Associate
Linear rails, very nice. I hope you're not planning to move this rig often. Going to be pretty heavy. Or will you keep it on those castors?
Zee Sim Rig
- Thread starter Zeeflyboy
- Start date
Spectacular!!
Do you have all tools, CNC machines, etc. for doing all this at home?
And did you design everything yourself too?
Either way, It's a very impressive build and great photos. If I was ever to attempt something like this, I think I would just follow along your photos. Basically just copy your whole project!!
Do you have all tools, CNC machines, etc. for doing all this at home?
And did you design everything yourself too?
Either way, It's a very impressive build and great photos. If I was ever to attempt something like this, I think I would just follow along your photos. Basically just copy your whole project!!
Cheers! Yes thankfully the man cave is reasonably well provisioned with a Lathe, CNC router and 3D printer! Also yes, designed myself... I enjoy the making of things almost as much as the using of said things, becomes something of a hobby by itself.
Toothy - plan is to stay on the castors, it's easy to roll around!
Toothy - plan is to stay on the castors, it's easy to roll around!
Permabanned
Proper job love the craftsmanship fella.
Soldato
Goodness me that's looking amazing
Wish I had a hundredth of the practical skill you have to be able to create something like this. Massive kudos
Wish I had a hundredth of the practical skill you have to be able to create something like this. Massive kudos
Thanks again 
Today I managed to grab a little time to make something for the chair after having been ordered to make a sandpit for wee man and earning some brownie points, so decided to get something quick and easy done.
So currently I'm using quest wirelessly but I have a G2 pre-ordered for September and wanted to come up with a little something to hold the cable up off the neck/shoulders and make using a wired headset less irritating.
Whipped up this little design to go n the back of the seat (details of cable hook I'll work on later):
Cut the arm from 2.5mm CF and 3D printed the rest. Bish bash bosh! Need to get some shorter screws for the main base.
Today I managed to grab a little time to make something for the chair after having been ordered to make a sandpit for wee man and earning some brownie points, so decided to get something quick and easy done.
So currently I'm using quest wirelessly but I have a G2 pre-ordered for September and wanted to come up with a little something to hold the cable up off the neck/shoulders and make using a wired headset less irritating.
Whipped up this little design to go n the back of the seat (details of cable hook I'll work on later):
Cut the arm from 2.5mm CF and 3D printed the rest. Bish bash bosh! Need to get some shorter screws for the main base.
Associate
It's like a mouse bungee for your head!
Soldato
- Joined
- 1 Oct 2006
- Posts
- 14,218
This is incredible, the level of craftsmanship and ability with the tools is astounding. Superb! Have you got any other makes?
Also, that CNC is interesting. I was looking at something similar to make mechanical keyboard cases and plates a while back, but kind of hit a dead end looking for a cost effective solution that didn't take up masses of space or deafen the neighbours. Is that one of the eBay kits?
Also, that CNC is interesting. I was looking at something similar to make mechanical keyboard cases and plates a while back, but kind of hit a dead end looking for a cost effective solution that didn't take up masses of space or deafen the neighbours. Is that one of the eBay kits?
Soldato
@randal https://www.omiocnc.com/products/x6-2200l-usb.html
But Zeeflyboy has done a fair amount of modification to it.
But Zeeflyboy has done a fair amount of modification to it.
Associate
Ouch. Starts at $2,300.
@randal
Thanks!
It's not an ebay special, Uncle Petey has kindly given you the link to where you can find them. It shares a similar base, and resultingly many of the design flaws, to the ebay ones you generally find but the really important differentiation is that most of the cheaper ones you'll find are using unsupported round rod on the X and Z axis, and SBR20 on the Y. Both of these are much less rigid than the proper linear rail used on the X6 and will therefore lead to a machine that is significantly less rigid and less capable. They will do the job as long as that job is suitable for their capabilities (primarily wood, plastics, composites, some light soft metal work with the right machining strategies), and with some learning of how to work within their limitations you can get some surprisingly reasonable results out of them as long as your expectations aren't out of touch with reality (I had a similar machine before this one, so I know a bit about them!).
Even the X6 is lacking in several areas design wise though, ultimately 2300 bucks is still cheap as chips for a proper CNC machine so there will be compromises. I'm actually in the drawn out process of building my own upgrade to the X6 which is taking forever due to a beautiful combination of lack of time, funds and to be honest interest at the moment. I will get around to completing it at some point though, I've done a lot of the hard stuff already!
