46 replies to this topic

[Gevurah]

So ...

I had some spare lumber, a small budget, and a dream. I also have some power tools and a wife willing to put up with my nonsense.

Foreward: I grew up loving battletech and always wanting to try out a tesla pod. I'm also a pretty craptastic carpenter.

It started with some pretty terrible pictures on the back of some lined paper. Then I hastily began cutting wood. I didn't even care that much about measuring 2x and cutting once. I'm good at cutting and measuring. Mostly. Surely that hastiness won't come back to *******, right?

(Actually it already has, more than once - but hell, like that would stop me)

so requisite pictures (I'll spare you the previous three as they're pretty boring):



(Don't mind the mess - it's a basement and it'll get cleaned .. you know.. someday)


These are the opening photo pictures, just building the frame.
I'll put tonight's pictures up. I've already boxed in the frame completely and begun paneling in 5/16th's MDF I got on sale @ home depot.

I'm going for a centurion-style cockpit (gonna be tough to pull off, but is doable)


Stuff I have available: old as dirt but awesome altec lansing 80w computer speaker setup w/40w sub. That's going under my seat.
Nostromo n52 - live and die by this thing. Great for MWO.
Logitech G15 keyboard (original w/ blue lights).
Computer, duh. It's nothing special. Best part is a 460GTX.
1 single 20in monitor, hoping to collimate the display with a fresnel if I can find one in the appropriate size.The real trick is going to be incorporate the various electronics components and my arduino as a secondary set of controls. I'm hoping to add some interesting gizmos. If I get REALLY proficient I'm going to find a use for my spare sharp SL-5600. I want to use the mini display as at worst a map-loader or for visual bling, as it were.

Ace in the hole - my wife is a professional artist and I *MIGHT* be able to con her into helping me deco this thing. That'd be awesome. Assuming she doesn't kill me first.

[Gevurah]

Side note, I've already framed this thing and begun putting the MDF on it, but discovered last night that apparently I screwed up measurements on the bottom cross-braces by .5 inches. Not sure how this happened, but I can guess. TOTALLY wasn't my fault (snicker). But yeah. I guess I"ll just have to live with it. It makes my work harder because I have to custom fit the front/back panelling by angling it slightly to compensate for my durp-dee-durp. Overall though, it's not a total disaster so I'm plowing forward. I'll have more updated pictures up tomorrow.

I think I'm going to have the most difficulty with the interior, but we'll see. I want to keep it simple and modular and have some ideas on how to do so. I'd like to give it a relative look/feel of a centurion cockpit but that's easier said than done.

[Loc Nar]

Nice! Always love seeing someone take the plunge and building a pit. In case you haven't seen these, here is a thread with most of the current MWO pits in them, with links to the threads (feel free to stop by and say hi!), and another that needs to be added (as well as yours...).

Looking forward to seeing/reading more progress, gl,hf!

[Gevurah]

Thanks for the heads up, wow some of those pits are truly intimidating. I won't be matching anything like that anytime soon.

This mostly started because I hate my desk with a passion. Can't find a picture of it. It's the most poorly designed piece of crap ever. Well no, sorry, it's well designed in every respect.. except gaming. Is it compact? Sure. Efficient? You betcha. Is it comfortable to sit at and play games? Not in the friggin least. On top of that, I hate using headphones all the time. PC is adjacent to my toddlers room, so I can't use my good speakers. I want the thump of a bassy sub to make me feel the hits of an AC/srm volley as it rattles my fillings. So that, coupled with my love of all things MW/BT and desire to play in a tesla pod lead me on this quest

[Gevurah]

This is the latest. Cut and fit the MDF for the rear panels to the device. I don't mind a little wood sticking out as I'm going to just cover that with decorative nonsense afterwards or paint it in so it looks appropriate. I also have another side panel beginning installation but it's obstructed by the back panels in terms of view. The MDF is held in place by 1 inch finishing nails (leftover from when I added wood trim to the bedroom ceiling and floor).

[Gevurah]

Another update.

Coming together. Roof is getting installed, working on the door area as well.





