lot of fun to make, and a lot of fun to use.

Next steps:
- Get a new screen
- Get a new PC
- Look into installing some speakers
- Look into some butt kicker rumble packs thingys
- Make some custom seat cushions

Wow that looks amazing, brilliant what some folks out there can do by themselves :P

Also: Those cushions in earlier pic looked very comfy :P





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2015 04:54PM by ipswich2007.