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Post by clyevo on May 1, 2015 3:50:42 GMT
Hollow square and round tube for platform
Stainless steel - high strength - Usually thin wall and thus quite lightweight (hard to find thicker than 1.5mm locally) - Difficult to cut/machine - Can be welded with MIG/TIG/Stick welding (inexpensive equipment) but need good skill because thin wall easily perforated
Aluminium - low strength - Widely availaible thick wall of hollow square and round tube and very lightweight - Very easy to cut/machine - Can be welded with MIG/TIG welding (expensive) and TIG need good skill as well
Mild steel - medium strength - Need to buy thick wall due to lower strength than stainless steel and thus very heavy - Easy to cut/machine - Usually welded with stick welding (inexpensive), no point using expensive welding equipment for this low cost material
1) Now what i need to understand is will the torque of 6 units of 2hp 4pole AC motor with 60:1 gearbox able to hold a platform (with the monitor, seat, and steering holder) made from mild steel plus human weight??
2) If i am planning to use hollow mild steel tube for the linkage to connect the two heim joint, what is your recommended thickness for the hollow tube wall
Thanks
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tino
Junior Member
Posts: 71
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Post by tino on May 1, 2015 17:21:50 GMT
Not sure about the material for the platform, but I'll be using Fanatec CSL seat (12Kg weight) when I finally get some time to put this thing together... Regards, Tino.
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Post by Mitch on May 2, 2015 2:35:28 GMT
Hollow square and round tube for platform Stainless steel - high strength - Usually thin wall and thus quite lightweight (hard to find thicker than 1.5mm locally) - Difficult to cut/machine - Can be welded with MIG/TIG/Stick welding (inexpensive equipment) but need good skill because thin wall easily perforated Aluminium - low strength - Widely availaible thick wall of hollow square and round tube and very lightweight - Very easy to cut/machine - Can be welded with MIG/TIG welding (expensive) and TIG need good skill as well Mild steel - medium strength - Need to buy thick wall due to lower strength than stainless steel and thus very heavy - Easy to cut/machine - Usually welded with stick welding (inexpensive), no point using expensive welding equipment for this low cost material 1) Now what i need to understand is will the torque of 6 units of 2hp 4pole AC motor with 60:1 gearbox able to hold a platform (with the monitor, seat, and steering holder) made from mild steel plus human weight?? 2) If i am planning to use hollow mild steel tube for the linkage to connect the two heim joint, what is your recommended thickness for the hollow tube wall Thanks 1. It depends. For example, the shaft of the 60:1 Iron Horse gearbox are rated for an overhung load of something like 1000lbs. Consider that it is just 1 of 6 and you can be absolutely confident that the shaft will not break if you stand on it. Torque from the 2HP motor ( btw these gearbox aren't rated for 2 hp) will also be multiplied by 60, so looking at a some 2hp motor which produces about 6 ft/lbs of torque means that you would have about 360 ft/lbs at the output shaft of the gearbox. You'll be adding a crank arm to that output shaft, which also acts as a lever. There are a lot of variables in this question - like how long are your crank arms (and what are they made from), What is your payload weight (upper platform, monitor, seat, structure, etc? Ultimately defining these variables will lead you to a good answer. There are many different shapes and thickness of steel which work better or worse in different applications. Think of it as a weight arms race, the heavier the thing you're trying to move the heavier the parts to move it become, or they need to better designed/machined to handle the loads which leads to increased cost, and probably increased power requirements. Most people use steel, but people have used stainless steel and wood. In the end, I built mine completely from aluminum, including the actuating rods (rod ends/bolts are still steel). 2. This kind of depends on the above questions and it will depend on how you want to connect it. For example if the rod end is just bolted through a tab, the tab will need to be thicker to for many reasons, but mostly to prevent flex and failure of the tab. If the bolt passes through two walls of the tubing, the wall can be much thinner. You may even want to even sleeve the hole. If the tube you use is rectangular, depending on which side you use it would change things again. Just for an example, the single shear strength of a 1/8 bolt is anywhere from 2000lbs to 4400lbs depending on the grade. Thats a cross section of only 1/8". To give you some kind of answer though, 0.095 to 0.120 wall is probably fine - but it depends. -Mitch
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Post by clyevo on May 2, 2015 15:29:02 GMT
Thanks mitch You must be a quite good welder to be able to make everything from aluminum. May i know your setup? 1) motor and gearbox 2) what kind of tube and how thick is your aluminum frame for the platform? i think its also depends on how much material you are going to spend to make it rigid enough using that low strength material 3) how thick is your aluminum linkage tube? 4) what is your platform payload including your weight?
my dilemma is that i dont have equipment to weld aluminum and that thick aluminum tube is hard to find locally if i use stainless steel i dont have equipment to cut it properly but i am quite confident with stick welding those various normal steel tubes is availaible locally and can get cheap and i can easily deal with machining and welding normal steel but the problem is, its heavy
forgive my blabbering so hard to decide
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Post by clyevo on May 2, 2015 17:16:05 GMT
How do u weld steel rod end to aluminum tube?
