That's nice LocNar. I'm so envious of the skills you guys have. My project is going to look much more ghetto.

My eldest helped me cut some wood on Saturday and we glued together a very rough simile of a MG.
The MG will be mounted on an upside-down skateboard truck for the vertical axis.

I haven't yet decided what the skateboard truck will be bolted to, but I'm thinking that an inverted "lazy-susan" (those rotating platters sitting on a ring) might work for the horizontal axis.

Pictures to follow...

C_G

You could use pots or rotary hall sensors on the rig you described as well. Who cares if it looks ghetto, it sounds like it will be pretty fun to use! Needs recoil "ffb"

Funny you should mention that Spogooter, the guy who makes the AimTrak unit actually offers a RECOIL UNIT for an additional USD$29. I'm not sure, however, what drives the FFB, so it may only work with gun games and not with flightsims. Edit: the recoil is completely independent from software- the solenoid is directly connected to the trigger-switch. This would work.

I try use the smallest ones I get cheaply can since the loads are light and I'm always trying to keep bulk of mechanisms down. These are 1/4" ID x 11/16 x 5/64 http://www.vxb.com/TC411-Thrust-Needle-Roller-1-4-x11-16-x5-64-inch-p/kit12472.htm and just use my own washers. My radial bearings have 3/16 ID so I use an o-ring on the shaft screw bring the id up to 1/4 for the thrust bearings.

Some progress pictures:

The mg (wood from a dishwasher delivery crate) cut and glued to size.


The mg with cut-outs for the skateboard truck. Had to buy a new 2 1/8" hole saw, worked a charm



Vertical travel sufficient

The lazy-susan is a good idea in principle (flat, wide base, inexpensive) but the ones I've seen so far have very bad bearings (not smooth, probably not durable enough for my three kids).
I have the other skateboard truck which I could mount vertically, but I dunno...
Any ideas?

Sitting here on my chair at the office I had any epiphany: the central post of a junked office chair.

I may be able to find one at a Value Village/Sally Ann. I see them thrown out on garbage day semi-regularly, but I don't want to wait that long. A chair post will certainly be smooth and sturdy enough.
EDIT: my local kijiji/Craigslist are filled with old office chairs being offered for free.

In other news, the AimTrak device should be delivered either today or tomorrow. I'll test the unit itself out to see how well the tech works even though it doesn't look like the MG itself will be ready in time.

Chair base is a good idea! If you find a plastic one you could cut the legs short and bolt them right to...something.

Got a cheap office chair at Sally Ann:




Slapped on the gun!



It works and is sturdy, stable and heavy. Not pretty, but this is a pig we'll slap some lipstick on!

In other news, the Aimtrak OEM package arrived. The soldering is going to be a challenge... Such tiny contacts!
Lots of work left to do, but the mechanical side is sorted. Electronics and aesthetics left

Just looking for an update, as I am thinking of trying this with my kids as well. Wondering how the light gun was responding in game.(especially IL2 BOS)

Me too, but more because I want to see this monstrosity of a gun

Not much progress, sadly.

I've only added some handles (Stark Enterprises subcontractor is resting after installation work):


At the bottom are the pins which held the casters to the chair, my son suggested that they look like bullets so we'll be incorporating them into the design

@ Grendelsdad: I have received but not tried the electronics yet. The Aintrak unit is capable of 6 7 buttons, which is perfect (switch to gunner, close canopy, reload gun, turret: take control, look down sight, trigger), but 4 of the contacts are going to take some precision soldering and I haven't psyched myself up to it yet...

Next I'll be attaching a piece of 3/4" copper pipe, aka the barrel, in which the Aimtrak unit will eventually be installed, and determining switch placement and wire routing.

Why not put two pipes the shorter n top of the long .
like this

I could. I'm not really going trying to make a replica MG (as I'm sure you've guessed !)- I'm going more for the "concept" of a MG for the kids' imagination to build on.

Also, the barrel is going to be fairly short for a couple of technical and practical reasons. The AimTrak unit has to be at least 2' away from the monitor which means that the longer the barrel is, the further the MG has to be positioned away; also, as I don't intend to take the unit apart, it has to be relatively compact for storage.

The "barrel" is a 6" length of 3/4" copper piping. It is hollow- to place the AimTrak unit in, and sturdy enough to protect the unit should the whole thing fall to the ground due to an over-enthousiastic defense/fighting over whose "my-turn!" it is. I'm going to cut a 4" piece out of the center piece and secure the pipe so that only about 2" will be protruding from the front. A hole will be drilled through the wood at the bottom for the wiring to pass through to an old telephone wire junction box, and from there to the various switches.

I've got a pretty good idea of where I'm going and have all the necessary tools... just not enough time to do it!

Some progress on the weekend.
Looks pretty "steampunk" atm:




The AimTrak unit is in. I hope my soldering is OK... Haven't tested the electronics at all yet. Just initial fitting at this stage.

:



Wires routed through the bottom... Three cables: USB + 4 wires + 4 wires. Hole drilled at 45 degrees:



The "breech block lever" will actuate a switch similar to the one in the photograph. The switch will obviously activate the "reload" command. The switch will not be located as in the photo, but will be secured in a slot underneath the path of travel of the bolt. In addition, an extension spring will be attached to the bolt to return it to a forward position on release and provide some resistance to use.





Here is a (rather bad) photo of the right handle, removed to carve out a space for a trigger switch. My eldest son wants a second switch in the left handle, unnecessary but easy to wire in parallel so I'll likely do it, in fact as I suspect they'll be trigger happy I may wire them in series to reduce ammo waste

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Finally here is a phone junction box. As it has 8 terminals it is perfect (7 switches + 1 common ground) to simplify things a little.




That's it for this weekend... Next week I should have time to wire the switches and test it out.

Love it!

Looks awesome!

Thanks guys! Glad you appreciate it

I think it will look a lot better once I cover the skateboard wheels and give it a couple of coats of paint. The kids are already having fun with it just swinging it around and making rat-a-tat-tat sounds so "mission partially accomplished" so far.

Wish I had more spare time to move it along faster... I just need another 2-3 hours to get all the switches and wiring done; then I can test the electronics. If that works, it won't take long to take apart, sand, prime and paint.

Then I have to make a second game-box to run the gunner position off... But that's for later and for a different thread.

C_G