What I would do in your case.... build the shifter to be a support for the steering wheel as well as an arm rest/cup holder. (I know from my gaming days I was always looking for somewhere to put my drink) You could even use one of those cheap ebay clamp on cup holders that they sell for bike handlebars.

if you don't want it to impede leg room have it come straight down and then over to the main frame, but add some flat gussets on it. its not going to see a ton of force that 1x1 wont be able to handle, so flat non triangulated gussets will work fine for the larger shell and prevent sharp angles that you might stub a toe on or something similar in the heat of the battle.

 

Consider those arcade car games and their shifter placements. That's how I would set mine up. Strictly because its both an arcade. Shifter placement that way isn't set on realism but more on how other arcade systems are setup.

Plus that gives you reasoning when your buddies complain and you can say you built it the same as something else that already exists and that it wasn't tailored directly towards your reach, etc.

 

Were it me, I'd put everything exactly where it'd be on the car that I use for track days, regardless of how ideal the positioning is. A little extra muscle memory can't hurt.

 

Here's my welding table.


1' x 2' x .062" aluminum sheet that I lay on top of my plywood workbench.

 

How well do your welding magnets stick to that?

 

You have to buy the special non-ferrous magnets.

 

They wouldn't. you know that.

for what Tim uses is fine.
My welding table is an old work bench that was in my garage when I bought it, then I layed a 2' by 1.5' steel sheet (0.1" thick) on top. would be nice to have a full metal table, but I don't need much more than I have in all reality right now.

 

What the hell is a welding magnet? Serious. I'll assume it holds together two mild steel pieces at a common angle? That's like, never for me.

I'd say 80% of the time whatever I'm welding is in my vice. It's one of those fantastic vices that spin completely around. Buy one. Mine is a legit Wilton that I got from Lowes for some HF like price, but the HF version seems similar.

18% i'm welding on my aluminum sheet, and the rest is when it's attached to an old '99 head. Those are great heat sinks for welding the primaries to the head flange.

Everything I use is in this picture, except the HF horizontal band saw. A bench grinder barely visible behind the welding mask is bolted to it's own piece of plywood, that's clamped to the bench "so i can move it out of the way", which I have never done.

 

Is that stainless or steel? Flanges are stainless too?

 

My welding table was just a sheet of mild steel over my plywood workbench. I wanted the workbench space back, so I built the table. Eventually I will build a bigger table with wheels that is movable.

 

That's shuiend's stainless steel manifold, yes flanges included.



Ahh ok. Makes sense, I'd probably have a separate welding table if I had the room.

 

My setup at the new house. I think i lost a box of supplies in the move. :( Take note the magnet is still in it's packaging. haha

Now that i'm no longer going to be welding for a living, i'll be moving some of my fabrication tools home.

Anyone have any ideas for a clamping system? I've seen people drill holes and use some type of clamp. I could always drill holes and tap them for toe clamps.
I still need to mount my vice.

Spin vice is absolute win.

 

I got a badass Wilton vice off craigslist a while back, mounted to my work bench/welding table. Only thing I don't like is it has the rough jaws which will F up stuff, I have to put a pair of angle iron pieces in there to sandwich whatever I'm working on so it doesn't get indentations from the vice's teeth. I saw a set of magnetic rubber jaw shoes at the industrial supply store that I might pick up, that would be sweet, but I couldn't weld stuff clamped in the rubber, it would melt them :(

 

You can't unscrew the teeth and put some smooth pieces in there?

 

I have some big monster vice that I got on my steel table. The tabled had "fallen out of the truck while it was being moved from the dudes shop to storage" (yeah sure, I'm sure it was stolen), and the collar on the vce shaft had broken off so you could just spin the crank out. After $7 to mcmaster and a couple hours cleaning it, its like a new vice. I also need to make some jaw guards out of brass or copper cause my jaws dont unscrew and they're all textured.

 

I ended up putting the shifter just right off to the side of the steering wheel.


This is how it looks without the steering wheel and shifter attached. I went and stood on the mount for the steering wheel and it hardly moved. I am doubtful I will break it while sim racing.


In the man cave in front of my tiny monitor. I will bring out the bigger TV when I am ready to actually race.

 

Brass vice jaw cap.

 

Ooh, a thread after my own interests. I haven't done much but a few things I've done over the years:

Honda CR80 2-stroke to CRF100 four stroke conversion bike:

Cutting out a broken section of frame


Replacement section welded in


Original down tube and lower section cut out


New custom lower frame


With engine mounted up


Custom mounted CRF100 plastics on modded CR80 chassis


Some miata stuff:

Intake for top mount manifold welded from some old bits of aluminum



Down pipe


That's most of the good stuff. I'll take a pic of the welding bench I built a little while back some time and post that up too.

 

Why?!

 

Fun. The 2-stroke is far more powerful but it has a power band like a light switch and no torque to speak of.

For a year or so I got into running XR100's and what not with some friends tearing up the smaller tracks and farm fields. Two or more adults racing on 100cc bikes is a hoot. This was just my way of building the ultimate full suspension mini 4-stroke play bike.

I ended up selling it and last I saw it had been converted to a motard for racing on go-kart tracks.