[Russell Sobie]

Update: I finished it! Check it out on Page 3! Thanks for the advice!

So here's the idea... but I'm not sure how successful it will be at holding the wheel in place while driving. Anyone know more about what you can and can't do with channel strut construction material to pull this off?

[Michael Martin]

That looks far too technical for me! I like ideal for folding the wheel away.
No idea how the pivot would work (channel strut construction is alien to me) but you could have pre set angles on a bracket at each end. A bit like how you adjust a rear wing on a race car?
Personally i would like something you could bolt in place. Don't think any friction based mount would be strong enough.

I'm going to subscribe as i'm about to build a rig all be it using wood. So far the seat is on order

[Simon Meisinger]

Hey, I've seen your post on reddit already – really like that idea :-)

Can't help though

[Russell Sobie]

Pivoting at the wheel pitch is basically a poor idea overall, unless I can ensure locking the whole thing into place, which I cannot. I changed the design to use a "sleeve" rail that would slide over the outside of the wheel's side posts, but it turns out I can only get that in 20 foot increments, at about 200 USD a pop. Sooooooo no.

This is where I am now, which (if I can get it to work) requires no special parts that I don't already have (I have two spare cam levers already):



This separates the wheelbase from the tv stand, obviously. And instead of worrying about a sliding mechanism binding up, this basically just makes it so the wheel and the bar it is mounted to just pop out of the top so I can place it on the floor. If I get this to work, I might see if there's a clever way I can pull it off and hang it to the side without obstructing the display (the whole point of this stupid thing).

Separating the wheelbase from the tv stand means I go up to 4 rails of the channel strut, which adds a bit to the price, but at this point I feel like if I don't build this thing I'll regret trying. I buy most of the fittings and a couple of short rails to experiment with the above solution today. Then I'll return the short rails and get 4x10 foot ones when I have everything physically proven. 

If I've priced this thing out correctly, it'll come to about $250 USD... which includes a special metal cutting saw for a friend's miter saw so I can cut the rail without killing anyone or burning anything down. I hope that works out well because if I've measured correctly, I'll have one 2 inch piece and one 10 inch piece left over. What's that saying? Measure 18 times, cut once?

[Martin Smith]

Your wheel will wobble in almost every direction. There's no triangulation and the joints aren't rigid enough to prevent substantial flex. The base of the two uprights will almost certainly be a failure point in the long term. Sorry I don't have a suggestion for you but this design is just bad.

[Michael Martin]

Is this the 8020 stuff your making it out of?
Seen quite a few rigs made with it and seems quite strong even without triangles.
Could you not hinge it on one side. With a vertical bolt to secure. Then flip it over when not in use.

Apologies for the super high tech drawing

[Russell Sobie]

That's... that's really good. I might be able to do that. It's not 80/20, which is extruded aluminum. This is stainless steel channel strut, which is heavier but way cheaper. The weight is actually a bonus for this concept since it's pretty small and the only thing really holding it down is gravity and one wheel on my office chair.

I'm going to mock up your drawing immediately. The goal is to buy parts and make the steel cuts tomorrow at a friends place.

Edit: Well, it turns out I can't rotate the wheel up at all with its placement in front of the television. There's almost no clearance. Was a cool idea, tho.

Your wheel will wobble in almost every direction. There's no triangulation and the joints aren't rigid enough to prevent substantial flex. The base of the two uprights will almost certainly be a failure point in the long term. Sorry I don't have a suggestion for you but this design is just bad.

As stated above, this is not aluminum extrusion. I think there will be very little flex with steel channel strut and the associated steel brackets... if any. However, you got me worried a bit so I went back and looked at the first place I saw this idea, and this guy had an angled bracket along the inside for his wheel post (which was a single cantilever, rather than a full cross post).

https://www.isrtv.com/forums/topic/21321...ternative/

I can see about incorporating a similar bracket type if I can procure one... and if not, use a 3 hole 90 degree bracket on the outside for additional reinforcement.

