I am into simracing for 1 and a half year now, which is rather short, but it feels like a hobby which I never found, but always needed.
I started with a PS3 Controller, then went to the Steam Controller and afterwards I got my Logitech G29 at christmas last year, since then I've absolutely fallen for it. I then noticed, that it is much easier to have a rig than having to find the right position on your desk. So I started to inform myself about rigs.
The pre-mounted and ready to assembly kits from Playseat were the first stop, but they were simply too expensive in my eyes. I looked up prices of metal bars to assemble my own rig from metal bars like many people have done before, but this way was nearly as expensive as the Playseat ones. I then spoke to my father who is keen on building stuff and asked him to help me building one, he came up with a wooden one. One of my christmas gifts this year was the assembly and the materials for the rig.
We started and put up little drawing and "blueprints" on how we could assemble the rig, with visual help from the internet, but there were no measurings of DIY rigs from people before, so we had to come up with our own ones.
After a few basic calculations (ok, I have to admit it took about 2-4 hours), we went to the hardware store and bought, what we needed. It was a bit tricky to find everything and we had to get the logs sawed by a professional in the store itself so it took us about 3 1/2 hours untill we finally left the store with (nearly, as we later discovered) everything.
This is, what we got:
Two Logs, which were 80x100x4000 millimeters. The first 4 meters were cut into 2x 1.5 metres (The foundation) and 2x 0.5 metres with an angle of 45 degrees on every side (pictures will show what I mean); We only needed one.
The second log was cut into 3x 0.6 meters (because we needed 10cm of extra-height for my table; Those are an extra-foundation), 2x 0.75 meters (the poles for the wheelbase), 1x 0.3 meters (the pole for the shifter-plate) and then the 40cm rest, which turned out perfectly useful.
We were lucky and got a perfect sawing-rest for all the plates we used. We cut them ourselves later on, this is what we used out of it:
- 350x22x535mm (Wheelbase-plate)
- 150x22x170mm (Shifter-plate)
- 400x22x460mm (Pedal-plate)
The screws we used were mainly wood-screws, we also got some metric ones for the wheelbase plate.
Metrics:
-6x M6x35 (To screw the pedal-box to its plate)
-4x M6x100 (As shown in the picture, we used screws, which are better to be removed) (To screw the poles to the wheelbase-plate)
Wood (6 point screws)
-4x 8x120 (To screw the pedal-plate to the foundation)
-8x 8x140 (To screw the poles to the foundation and to screw the shifter-ploe to the foundation)
-6x 10x150 (To screw the foundation on the extra-foundation)
-4x 6x120 (The screws you need for your seat-console, my father still had his)
Nuts:
-4x M6 welf nuts
- A washer for every six point screw
Nearly every screwhead (except the one for the angled-log to foundation screws) is purposly bought with a big head (6 point head), so you can unscrew it easyly. We bought too many on purpose, so we have some spare ones if one is damaged in any ways during the process of building.
The seat we used is an old, original Recaro KBA 90024, which my father used in his beloved Renault 5 Alpine Turbo.
IMPORTANT: The gap in between the foundation logs is heavily depending on the width of the seat or seat-console!
Now that I listed everything you need (except the right tools, of course), I can start by explaining the process of building.
Just a small disclaimer: Everything is measured excactly for my length. I won't give you the distances and points to screw, because it's better to personalize it. It won't take long and you'll have to do it anyway.
It may not seem to take that long, but it really does. We spent around 4 hours on the first day for step 1-3. On the second day, it took us 5 hours to get from step 4-6 because of screws, which were missing. The last steps were about 2 hours, but all taken togehter it took us longer than we expected. One really understimates the time of perfection and measurement.
Step 1: We screwed the seat-console on the end of the 1.5m logs, this makes the foundation. We then put the three 60cm log underneath it to lift it up, but we didn't screw them on yet to be a little bit more flexible.
Step 2: I sat in the seat and we got the two 75cm poles and the wheel to estimate, where they should be screwed on the sides of the foundation. We chose to use the same, thick wood to assure more stability. More is better than less in that regard...
We then pre-drilled completely through the poles (with a wider drill) and screwed them on the side of the half-pre-drilled foundation (much smaller diameter than crew).
Step 3: The third step was to create a moveable wheel-plate, so anyone can adjust it how they prefer. That's why we chose to use metric screws with those specific nuts (welf nuts), which are being hammered in the plate. We planned to do the middle position at first and then the other positions. Starting by drilling holes in the poles and then we marked holes for the plate. We were really careful when marking and drilling, but it still turned out to be quite difficult to really nail it to create eight holes that fit perfectly. We really struggled to properly screw both parts together (even after multiple corrections) so we decided to leave it that way. The position of the wheel was good enough and we originally planed it to be able to switch positions quickly, but there is no sense in doing so if you need two people and 10 minutes to change it each time.
