A Pit Finally?

Had quite some family events... a bit of health issue... so I haven't worked on my hobby for awhile.

Anyway, over the labor day weekend, I started a new build... as usual, always WIP. This is just stage 1, to get it functional. There will be improvements down the road, depending on the experience using it.

I built this mainly because of my health problem causing my calve to hurt when sitting on an office chair reaching out for the rudder pedals. That posture is just no good for me. So, I build this thing such that I can sit low down at the pedal level, just like in a jet fighter.

Basically, it's built around a sliding racing chair bought from Amazon. It's a chair made by Ikon. So, no center mount stick! The base is made with 80/20's 15 series aluminum extrusion. The panel rails are built with 10 series extrusion. Other than the corner brackets and standard 10/20-series nuts, the rest of the brackets are made on my CNC mill. A drill press would do, but I have the CNC mill, why not?

It's also built on two wheel "trucks" which are built with 4x4" Cedar posts, 1/4" thick aluminum plates, and 4x office chair caster wheels. The Cedar posts are just there to boost the seat height and increase lateral stability. This way, I have some hope of seeing the screen and barely able to reach for the keyboard.

Unfortunately, it isn't able to go further under the table, nor the height able to be boosted higher. The height restriction is due to the stupid tall TM TPR. Once my own rudder pedal is in operation, the height will be much less. And it's not able to go further under the table because the cross bracing truss of the table is in the way.... so, I will have to figure a way to move the keyboard and mouse to the pit.

Anyway, as you can see, there is provision on the panel rails for future expansion. The most urgent is probably the keyboard/mouse mount and perhaps a front rail for mounting TM's Boeing yoke, and perhaps driving wheel for playing Gran Turismo.