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| Introduction
to building a gaming / racing wheel |
Hello
friend. Ever wished you could
drive the cars the way we do it in
the real world? Here I give you a
step by step tutorial for building
a steering wheel which has got not
just a steering brake and gas pedal,
but a Clutch, and yeah a gear box
too. It wont cost you more than $10,
if you have the most essential tools
readily available like saw, screw
driver and the like. |
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Its
not only damn cheap, its very much like the
same gaming / racing wheel that you purchase
for 100+ dollars. The only major difference
is that our gaming / racing wheel has got
no force feedback mechanism. It's no big deal
unless you are a very serious gamer and has
got enough money to spend on a Logitech G25
or the like. Here goes the highlights and
features that the gaming / racing wheel you
build will have |
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Steering
wheel with around two full rotations
(720 deg) in both directions as in a
real car |
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Seperate Gas, Brake and Clutch pedals |
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A gear box with sequential shifting |
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Constructing
the Steering wheel |
Since the gaming / racing wheel undergoes
a lot of mechanical handling from
your part during gaming, we need to
ensure maximum robustness in its design.
If you are not aiming at a durable
build, you can simplify the process
and thus save significant time. Shall
we begin?
Fetch a plastic / pvc pipe of 2cm
diameter (approx) and length 80cm
(approx). Light up a candle and heat
the pipe from one end to the other
end. While heating, slightly bend
the tube in increments so that when
the whole length gets heated and bent,
it takes the shape of a gaming / racing
wheel, with open ends.
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During
the process of heating, the pipe might
turn black, due to the smoke deposits
- don't bother. Don't even care about
the irregularities in bending. We
are going to cover up the pipe with
cloth soon. Now heat one of the open
ends of the pipe and push it on the
other end, so that the ends overlaps
and the pipe closes into a wheel.
Let it cool. Now wash the pipe and
dry it with a towel. Apply super-glue
to the joined ends to strengthen the
bond.
Take
a plywood piece of length 20cm
and width 5cm and
place it at the center of the wheel.
Use M-seal or any similar hard mass
forming adhesive (used in plumbing)
to fix the plywood to the ends of
the gaming / racing wheel.
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Use
super-glue to strengthen the bond between
the plywood base and the pipe. Now, when the
adhesive has cured, drill a hole at the center
of the plywood, large enough to accomodate
a long bolt. Take cotton cloth and tear it
into long strands. Wrap it around the whole
surface of the gaming / racing wheel as shown
in the photo above. Use superglue if needed.
You can also tie very thin plastic wire over
the cloth with proper spacing to simulate
a realistic gaming / racing wheel. |
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| Constructing
the Steering Base |
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Now
that the gaming / racing wheel has been
made, let's build the steering's base.
Take a card board box of approx 30cm
x 20cm. Make sure that the box is firm
enough. I used a logitech joystick's
packing box for construction. Take a
bolt of sufficient length and fix it
on to the steering through the hole
that you have drilled. Fasten the bolt
using it's nut. You can cover the nut
with hard adhesive to provide better
support on the plywood. Now take two
metal pipes (aluminium preferably).
The larger pipe should have around 3cm
diameter and the smaller one having
1cm diameter. The larger metal pipe
should have a length not less than 20cm
and the smaller pipe should have a length
not less than 30cm.
Make
a hole at the center of the box and
pass the larger pipe through it so that
only 1/3rd of it remains outside. Place
the pipe slanting slightly upwards.
Fix the pipe on to the box using the
hard adhesive (MSeal). Use superglue
if needed to provide extra strength
to the gaming / racing wheel. Cover
the outer end of the large pipe using
the hard adhesive and make a hole through
it large enough to pass the smaller
metal pipe through it. Perform the same
on the other end. Now insert the bolt
into the smaller metal pipe and bind
it using adhesive. Make sure that the
alignments are always parallel. When
the adhesives cures, you can pass the
smaller metal pipe through the larger
one attached to the box. Now you should
be able to rotate the wheel freely on
its base. If the rotation is not smooth,
you can put more adhesive and file it
up near the contact points where the
larger pipe meets the smaller one. |
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| Continue
with the gaming / racing wheel construction
in
the next page >> |
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| How
to build a Steering Wheel / Gaming Wheel with
gas, brake, clutch and gear |