Step 4: Now that the wheel was built on, we focused on the shifter. We just put the 30cm log next to the pole on the right side (as I am from Germany) and screwed it on with one screw, two would have been unnecessary. Afterwards we screwed the plate on top and it was done.
Step 5: Up fifth was the construction of the pedal-plate, which kind of was pure improvisation, so we took a long time to plan it.
While planing it, we discovered, that the six screws for the pedal boxs were missing, we didn't buy any. At the time it was about 11:30pm, so no store had opened. Additionally, the next day was a sunday, so there was no way of buying any. My father then contacted a friend, which provided them... I'll just write down, how the step can be made if you know where everything has to be, we were proceeding a little bit slower and different, because we had to think without the screws.
Step 6: First of, we had to disassembly the pedal box to take notes on the assembly holes for the pedals itself, then we measured the space, which was needed for them to fit on the plate. After sawing the plate, we drilled the six holes into the plate and reassembled the pedals to screw them onto the plate.
Step 7: To get the right angle we used the 40cm log, which was rest. Those 40cm had a perfect fit to fit in between the two foundation poles. After checking, that everything was alright and fitting, we screwed the log in between the two foundation logs.
Step 8: Now it was time to screw on the pedalbox. We measured the perfect fit and position for the screws and screwed the plate in the perfect angle in between the foundation like the 40cm log before. There is no need to screw the pedal-plate onto the log, the angled log from step 9 provides enough stability while braking, we tested it as well. (Note: I am using modded pedals, I have to create about 35Kg of braking power to brake, so it will be more than enough for the normal 10Kg of the stock-G29 pedals)
Step 9: After testing the stability, we still needed something underneath the projecting plate. We still had those two logs with their 45 degree angle, which we didn't need anymore because we wanted it to support the two 75cm poles, which were already stable enough. We then took one of them and clipped/pressed it in between the plate and the foundation. Afterwards we screwed it on top of the foundation to prevent it from moving too much.
These are all steps that we took while builing the rig. We are more than satisfied with the result, it works perfectly. I really like the wooden look, but there is the possibility of painting it if you want to.
So in the end, what did it cost? Well, it is less than we thought.
- 2x 80x100x4000mm logs: 15,00 Euro per log
- 1x rest for the plates: 3,00 Euro
- All screws: 10,00 Euro
So in conclusion: about 43,00 Euro (Without the seat and with many working hours)
I hope you liked the description, feel free to ask questions, if there are any!
I started with a PS3 Controller, then went to the Steam Controller and afterwards I got my Logitech G29 at christmas last year, since then I've absolutely fallen for it. I then noticed, that it is much easier to have a rig than having to find the right position on your desk. So I started to inform myself about rigs.
The pre-mounted and ready to assembly kits from Playseat were the first stop, but they were simply too expensive in my eyes. I looked up prices of metal bars to assemble my own rig from metal bars like many people have done before, but this way was nearly as expensive as the Playseat ones. I then spoke to my father who is keen on building stuff and asked him to help me building one, he came up with a wooden one. One of my christmas gifts this year was the assembly and the materials for the rig.
We started and put up little drawing and "blueprints" on how we could assemble the rig, with visual help from the internet, but there were no measurings of DIY rigs from people before, so we had to come up with our own ones.
After a few basic calculations (ok, I have to admit it took about 2-4 hours), we went to the hardware store and bought, what we needed. It was a bit tricky to find everything and we had to get the logs sawed by a professional in the store itself so it took us about 3 1/2 hours untill we finally left the store with (nearly, as we later discovered) everything.
This is, what we got:
Two Logs, which were 80x100x4000 millimeters. The first 4 meters were cut into 2x 1.5 metres (The foundation) and 2x 0.5 metres with an angle of 45 degrees on every side (pictures will show what I mean); We only needed one.
The second log was cut into 3x 0.6 meters (because we needed 10cm of extra-height for my table; Those are an extra-foundation), 2x 0.75 meters (the poles for the wheelbase), 1x 0.3 meters (the pole for the shifter-plate) and then the 40cm rest, which turned out perfectly useful.
We were lucky and got a perfect sawing-rest for all the plates we used. We cut them ourselves later on, this is what we used out of it:
- 350x22x535mm (Wheelbase-plate)
- 150x22x170mm (Shifter-plate)
- 400x22x460mm (Pedal-plate)
The screws we used were mainly wood-screws, we also got some metric ones for the wheelbase plate.