[Martin Smith]

There you go, some kind of triangulation at the base of the posts would be essential and would reduce most of the flex to a negligible amount. The only remaining concern would be the rigidity of the top cross bar, which could twist around its two mounting points. Hard to say if that would end up being a problem or not. Uncharted waters here I think. Perhaps have a plan B if you build it, in which you add one more cam lock on each side so the top can't rotate (leading to the wheel moving up and down).

C-channel can be 'heavy duty' but that doesn't mean it's rigid. Consider that a much beefier version of what you're showing is used as a twist-beam for the rear suspensions on many cars!

[Neil de Guzman]

Looks nice mate! Especially without wires... I tried some scrap wood in the past to pull off something like this. Everything looks good on paper until wires ruin everything. One thing you can consider is building a rig against the wall, but instead of attacking the wheel mount, just try to make the seat removable, preferably with wheels as dual purpose office chair style, moving around seat 'round the room/house... Everything stays in place against the wall, wheel, monitor, everything.

[Russell Sobie]

There you go, some kind of triangulation at the base of the posts would be essential and would reduce most of the flex to a negligible amount. The only remaining concern would be the rigidity of the top cross bar, which could twist around its two mounting points. Hard to say if that would end up being a problem or not. Uncharted waters here I think. Perhaps have a plan B if you build it, in which you add one more cam lock on each side so the top can't rotate (leading to the wheel moving up and down).

C-channel can be 'heavy duty' but that doesn't mean it's rigid. Consider that a much beefier version of what you're showing is used as a twist-beam for the rear suspensions on many cars!

The tv stand is cut and has been initially fitted together to confirm that the idea of everything is sound. Even without triangulation, the 4 hole angle brackets make this thing very stable. I am going to double up by putting 4 hole brackets on the back side as well. It IS going to be holding a rather large tv on it (55 lbs.). I just realized in the photo we put the posts on backwards.... or towards the wrong way on the legs. Doesn't matter without the TV tho!



I think I'm on plan J at this point for the articulation/modularity of the wheel mount post. Having the wheel pivot like I have in the first video was abandoned a few days ago. Now I've been looking at lifting the wheel and it's cross post off the top, or like Michael's idea of having it swing outward. Anything that isn't a single point that can be rotated upon, as you point out.

Now that I have a few pieces of the strut cut (for the tv stand) I'm going to experiment with different solutions to see if I can get the wheel on a post that will be stable yet easy to get out of the way. If I can't figure it out in the next three weeks, I'll probably just come up with a way to simply slide the entire wheel/pedal part out from under the TV when not in use. Hell, I might be able to just put easy glide leveler feet on the damned thing and it'll slide on my carpet effortlessly... I might even try that experiment first, now that I think of it. Start with a working wheel stand, and then modify it as I come up with different solutions to get just the wheel out of the way.

Looks nice mate! Especially without wires... I tried some scrap wood in the past to pull off something like this. Everything looks good on paper until wires ruin everything. One thing you can consider is building a rig against the wall, but instead of attacking the wheel mount, just try to make the seat removable, preferably with wheels as dual purpose office chair style, moving around seat 'round the room/house... Everything stays in place against the wall, wheel, monitor, everything.

The best part about channel strut is the channel. In theory, most every cable coming out of the TV or the wheel/pedals can be fitted into a channel and zip tied to a slot every few inches. Then I can buy channel fill material to finish it off.

The wheel is the only thing that will be in the way of the display. Part of my design calls for hooking my Aeron Hermin-Miller chair in there (way more comfy than any car seat I've ever been in), so that's easily removed. I'm also heavily constrained by the space. The wall behind where this is going is in front of a fireplace, so wall mounting anything isn't possible. Eventually I'll move out of my apartment into more square footage, and I'll just buy a second 65" tv or bezel-less triple monitors and make a proper rig and put it in a man-cave or something. Throw some direct drive and buttkickers on there for good measure.

For now, it's a couple of hundred bucks and cutting steel channel strut on a table saw.