Convertible Desk/Rolling Rig

[Dennis_B1992]

Continuing from my introduction post:

https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/dennis-here.241411/

So I decided to go for the full set-up. I decided to spend the majority of the budget on the main components and stitch all of those together on a diy rig, made of wood. Both to save money and to allow for easy customization.

My main obstacle was space. I had build myself a large desk with lots of space and I didn't want sacrifice my desk in order to accommodate a racing rig next to it. So after much mental prototyping I decided to modify my desk and go for a rolling rig that fits under the desk which can be put away in an unused corner when not racing. Then I would find a way to rest a triple monitor setup on the desk itself.

My desk initially looked like this before I started the simracing mods. It wasn't even entirely finished when I changed my plans (I tend to design as I go along).

The desk is resting on two IKEA drawer cabinets, with additional anchoring in the walls. The desktop is 28mm of solid beech wood. It is easily able to support my weight.

One (maybe) obstacle in terms of space was the ancient Logitech Z-5500 subwoofer that was basically my footrest (I still use it though) whenever I was gaming. I was afraid this awkwardly sized box might be an obstacle for anything rolling underneath the desk. I intended to place this behind the drawers on the left, but the space was just a centimeter short. So I used some plywood and some of the leftover beech wood from the desktop to create a new enclosure for the subwoofer that fitted behind the drawers. In the end this was a bit unnecessary but I liked the project and I liked the end result.

I'm very happy with the presentation side of the end result. Don't be fooled though: Those bolts are black plastic bolt covers and the feet are just door stoppers (work well as damping feet). The overall sound characteristics of the subwoofer were of course changed by this mod, but luckily for the better.

I'll continue later. Don't worry, I will get to the actual simracing hardware eventually.

 

[Dennis_B1992]

The first things I ordered were two additional monitors. My initial monitor was a 31.5" 144hz 1440p monitor, so I needed two more of these. In hindsight I should have gone for three 1080p monitors which would have saved me a LOT of money, cause in order to run 3x 1440p at acceptable framerates you need a ridiculously beefy graphics card, which became the 3080.

To mount them to the desk I used the extruded aluminium profiles that we all use. One single bolt in the middle secures the frame to the desk and strips of pinewood underneath the aluminium frame protect the varnish on my desk. Yes, I did have to drill a hole in my desk in order to fit something to screw a bolt in, but since it's solid wood it can always be restored. This hole is hidden by my mousepad in 'desk mode'.

Those black things on the monitor mounts are VESA mount quick releases. The central monitor is to be swapped between this frame and its normal desk mount, the side monitors will be stored in another location. Behind the monitor in the photo, on the right, you can see a small wooden door/hatch. This would become the opening through which all the monitor cabling would go. When not in use, the cables would be stored behind this small door. I knew cable management would be one of the biggest challenges of having a movable setup. In hindsight, I could've made this opening a lot bigger to make setting it up more quick (The drawers only go until about 60% into the desk).

 

[Dennis_B1992]

The seat and the pedals had also arrived at this point, so I started on the rig itself. I'd like to point out straight away that I spend a lot of time on driving position and point of view and I still didn't get it right straight away.

The base is mostly built from wood beams and scrap wood I had laying around. It is resting on 8 wheels that are each rated for 20kgs. Some of these wheel have brakes that I engage whenever I have rolled the rig in place. I tried to put some angles into the design to make it look less like wood. The whole wooden structure is glued/screwed to make it as solid as possible.

Then it was covered by gluing on cheap floormat material. The cut edges of this material were colored with a black permanent marker (I was baffled at how well this worked). Covering the wood with this material was a surprisingly enjoyable part of this project.

The seat is one of the cheapest aftermarket car seats I could find, and it seems to work well for this purpose. The only downside is that the seating surface is very level (there's no angle/incline), I intend to move the pedals a little bit up and once I do, I foresee that this will become a comfort problem.

So that's the bottom of the rig finished. The small door stoppers on the foot-end will touch the wall when in position and ensures the same depth relative to the desk every time. The wheels and stoppers all have rubber to dampen any vibration. The seat has a regular seat adjustment so it can move back and forth. Pedals are Heusinkveld Sprint.

 

[Dennis_B1992]

Now onto the most important part: The wheel base. I chose a Simucube 2 wheelbase. Now this is a pretty powerful piece of equipment, so how would I mount this securely to a wooden frame? That's right: more wood. In order to make it strong I used a router to cut a pocket in yet another piece of 28mm solid beech wood and after carefully making the pocket bigger and bigger, I ended up with near perfect friction fit. Together with the bolts this is as secure as it gets with wood I guess.

This plate was bolted onto wooden beams which was bolted to the bottom base. Unfortunately, the steering wheel position was a bit too low. I was worried this might be the case which is why I tried mounting the wheelbase as close to the desk as possible, but it was still slightly low. Later, I was able to raise the steering wheel by a few centimeter by mounting it deeper and extending the shaft. This made only a few centimeters difference but it was exactly what it needed.

You'll see evidence of some things I'm still dealing with today:
- Temporary shift mount
- Where do I put my keyboard and mouse
- awkward place for e-stop

However! This was the first time I could use it. Actually, this would be my first time ever using a direct drive wheel base and all I can still say is WOW. It was at this point when the work slowed down due to the simple fact that it was finally usable.

One very welcome and unexpected surprise of this setup is the vibrations. I don't know how everybody else experiences this in their setups but the rubber damping around rig causes it to resonate with the wheelbase. I don't know what it's like to have tactile transducers, but I like to think I got a little taste of that.