Metrics:
-6x M6x35 (To screw the pedal-box to its plate)
-4x M6x100 (As shown in the picture, we used screws, which are better to be removed) (To screw the poles to the wheelbase-plate)
Wood (6 point screws)
-4x 8x120 (To screw the pedal-plate to the foundation)
-8x 8x140 (To screw the poles to the foundation and to screw the shifter-ploe to the foundation)
-6x 10x150 (To screw the foundation on the extra-foundation)
-4x 6x120 (The screws you need for your seat-console, my father still had his)
Nuts:
-4x M6 welf nuts
- A washer for every six point screw
Nearly every screwhead (except the one for the angled-log to foundation screws) is purposly bought with a big head (6 point head), so you can unscrew it easyly. We bought too many on purpose, so we have some spare ones if one is damaged in any ways during the process of building.
The seat we used is an old, original Recaro KBA 90024, which my father used in his beloved Renault 5 Alpine Turbo.
IMPORTANT: The gap in between the foundation logs is heavily depending on the width of the seat or seat-console!
Now that I listed everything you need (except the right tools, of course), I can start by explaining the process of building.
Just a small disclaimer: Everything is measured excactly for my length. I won't give you the distances and points to screw, because it's better to personalize it. It won't take long and you'll have to do it anyway.
It may not seem to take that long, but it really does. We spent around 4 hours on the first day for step 1-3. On the second day, it took us 5 hours to get from step 4-6 because of screws, which were missing. The last steps were about 2 hours, but all taken togehter it took us longer than we expected. One really understimates the time of perfection and measurement.
Step 1: We screwed the seat-console on the end of the 1.5m logs, this makes the foundation. We then put the three 60cm log underneath it to lift it up, but we didn't screw them on yet to be a little bit more flexible.
Step 2: I sat in the seat and we got the two 75cm poles and the wheel to estimate, where they should be screwed on the sides of the foundation. We chose to use the same, thick wood to assure more stability. More is better than less in that regard...
We then pre-drilled completely through the poles (with a wider drill) and screwed them on the side of the half-pre-drilled foundation (much smaller diameter than crew).
Step 3: The third step was to create a moveable wheel-plate, so anyone can adjust it how they prefer. That's why we chose to use metric screws with those specific nuts (welf nuts), which are being hammered in the plate. We planned to do the middle position at first and then the other positions. Starting by drilling holes in the poles and then we marked holes for the plate. We were really careful when marking and drilling, but it still turned out to be quite difficult to really nail it to create eight holes that fit perfectly. We really struggled to properly screw both parts together (even after multiple corrections) so we decided to leave it that way. The position of the wheel was good enough and we originally planed it to be able to switch positions quickly, but there is no sense in doing so if you need two people and 10 minutes to change it each time.
Step 4: Now that the wheel was built on, we focused on the shifter. We just put the 30cm log next to the pole on the right side (as I am from Germany) and screwed it on with one screw, two would have been unnecessary. Afterwards we screwed the plate on top and it was done.
Step 5: Up fifth was the construction of the pedal-plate, which kind of was pure improvisation, so we took a long time to plan it.
While planing it, we discovered, that the six screws for the pedal boxs were missing, we didn't buy any. At the time it was about 11:30pm, so no store had opened. Additionally, the next day was a sunday, so there was no way of buying any. My father then contacted a friend, which provided them... I'll just write down, how the step can be made if you know where everything has to be, we were proceeding a little bit slower and different, because we had to think without the screws.
Step 6: First of, we had to disassembly the pedal box to take notes on the assembly holes for the pedals itself, then we measured the space, which was needed for them to fit on the plate. After sawing the plate, we drilled the six holes into the plate and reassembled the pedals to screw them onto the plate.
Step 7: To get the right angle we used the 40cm log, which was rest. Those 40cm had a perfect fit to fit in between the two foundation poles. After checking, that everything was alright and fitting, we screwed the log in between the two foundation logs.
Step 8: Now it was time to screw on the pedalbox. We measured the perfect fit and position for the screws and screwed the plate in the perfect angle in between the foundation like the 40cm log before. There is no need to screw the pedal-plate onto the log, the angled log from step 9 provides enough stability while braking, we tested it as well. (Note: I am using modded pedals, I have to create about 35Kg of braking power to brake, so it will be more than enough for the normal 10Kg of the stock-G29 pedals)
Step 9: After testing the stability, we still needed something underneath the projecting plate. We still had those two logs with their 45 degree angle, which we didn't need anymore because we wanted it to support the two 75cm poles, which were already stable enough. We then took one of them and clipped/pressed it in between the plate and the foundation. Afterwards we screwed it on top of the foundation to prevent it from moving too much.
These are all steps that we took while builing the rig. We are more than satisfied with the result, it works perfectly. I really like the wooden look, but there is the possibility of painting it if you want to.
So in the end, what did it cost? Well, it is less than we thought.
- 2x 80x100x4000mm logs: 15,00 Euro per log
- 1x rest for the plates: 3,00 Euro
- All screws: 10,00 Euro
So in conclusion: about 43,00 Euro (Without the seat and with many working hours)
I hope you liked the description, feel free to ask questions, if there are any!
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