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Post by Mitch on May 3, 2015 16:14:10 GMT
How do u weld steel rod end to aluminum tube? It's mechanical, the aluminum tube is necked down the appropriate size and threaded to accept steel heim joints.
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Post by Mitch on May 3, 2015 16:32:42 GMT
Thanks mitch You must be a quite good welder to be able to make everything from aluminum. May i know your setup? 1) motor and gearbox 2) what kind of tube and how thick is your aluminum frame for the platform? i think its also depends on how much material you are going to spend to make it rigid enough using that low strength material 3) how thick is your aluminum linkage tube? 4) what is your platform payload including your weight? my dilemma is that i dont have equipment to weld aluminum and that thick aluminum tube is hard to find locally if i use stainless steel i dont have equipment to cut it properly but i am quite confident with stick welding those various normal steel tubes is availaible locally and can get cheap and i can easily deal with machining and welding normal steel but the problem is, its heavy forgive my blabbering so hard to decide No problem, - 0.75HP 1800RPM and 60:1 worm gear
- I used different alloys and aluminum shapes for top and bottom frames, top platform and wheel support structure etc, is actually a a 1.5" square T-slot extrusion with home made attach fittings.
- If I recall they are 0.140” DOM 6061-T6
- I'd have to go back and find all the weights - and some stuff I never did weigh - rough calculations put it at about 150Kg approx. 80kg occupant+ 25% + structure. (upper platform, structure, seat, all the fittings/bolts, etc)
I have MIG welded and constructed things from steel in the past. Honestly theres nothing wrong with steel for this project. It's driven by material availability, requirements, and personal preference. I opted for the T-Slot extrusion for the upper platform for a number of reasons: - I wanted to use aluminum
- I don't have convenient access to a welder
- For a few reasons, I wanted to keep the weight down
- I wanted to be able to easily change layout if it didn't suit me
- No paint required
- The T-slot material and a seat was similar in cost to a 'playseat' but much more customizable - especially with home made brackets and fittings
- I was able to use the seat framework by itself on the ground while I built the rest of the actual platform from different materials
Sorry, this is turning into a bit of a project post. Maybe I can put together a build post in the projects area some time in the coming weeks. I always intended to make my design freely available (it's pretty simple), and maybe even in kit form if there's interest. I'm sure a few of the other people on the board would do the same. Everyone seems to do something a little different, different materials available, different skill sets, different requirements, but we're all just variations on a common theme. -Mitch
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Post by clyevo on May 4, 2015 2:29:00 GMT
A picture for starter would be nice, especially the T-slot joint that u mentioned. Is the T-joint threaded? You are lucky that you have all that available material locally. I can only get those exotic materials online.
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Post by clyevo on May 28, 2015 1:29:19 GMT
- 0.75HP 1800RPM and 60:1 worm gear
- I used different alloys and aluminum shapes for top and bottom frames, top platform and wheel support structure etc, is actually a a 1.5" square T-slot extrusion with home made attach fittings.
- If I recall they are 0.140” DOM 6061-T6
- I'd have to go back and find all the weights - and some stuff I never did weigh - rough calculations put it at about 150Kg approx. 80kg occupant+ 25% + structure. (upper platform, structure, seat, all the fittings/bolts, etc)
I have MIG welded and constructed things from steel in the past. Honestly theres nothing wrong with steel for this project. It's driven by material availability, requirements, and personal preference. I opted for the T-Slot extrusion for the upper platform for a number of reasons: - I wanted to use aluminum
- I don't have convenient access to a welder
- For a few reasons, I wanted to keep the weight down
- I wanted to be able to easily change layout if it didn't suit me
- No paint required
- The T-slot material and a seat was similar in cost to a 'playseat' but much more customizable - especially with home made brackets and fittings
- I was able to use the seat framework by itself on the ground while I built the rest of the actual platform from different materials
Sorry, this is turning into a bit of a project post. Maybe I can put together a build post in the projects area some time in the coming weeks. I always intended to make my design freely available (it's pretty simple), and maybe even in kit form if there's interest. I'm sure a few of the other people on the board would do the same. Everyone seems to do something a little different, different materials available, different skill sets, different requirements, but we're all just variations on a common theme. -Mitch I've researched about T-profile aluminium extrusions, and find a reliable price by china supplier. They even cut it into custom size and make tap threading for me for the connections. I am ordering this and transporting via sea freight which does not cost much but probably the import tax might be imposed. Once my project is underway i will post it up in project section. I think it is good viable alternative to welding steel. I just hope it will work out well and the aluminium profile is strong enough to hold the vibration and vigorous movement of the motion simulator. Thanks for giving me this solution.
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