How-To: Build a Game Chair with a $380 Wire Welder
By Chuck CagePlanning
Once you’ve decided on your general design and you’ve located and obtained a seat, you’ll want to do a little planning to figure out how things are going to work and how much steel you’ll need.
Measuring
The easiest way to get started is to place your seat on the shop floor and pretend to drive, enlisting the help of a friend to do some measuring for you. (If your seat won’t sit flat on the floor, use some junk from around the shop to prop it up.) This will allow you to determine how long and wide the base’ll need to be. You’ll want the base to be at least an inch wider than the seat, and it obviously needs to be long enough to hold the pedals.
Note: Don’t feel like you need to make the seat extraordinarily long or wide in order to be stable. The one we built here is quite small, yet exceedingly stable.
At this point you’ll need to get a grip on how you’re going to mount your seat. We liked the leather seat we found so much that we decided to go ahead and accept it even though it’s not completely flat on the bottom. As you can see, the front was intended to bolt on at an angle. After a little experimentation we discovered that the seat would sit pretty flat with a piece of 1″ square tube under the front mounts, so we decided to mount it by just adding a couple of short pieces on top of the front mounting bar.
Remember, your design will vary slightly here based on the type of seat you found. The worst seat we made the mistake of grabbing required modifications on all four corners to fit. (The #$#@ thing literally had all four mounts in different planes.) Don’t worry, though: a little creativity’ll let you come up with a mount for whatever you happened to find and like.
Once you have your measurements it helps to draw a little sketch of the design to make sure you can understand your measurements later. Once you know how big it’s going to be, you can proceed to a steel use diagram.
Steel Use Diagram/Buying Steel for Your Chair
“Steel use diagram” is a fancy term for laying out all the pieces of steel you’re going to cut and deciding where you’re going to cut them up front. This’ll save you from making a cut that you’ll regret later.
For example, the main section of our design requires eight pieces cut from the 1″ square tube: the base consists of two 54″ legs and four 21″ crossbars. (Which, by the way, yields an overall width of 23″, which’ll fit through a doorway. It helps to consider things like this before you try to take it inside.) The pedal mount is made of four pieces — a 13″ center bar and two 4″ side pieces — which will be assembled into a plus-shaped support. A 5″ riser supports the back of the pedal mount. The wheel mount is made up of two 21″ risers and a 23″ crossbar.
By laying this out on paper, we determined that we could fit all these parts into four 8′ “sticks” of steel. (Though 1″ square tube usually comes in 24′ sticks, we limited ourselves to 8′ because we can fit them into the bed of our truck. Again, you can adjust this for your own transportation capabilities.)
By laying this out on paper, we determined that we could fit all these parts into four 8′ “sticks” of steel. (Though 1″ square tube usually comes in 24′ sticks, we limited ourselves to 8′ because we can fit them into the bed of our truck. Again, you can adjust this for your own transportation capabilities.)
Another thing to consider is that most steel shops charge a ton for saw cuts, and they probably won’t go to any real effort to measure closely. Torch cuts are usually free (or really cheap), but they’ll mangle an inch or so of material around the cut. So, when we ordered four 8′ pieces of square tube (torch cut), the guy went out into the yard and cut one 24′ stick into three pieces, then cut 8′ off the next one.
That means that on three of our 8′ pieces we’re going to lose an inch on one end to the messy torch cut, and on one piece we’ll lose an inch on each end — it’s the middle piece. If you’re cutting it close, you’ll want to factor this into your plan. We advise not cutting it close. Get a little bit extra — it doesn’t cost much — as you never know when you’ll screw something up or decide to change your design a bit.
Our design also calls for 8″ of 1/4″ angle and 19″ of 3/4″ angle. Remember to pick up a little extra and account for the torch cut. (We bought 2′ of each and ended up with a bit of spare stock to throw in the bin for future projects.)
You’ll need some steel on which to mount the wheel. We like 1/8″ as it’s nice and sturdy (without weighing a ton), and we’ve discovered that you can save yourself some very time-consuming cutting by buying bar stock sized to the width you need instead of plate. In our case, our wheel required 6″ depth, so we bought 1/8″ x 6″ bar stock. All you need to do is cut it to length, but if you’re pursuing this project with a hacksaw (or are pressed for time/lazy), this would be a great place to go ahead and pay a few bucks for a saw cut at the steel supply shop.
