TL;DR: I'm working on a flight seat designed to be CNC machined out of a single sheet of 4x8 plywood.
I've been toying with the idea of putting together a low-budget sim pit for some time now. I started where I imagine a lot of us did - modifying my existing home office - making makeshift Warthog mounts for my office chair, developing weird oblique muscles trying counteract the chair swivel when I use the rudder. The usual. Lately though, I've been craving a more permanent solution.
Originally I was considering removing the base from an existing office chair and mounting it onto a shorter, fixed base but I could never manage to strike a comfortable balance between "way too hacked-together" and "just make the whole seat, idiot."
So I'm just gonna go ahead and make the whole seat.
I borrowed a book from a co-worker published by Make: called "Design For CNC," read it from cover-to cover and set out to model a flight seat in sketchup to be milled out on a CNC router.
The Specs:Single thickness substrate only.
3/4" thick plywood.
Single bit/head.
Through-cuts only. No multi-layer milling.
Single bit (1/8" dia)
Easy assembly-low/no fastener. There's a lot of snap-together type joinery.
Sized to my frame (~5'9").
Adjustable foot/pedal-reach.
Easily modifiable model (different
HOTAS mounting options and configurations or height/build)
Left/right hand dominant agnostic.
Bonus: Cut the whole thing out of a single standard sheet of 4x8' plywood or two 4x4' sheets (depending on mill size)
Here's the result after several design iterations:
[img]
https://drive.google.com/open?id=19uBnJ7w8IpXvMUrNO7X-i_o3IYBVnvJ6[/img]
I know center stick would be better for the Warthog but A: No way in hell I'm spending $180 on an aluminum tube (Sorry Sahaj. It isn't because I don't want one.) and B: if 100% accurate is what you're looking for, it's probably to admit this project isn't for you. My main goal is reproducing cockpit ergonomics, not complete immersion.
Padding: the Seat is 18" wide so you could use a 2" thick outdoor chaise lounge pad (upside down) in a pinch, but I'll probably sew my own pads out of marine vinyl upholstery. Thanks for the skills, Ma.
Also, Sailrite has a YouTube tutorial that made me wonder why the həll I never made my own custom cushions before.
Measurements: I started with the side-view of the F-18 pit and base my basic measurements off that. Adjusted the height fit my eye-line height and the width to be a little more forgiving.
How will you even…!?: I have access to a CNC mill at my work and a bevy of equally nerdy and enthusiastic co-workers.
That's where I'm at! Burning questions? Important suggestions? What am I missing? I don't think I'll be able to make this onto the mill until early 2018 but I'll happily share the model and cut files once I'm confident that everything isn't going to fall apart underneath me like a cartoon. I'm also working on a simple monitor/keyboard stand but one thing at a time.
EDIT: Added a center-stick vairant with mouse platform, extended and notched the seatpan.
EDIT: Added a second, center-stick variant. This one for a floor-mount center stick. Also added additional fore/aft adjustability for both the throttle and stick.
[img]
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Rl1GXwAtHL-IRofEqBzoauJyYZSRJ-fH[/img]
[img]
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PewwlJgbRUq3daoh_cpf4MtATpO0OcNk[/img]
TANGENT EDIT: I'm stress testing a 3D printed Warthog extender that plugs into a length of 1" PVC. Very leery of designs that have fixed lengths with this project:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ebZKv7KCyuWz-UJXFJRx3Vln0MM1j1hm