Starting to actually look like a real honest to god mechpit

[von Pilsner]

NIce, keep it up!

[repete]

Heya gevurah. Do you mind if I add your pit to the summary thread here? I'll just grab your best 'overall' shot or perhaps if you wanted to add a pic which you were happy to have as your representative image at this stage. Any plans you can share on how the final design will look? I'm curious how your door/hatch would work. Any thoughts on what mech the design would be inspired by?

Edited by repete, 05 February 2013 - 12:35 PM.

[Gevurah]

Since it's still a WIP, I don't mind but it's coming along. So that shot will need updated from time to time

I don't mind you adding it though.

The mechbay was inspired by the old fasa simulators/tesla sims. So the buttons will be similar, layout similar if I can help it. The physical design is hopefully going to end up looking somewhat like either a dragon or centurion cockpit. At this stage it's looking more dragony and less centurion-y but we'll see.

The door is going to be a simple hinged door with an angled bottom. I'll see if I can scrounge together a design plan or something but I'm more interested in finishing it up lol.

This project is mostly to show what someone with a minimum of carpentry experience can do. I'm not some professional builder, I've never really done anything significant with woodworking. I had some stuff lying around and help my wife make picture frames/cut hardboard for her to paint on. I took some scraps, 8 pieces of mdf from home depot and went at it with a plan drawn on a piece of used printer paper.

Today's update:

I figured out how I wanted to build the interior. Measured out the height of the legs and began. Discovered a minor problem with one of the front cross braces which somehow had managed to be .25 inches off, but it was throwing the whole frame off kilter. Pulled it out, cut it down, nailed it back in place. Installed first stage of interior - i.e. something for me to put my computer on and play and... holy crap. It was awesome. The subwoofer shakes the seat when I fire pulse lasers or anything loud. You feel the stomps and the enclosed cockpit is completely immersive, despite the tiny 18.5 inch screen (waiting for slightly larger screen).

[Gevurah]

Tools used for those who are interested:
(stuff I had)
Sandpaper
A hacksaw that's teeth are too big for the job I'm using it for
A small lightweight hammer (too small, but for some reason the other 2 I had around the house walked off)
A table saw (not necessary, but cuts down time)
A jigsaw in dire need of a newer, straighter blade - This is extremely useful though I can't use it as much due to the blade issue. Mostly I just use it for cuts on the MDF.
A drill (more like 4 drills. I guess over the years they started breeding). Mostly I just use an 18v cordless I have.
Square, t-square, level.
Table Miter saw, though if I didn't have this I'd have bought a better hacksaw and a miter box.

2x4's, nails, screws, some plywood, and some masonite/hardboard boards (my wife uses them for painting but some were too thin/too thick to be used for paintings).



(Stuff I bought)
A framing hammer (21oz) - 10 dollars. What a difference a framing hammer makes for putting together 2x4's.
A hole saw (1") - 5ish.

The first few nights were actually done wholly with the hacksaw and hammer. Then I said "yeah the exercise is great, but this is taking too long" and started using my heavier equipment.

Total cost at this point out of pocket has been about 80 dollars. MOST of that went into the 5/16" MDF.

[Gevurah]

Continuing panelling. Minor gapping issues but frankly I don't care enough to sit there and do much about. Mostly just fitting it together and saying to myself "I'll clean it up later." Probably with modelling clay, sandpaper, and paint.

So I've been playing the semi-built pod now for about half a week. First few considerations:

1) My chair squeaks like crazy on the concrete floor, no casters sucks. Going to have to do something about that.
2) Interior room is good, but is definitely going to be as hard or harder than I expected to configure appropriately.
3) My basement is seriously, seriously cold. My wife has some insulation she was using for a mask-making project I've been permitted to use so I'll be lining the interior with that. I'll also be configuring my PC to act as a 'heater' but pumping the hot air into the mechpit from the front. (We'll just say it's being heated by the fusion engine).
4) I need to finish panelling the exterior and then work on the interior. I also need an interior light, even if temporary.

[Eyecon69]

The weekend is coming.. I expect updates!!!