@ryhoper lol... You would have to do quite an awkward entry/exit to get close to smacking it. The natural way to get in and out has you lean forward rather than slide perfectly vertically up and down the seat which you would have to do to make contact with the cable caddy, plus all that would happen is you would hit the plastic part which has smooth edges and would probably twang out of the way as there is some spring to the carbon fibre.
Thanks!
It's not an ebay special, Uncle Petey has kindly given you the link to where you can find them. It shares a similar base, and resultingly many of the design flaws, to the ebay ones you generally find but the really important differentiation is that most of the cheaper ones you'll find are using unsupported round rod on the X and Z axis, and SBR20 on the Y. Both of these are much less rigid than the proper linear rail used on the X6 and will therefore lead to a machine that is significantly less rigid and less capable. They will do the job as long as that job is suitable for their capabilities (primarily wood, plastics, composites, some light soft metal work with the right machining strategies), and with some learning of how to work within their limitations you can get some surprisingly reasonable results out of them as long as your expectations aren't out of touch with reality (I had a similar machine before this one, so I know a bit about them!).
Even the X6 is lacking in several areas design wise though, ultimately 2300 bucks is still cheap as chips for a proper CNC machine so there will be compromises. I'm actually in the drawn out process of building my own upgrade to the X6 which is taking forever due to a beautiful combination of lack of time, funds and to be honest interest at the moment. I will get around to completing it at some point though, I've done a lot of the hard stuff already!
@ryhoper lol... You would have to do quite an awkward entry/exit to get close to smacking it. The natural way to get in and out has you lean forward rather than slide perfectly vertically up and down the seat which you would have to do to make contact with the cable caddy, plus all that would happen is you would hit the plastic part which has smooth edges and would probably twang out of the way as there is some spring to the carbon fibre.
So a few tweaks to the design for this cable caddy, firstly I decided the base needed to be stronger so I built a chunkier model made of several parts so I could align the print orientations better to be as strong as possible (for those unfamiliar with 3D printing, layer lines tend to be a weakness)... I can now swing it around like the ape that I am and no chance of breaking it... I added some parts to the base to better fit the curve of the seat back too. I also came up with an idea for the design for actually holding the cable.
The part that holds the cable just uses a simple O-ring to lock the cable in place and if the cable gets yanked too hard it just releases it, so should prevent any possible damage to the headset if one gets overly excited!
The printed parts could do with some tidying up, I probably need to clean my nozzle as they normally come off the bed better than this.
New base part with a cutaway to better show the construction:
New holder part:
So for now that bit is done, I'm now ready for my G2 please HP.... I'm waiting. Please.
I think next I really need to get the actuators for the upper section done and get them out the way.
And for reading this far, here's a fun little video of my boy demonstrating the rigidity of the steering module for you (love that a 2yr old catches that slide at the end lol) apologies for the vertical video, the wife was filming! Yes, I've considered divorce over it:
The part that holds the cable just uses a simple O-ring to lock the cable in place and if the cable gets yanked too hard it just releases it, so should prevent any possible damage to the headset if one gets overly excited!
The printed parts could do with some tidying up, I probably need to clean my nozzle as they normally come off the bed better than this.
New base part with a cutaway to better show the construction:
New holder part:
So for now that bit is done, I'm now ready for my G2 please HP.... I'm waiting. Please.
I think next I really need to get the actuators for the upper section done and get them out the way.
And for reading this far, here's a fun little video of my boy demonstrating the rigidity of the steering module for you (love that a 2yr old catches that slide at the end lol) apologies for the vertical video, the wife was filming! Yes, I've considered divorce over it:
Soldato
- Joined
- 31 May 2009
- Posts
- 21,456
film in landscape you monster!!!
but that is a superb build, well done, looks great
but that is a superb build, well done, looks great
Soldato
That's is flipping sensational, we need a proper video of it, all aroudn the whoel thing, that's amazing, most impressed I've been in years with a home brew that!
Soldato
I love that no mercy was shown by throwing a 2 year old in on Bathurst of all tracks 
He did well
He did well
Associate
What happens when your son want to play on it in a few years? Will it be adjustable enough to allow this? I have a friend at work building something similar, and he has had to cater for his kids wanting to play on it.
The seat can slide forwards, and the pedals can come back as far as you would want... if you look at the pic I posted at the end of post #8 (here) you can see roughly the limits of adjustability. The seat can actually travel another inch or so forward from there. The only limiting factor I think would be the height of the steering wheel as I can only have it come so low and still be usable for a larger person. I imagine that could be solved by a booster cushion.
