- 7,689
- Michigan
- Rallywgn81
Good afternoon folks! My name is Rally and I am a sim and fabrication fanatic. I've been a fan of Gran Turismo since its release when I was maybe 14 or 15 and have been playing regularly ever since. I played with the standard controller though until Gran Turismo 5, when I purchased my first wheel. It was a Momo Logitech wheel. Not the nicer red version, but rather one bought 5, maybe 6 years ago, all black, and very plasticy feeling. And the whine, man that wheel really yelled at ya. At the time I was working as a fabricator in the Army. I made a rig out of the passanger seat of my Rx-7, a metal desk I had and a bunch of scrap metal we had around the shop. Unfortunatly I can't find any pictures of it, but it was a rad setup. A divorce, a bunch of moves, a couple of years and a new life later and I started getting back into sim racing again.
This time the rig wasnt so grand. I needed to keep it compact and able to fold up and out of the way when I wasn't using it. I had saved some of the seat frame from the last rig, no need to waste good steel, so I built a really bad wheel stand.
I raced on that for a year or so. it was pretty rough to sit on hour after hour, but I made do. During racing, the wheel would start loosing calibration, so I used the opportunity to purchase a g27. Deciding this stand just wouldn't do the g27 justice I decided to make a new one. Still had the same restrictions so the design and look was only slightly improved.
about 6 months into using this, my wife and I moved to a new house. With a new house came more space. I now had the room needed to create a full rig, so this was born.
I enjoyed drifting and rally racing, so I added an ebrake. The handle is from an HMMVW, better known as a Humvee. The switch is a test switch for the emergency function of a flourescent light fixture.
I bought a GTeye and used the old clutch spring as the return spring.
Not pictured yet, I also made a DIY tactile setup using large fish weights and the sub from an old computer speaker setup. Works great, though it is a little noisy.
Just recently however, the disc unit in my PS3 went out, so I am no longer able to play GT6. I decided to spend the money to start up an iRacing account instead of repairing the PS3. and I have to say I am glad I decided to do this. I had moved everything down to the basement and started building a nice little man cave. This gave it direct.
This is the beginning, just before the PS3 went out.
It wasn't pretty but it worked and worked well. If you can't tell yet, I am a HUGE fan of the three R's I reuse as much as I can, all of this wood was reclaimed from other things that had been taken apart or found when moving into one of our two homes over the past few years.
This is it for this past week that I have been playing iRacing. You will notice the trips! they don't work. I guess all three need to be the same resolution in order for the NVidia card to get them all playing a game together.
And this is the progress I made today. Added a work table to the right, and I am going to get an 8' counter top to top the desk I am making. the monitors will be placed on a platform that will move back and forth on the desk, so that I can get into the rig and slid the monitors up close. The seat is getting replaced with something leather, powered and heated, and the seat will be boxed in better and probably hooked up with a tablet and switch boards and such. I plan on getting into Star Citizen and some other space and flight sims as well, so I plan on reworking the whole frame to make certain sections easy to remove and swap out for different games, and the monitors can be slid back and the seat removed for a regular seat to be used for surfing, school work and researching various what nots.
This is my "lab" table.
And the full length of the desk.
This is it for now. I plan on racing tonight, so I'm going to slide in a couple more 2x4s in there so I can add that wood shelf back in for the mean time. I'll be getting the counter top in the next couple of weeks so it will have to do for a bit. The reason the desk is so long is that I am learning electronics such as Raspberry Pi, and I like having a nice large area to work in. the comp will be getting a second graphics card. A GTX 275, another sound card or two and some more ram. I'll also be building a more complex tactile setup. I'll be updating this as it all happens. Enjoy!
Ok, this is how it stands now as I turn some laps in iRacing.
I'll be using 4x4's for the legs instead of 2x4s for a better look and will be adding a back board and something for the sides as well.
Edit 3/16/14:
Ok, here is it in all of its unsung glory! This completes phaze 1 of the man cave build. Phase 2 will take place in about a month. That will be the addition of the counter top, back and side boards and 4x4 legs. After that a few walls and some paneling, will go up. then the fun begins!
I also need to mill over how exactly I am going to set up the the side tables and a sort of console to the front section of the cockpit, and make it so the wheel and that section can easily be swapped out with a table top and a flight stick. Look for more to come!
This time the rig wasnt so grand. I needed to keep it compact and able to fold up and out of the way when I wasn't using it. I had saved some of the seat frame from the last rig, no need to waste good steel, so I built a really bad wheel stand.
Not pictured yet, I also made a DIY tactile setup using large fish weights and the sub from an old computer speaker setup. Works great, though it is a little noisy.
Just recently however, the disc unit in my PS3 went out, so I am no longer able to play GT6. I decided to spend the money to start up an iRacing account instead of repairing the PS3. and I have to say I am glad I decided to do this. I had moved everything down to the basement and started building a nice little man cave. This gave it direct.
This is the beginning, just before the PS3 went out.
This is it for this past week that I have been playing iRacing. You will notice the trips! they don't work. I guess all three need to be the same resolution in order for the NVidia card to get them all playing a game together.
This is my "lab" table.
Ok, this is how it stands now as I turn some laps in iRacing.
I'll be using 4x4's for the legs instead of 2x4s for a better look and will be adding a back board and something for the sides as well.
Edit 3/16/14:
Ok, here is it in all of its unsung glory! This completes phaze 1 of the man cave build. Phase 2 will take place in about a month. That will be the addition of the counter top, back and side boards and 4x4 legs. After that a few walls and some paneling, will go up. then the fun begins!
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