[Gevurah]

As you can see the chair is fitted, the upper right section is closed off. I'm going to use trim pieces to cover up my crappy cutting(s). There's a lot of reasons for this, primarily that I'm bad with wood and also working around a short timeframe (which makes me rush). The last factor is I'm really limiting my budget. I'm short on panels and wood so I'm making every misshapen piece of scrap work, whether it wants to or not. So far I'm out about 80 dollars, plus 20 for some additional tools, and ~30 dollars or so in wood I already had (2x4's and 2 sheets of plywood + some hardboard/masonite scraps)

Once it's fully paneled I'll go back and assess the damage. It's not too bad though there are 1-2 pieces which I might pull up and completely redo.

That said... playing in this thing is already awesome. Firing a pulse laser is like listening to dubstep on a 1000w speaker system ... WUB WUB WUB. The enclosed space really amplifies the bassy feel of heavy sounds.

The more time I spend in this, the more I realize it's going to be a dragon cockpit, which necessitates redoing some designs for the interior cockpit. I did, however, find a whole mess of switches over at sparkfun which I'll order for another 20-30 dollars in cost. Should be awesome, but that part is going to take a while. For now the priority is get it paneled and start laying out the interior.

[Eyecon69]

HA HA HA Ya I bet the sound in it would sound pretty epic.

If your on a budget try looking at thrift shops and recyclers. There is a place by where I live called restore and they have tons of fantastic stuff you can reuse. I've picked up a bunch of pieces I'm going to look to use to my mech pit. Its cold winter outside, I'm also on a pretty stiff budget as I just moved and rent is stupid where I live so I'll probably wait a month or two before I try anything crazy like an enlosed deal. I'm also not fantastic with wood working... not absolutely green but its been a while and I wouldn't mind starting on some smaller projects like switch boxes and such. This way I can can implement them into my larger project later and it also gets me back up to speed.

I'll be building a multifunction simpit, that I'm hoping I can implement with Star Citizen.

I think I may have figured out my hud

[Gevurah]

Latest work, last night built a monitor stand/keyboard tray along with front panel for switches. Will wire switches LAST.

[Gevurah]

Added a functioning door with one ghetto *** handle salvaged from an old dresser drawer.

Added plies of scrap MDF until appropriate thickness was found, drilled a hole, pushed screw through, voila.

The reason this took so long was not actually the handle but rather the actual door itself ... implementation was both difficult for me in concept/theory and actual practice. It still needs more work but it's functional enough. It "locks" in place with a bent nail. Later I'll add a latch.

[Name140704]

Gevurah, on 05 April 2013 - 08:47 AM, said:

Added a functioning door with one ghetto *** handle salvaged from an old dresser drawer.

Added plies of scrap MDF until appropriate thickness was found, drilled a hole, pushed screw through, voila.

The reason this took so long was not actually the handle but rather the actual door itself ... implementation was both difficult for me in concept/theory and actual practice. It still needs more work but it's functional enough. It "locks" in place with a bent nail. Later I'll add a latch.

Looks dead on for periphery tech cockpit, nice work!

[Gevurah]

Latest update:

No pictures, not yet.

About 50% done with the interior. I've added a handlebar latch made from an old paint easel. I've added a new armrest w/ cupholder.

I realized that when I started this my direction was kind of meh - but since then the highlander came out and my cockpit interior already is halfway there. So I'm going to finish it off as a highlander cockpit. I've also recently gotten new scrap lumber. Next thing to build is going to be the footrest (non functional pedals at this time). Also trying to find a good mount point for the fan I am using for pilot cooling

[Loc Nar]

Hi Gevurah... glad to see hear some progress. Pics or it didn't happen! Don't know if you noticed or remember, but we wound up in the same drop the other night (I was pug'n it up) last week, making you officially the second mechpit driver I've seen in the wild. We were on the same team and we smashed the bad guys... I was running either a 3M or 2A Cicada, but I don't remember any more details and didn't take a screenie.

[Gevurah]

Ah yeah I thought your name seemed familiar hahaha - TBH I was probably running the new guys through some drops to help them get up to speed so I tend to be a little over-focused O_O