Cheers! I'll think about doing an overview video for you once it's tidied up and "stage 1" is finished, although we have a 3 day overdue baby at the moment so may not be that soon lol.
@Uncle Petey haha, he's gotta learn somehow!
Cheers! I'll think about doing an overview video for you once it's tidied up and "stage 1" is finished, although we have a 3 day overdue baby at the moment so may not be that soon lol.
@Uncle Petey haha, he's gotta learn somehow!
Right so thought I'd give some more details as I make the next actuators, especially since it's using an off the shelf screw and nut which makes it easier to replicate... The only thing that would be a very difficult without a lathe would be turning down the screw for the bearing block, but you can order screws with end machining if needed.
Here's a selection of most of the parts (mainly missing 4mm steel guide rods x3 and a 6mm to 6mm flexible coupling) :
32mm OD, 30mm ID CF tube
12mm OD, 10mm ID stainless steel tube
8mm trapezoidal lead screw (2mm lead, not the more common 8mm lead)
30mm m3 standoffs
6x19x6mm deep groove bearings and a couple of m6 washers to go between them.
3D printed parts (black parts are printed in a CF PETG composite, orange is Armadillo semi-rigid TPU, grey guide is just matt PLA)
Zhengke ZGA37RG 12v 1000rpm motor
First up turning down one end of the screws that it fits through the bearing block. A good tip here that I learned a while ago was to take it down to just a few tenths of a mm above where you need it to be, then use some 600 grit to massage it down to size until you can slip the bearing on... stops you overshooting end ending up with a loose fit.
Next I used a 10mm reamer to just make sure the ID of the steel tube was right to make fitting the nut easier.
That done, flipped it around and gave it a quick polish with some scotch pad followed by 2000 grit.
Polished section vs unpolished (that bit is getting cut off anyway!):
To finish the tube off, I just cut to length with an angle grinder and then popped it into the lathe again to ream the other end as above, as we'll be making a small part to attach to the rig.
Then it was simply a case of smacking the nut into the tube (it should be a tight fit, I used a hammer and some wood to avoid damaging the end of the tube or the nut) along with some thread lock/sleeve lock to help make sure it doesn't go anywhere.
Assemble the end bushing (when I eventually get a multmaterial printer it would be cool to be able to print this sort of thing as a single piece) and ream the ever-living poop out of it with a 12mm reamer until it's a snug but smooth slide fit on the 12mm rod:
Put the motor section together and we're most of the way towards building an actuator! More to come later.
Here's a selection of most of the parts (mainly missing 4mm steel guide rods x3 and a 6mm to 6mm flexible coupling) :
32mm OD, 30mm ID CF tube
12mm OD, 10mm ID stainless steel tube
8mm trapezoidal lead screw (2mm lead, not the more common 8mm lead)
30mm m3 standoffs
6x19x6mm deep groove bearings and a couple of m6 washers to go between them.
3D printed parts (black parts are printed in a CF PETG composite, orange is Armadillo semi-rigid TPU, grey guide is just matt PLA)
Zhengke ZGA37RG 12v 1000rpm motor
First up turning down one end of the screws that it fits through the bearing block. A good tip here that I learned a while ago was to take it down to just a few tenths of a mm above where you need it to be, then use some 600 grit to massage it down to size until you can slip the bearing on... stops you overshooting end ending up with a loose fit.
Next I used a 10mm reamer to just make sure the ID of the steel tube was right to make fitting the nut easier.
That done, flipped it around and gave it a quick polish with some scotch pad followed by 2000 grit.
Polished section vs unpolished (that bit is getting cut off anyway!):
To finish the tube off, I just cut to length with an angle grinder and then popped it into the lathe again to ream the other end as above, as we'll be making a small part to attach to the rig.
Then it was simply a case of smacking the nut into the tube (it should be a tight fit, I used a hammer and some wood to avoid damaging the end of the tube or the nut) along with some thread lock/sleeve lock to help make sure it doesn't go anywhere.
Assemble the end bushing (when I eventually get a multmaterial printer it would be cool to be able to print this sort of thing as a single piece) and ream the ever-living poop out of it with a 12mm reamer until it's a snug but smooth slide fit on the 12mm rod:
Put the motor section together and we're most of the way towards building an actuator! More to come later.
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