I think one of my next home projects will be a DIY cockpit. It will not have monitors. I'll be going for Oculus/some other VR device.
What free cockpits are out there that exist in CAD? I'm looking for MDF/plywood stuff. I can probably CNC, router, etc. the stuff @ work.
Ideally I'd find one that would function well as a flight-sim cockpit (think Descent freespace, or some action/arcade sim - not MS Flight simulatior with eleventy-billion buttons) as well as a driving cockpit.
1) https://grabcad.com/library/playseat-wood-1
(+) .IGS cad file
(-) no holes/small details, pedal mounting provisions are questionable.
2) https://grabcad.com/library/f1-racing-simulator-1
(+) solidworks file
(?) super-reclined.
(-) some sections look difficult to do out of mdf/plywood
3) https://grabcad.com/library/racing-simulator
(-) PTC Creo CAD file
(-) no pedal provisions
(-) not easily done with plywood
4) https://grabcad.com/library/car-racing-simulator / https://grabcad.com/library/diy-racing-simulator
These two are very similar. Same author, dimensionally close. 1 has 3 monitors, 1 has a single, and the seat looks different.
(++) STEP/IGS
(-) not plywood friendly
5) https://grabcad.com/library/playseat-rs1-style-1
(+) appears to be similar to/clone of RS1 DIY Seat
(+) all the holes look like they are there
(-) .top file extension (WTF!?!)
(-) no seat, pedals, or wheel shown
1 and 5 are pretty similar to what I built, no monitor attached made of 2x3s and mdf. I actually have mine partially taken apart right now sitting in front of me, I should make a sketch and jot down dimensions. Will update later.
Also I can draw this up in cad too.
Here are links to my build thread(s). The GT Planet thread is same as the one here, but all the build info is in the 1st post. There are a couple other ideas posted in the GRM thread by others.
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/diy-cockpit-build-hide-it-from-the-wife-edition.250225/
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/time-to-build-a-new-racing-simulator-cockpit/43981/page1/
Here's my measurements from today. Red is 2x3's, Blue is 1/2" MDF board. If you want the basic CAD file of this send me a PM and i'll email the .dwg to you.
Note: Mine was built to be as small as possible and to accomodate the seat I had on hand. The seat was mounted with the stock slider attached, and I had to slide it all the way back and recline the seat some to be comfortable as a result. The end goal was to be able to hide this in the closet, and it would, if it would have fit through the door. Ask my wife her thoughts on that. Haha. The seat is now on its way out the door and I am looking to replace it with a low back cheap polyurethane racing seat. Im anticipating having to modify the base at the rear of my setup to get the seat where I like.
I built this with no plans, just some ideas in my head, a tape measure, a jig saw, a drill, and a box of screws. Ive used it with a microsoft wheel, driving force pro, and my current fanatec wheel. You will probably have to consider the peripherals you have, the seat you have, how big you want it to be, and possibly modify someone elses design to suit you. Heres some pics from today. You can see I moved the casters to outside the frame. It was too low before, scraping the ground a lot. They are 3" from bottom of wheel to the top of their mounting plate.
In reply to failboat :
Did you use metric or imperial to annotate you measurements
CAD? I made mine out wood from my scrap pile and an old seat I had. Only purchase was 4 casters so I can move it easily. Mostly plywood.
No need to overthink it unless it needs to look good based on which room of your house it will live in. Mine's in the garage, so I built it accordingly.
In reply to failboat :
Looks awesome bro! cant PM you yet but if you still have this on CAD file DWG that would be awesome, thanks man!
Mine went something Like this.
I want a cockpit but dont want to spend more than 100 bucks:
It was made to be able to hold a monitor, be its own separate thing from my gaming setup, be able to stand up as shown, and moveable. However it was extremely bulky and wide and I wasn't a fan of lifting up the 50-100 pounds each time. It also was a lot of wood and was longer than it needed to be, The plywood sides were also unnecessary for the amount of space I had.
A few months of on and off subpar engineering later:
I essentially at this point took everything apart and cut off 4 inches from each perpendicular facing or width wise boards. I swapped the support triangle to the back, changed the wheel mount to a angled 2x4 and used a similar shifter mount.
Then I got a t300RS GT and a ebay shifter and handbrake. and wanted to change a few things.
To start, I changed the pedal mount to two 1x4 boards that are adjusted for the proper pedal angle. I put two screws up the underside of the board so the pedals have two spots to lock on to without using bolts. I also moved the seat closer and leaned the rear of the seat back more. I redid my shifter and Handbrake mount so no more wiggling and its much more appropriately placed. Finally I jerry rigged a mount for my t300RS GT to avoid their crappy clamp by taking the plate off my F-GT Lite and attaching it to the mounting 2x4s, drilling some counterbore holes to allow bolts to go through the plate into the T300RS GT while being flush with the mounting 2x4.
So that is my subpar woodwork and engineering skills put to work. It has never been tested with a direct drive wheel but I think that would go fine.
25 dollars worth of 2x4s
60 dollar jegs Racing Seat
Wheel mounting plate from F-GT Lite
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