Thanks
Did a quick design close to what I'm going after now. The current proto is extremely rigid, but there is a problem it not laying perfectly flat on the floor. This is because of many things, and therefore I'm planning to use adjustable "feet" that guarantee perfect contact with the floor. Also, the changed seat configuration has those vertical threaded bars now that needs something to prevent the floor getting damaged. Same parts are used in the front part in this version.
So, even though when assembled the seat section (in the first proto) looks cool and all, it simply is just too complicated. The unknown factor here is the drilling part - the holes have some gap in them and it's not realistic to expect every hole drilled with 0,1mm precision. So, the earlier changes that I did there will stay, and after playing a lot with those threaded bars here (what a multipurposeful things those are! 👍) decided to make the design even simplier & easier to use and put the threaded bars behind the seat too. With those you can adjust the angle (one bolt in the front only) of the seat & with the multiple holes on the main vertical bar you can adjust the height of the seat too, now in a much more simplistic way. Also saved a lot those costly metal parts. So that's a plus side of this change too.
There is a lot of other minor changes too, but maybe the biggest is the pedal section. Also in here the proto has some instability, so changed the design to eliminate this for good. The added feet gave me little more options & freedom how to do this. Now there should not be any chance for the pedals to "give in". Smaller feet (the threaded bars) added in the front part of the pedals to give the pedals 100% floor contact.
So now the weight of the seat & the driver are completely directed to ground through the front part of the rig & pedals (fine tune the contact with the 'feet') and this should give it max stability where it is needed... or at least it shoud do this
The screen stand I have in the proto was not perfect and the new design should also improve the rig in this part. You do need the VESA mount behind the screen though, luckily most if not all have those nowadays. Also if you later on want to go 3 screen wide, there is only few parts & bars needed to add. Also this way there is less plywoods needed and that again drops the costs little.
Below few preview pics, still a work in progress though. Also pics of the M12 threaded bar, that will work as the adjustable foot. I already put those cushions under the M20 lock nuts so there should not be any marks left to the floor either.
As I guess always in this kind of projects a proto is very much needed, there just is too much that you cannot see before doing it in real life. Anyhow, now I'm very pleased with the design.. the looks have changed a little but the most important thing is still the stability and the adjustability and all those are still there. The difference is that now I know this will work as I've wanted this thing to work from the start.
So proto 2.0 is on the way....
Comments welcomed. 👍 Good or bad.
edit,
Oh I might add that hoovering the cockpit area should be now quite easy!!
And as far as the selling part goes, it's still looking that I'll only ship the metals parts & end caps & plywoods. The aluminium bars will be DIY. Complete instructions included, of course.