Speaking of the steel supply shop, if you’ve never been to one before, you’re in for an experience. While they can be a bit intimidating, most supply shops are used to dealing with a wide variety of customers ranging from individuals (like you) all the way up to people who’re building huge steel buildings. They carry all sorts of stock, and the more you know about the stock the more things you’ll be able to build and the more time you can save in building them. On your first trip to the shop, be friendly and ask what similar stock is available. If you have a special idea for your project, share it with the person at the counter and ask their advice. If they’re not too busy, ask them to show you around the yard or to let you look around yourself. It’s a cheap education in what stock’s available.
Some Tricks of the Trade
Before you start welding on the project, we’d like to tell you about a few of the tricks we’ve learned from more experienced welders and fabricators. No matter how long we do this kind of thing, we’re always coming across new ways of performing simple tasks. If you have any ideas to go along with this, feel free to register and post them in comments. We’d love to hear about them!
Closing the End of Square Tube
We’re using 1″ square tube for this project, and you’ll probably won’t want open ends when you’re done. A long time ago a friend showed us a nice trick for closing up the end of 1″ square tube. Simply cut a notch out of it 1″ deep, then use a hammer to bend the resulting “tab” closed. Weld up the three open sides, clean it up with the grinder, and you’re done. It’s way easier than trying to cut a small 1″ piece of steel and weld it on.
The thing to remember here is that you have to account for this extra inch when you’re measuring the pieces you want to close up. For example, we closed up the ends of the two long runners in the base. We added an inch on both sides, cutting them to 54″. After “tabbing” and closing them, they were two inches shorter, or the desired 52″ length.
Measuring and Cutting Steel
The easiest way to mark steel is with the silver pencils you can find at any craft store. You can use a standard pencil, but the silver shows up a lot better. If you change your mind about the mark, you can wipe it off with a glove.
We like to mark small steel stock by first making a tick mark on the spot indicated by the measuring tape, then using a small square to turn the tick mark into a perpendicular line. We then write the measurement next to the line on the side we intend to “keep” and place an “X” on the other side of the line. This makes life a lot easier later when you’re standing at the bandsaw or at the make table trying to figure out which piece is which.
While it’s tempting to measure and mark numerous cuts on a single piece, then make all the cuts, you really don’t want to do this. You’ll lose a little bit of material to the saw blade each time, so there’s a cumulative error effect. Beyond that, if you make a single mistake you’ve wasted all that time measuring.
We used a horzontal/vertical bandsaw to make the cuts in this project, but you could make most of these with a hacksaw if you have the patience. Remember to wear safety glasses whenever using a saw, and (of course) to keep your fingers clear.
A Place to Work
A steel welding table makes life easy as you can ground the table and then work anywhere on it. However, if you’re building this in your garage, you’d probably get tired of having such a large item around. Still, you’ll need a good flat place to work on, and it stinks to bend over every time you’re welding. One easy solution for this is a half sheet of plywood on four cheap plastic sawhorses. We like this because it folds up for storage and helps keep welding splatter off our epoxy floor.
Another major advantage of working on a table – even a makeshift one like the one we used — is that you can clamp your materials to the table before welding. Clamping the steel down not only makes it easier for you to get (and keep) things straight, it also helps to prevent warping. (Whenever you weld, you’re placing a lot of heat in the material, which then expands and contracts.)
With all that in mind, read on to page 3 to get started building your game chair.
June 15th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
ever since i’ve gotten into the grand turismo series and burnout, i always wish i had a setup like this. driving in these games with an analog stick just never had the right feel. with enough time and money i will definitely be putting this tutorial to immediate use. A+!
June 15th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Great looking chair. Looks like a good project to make for my grandson.
June 15th, 2006 at 4:29 pm
this is better
http://inventgeek.com/Projects/ForceFeedback/Overview.aspx
June 15th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
What a cool project. I was interested in Bob Earl’s VRC (http://bobearlracing.com), which looks a bit more professional and is adjustable, but hey, this way I also get a welder
June 15th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Looks like a nice setup. It would be easy to add a few things to allow for adjustments of angles to suit different drivers too.
June 15th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Great project something like this would be so cool for console racing games. Seeing that arcades are dying off this would be a great way to bring some of the arcade experience home.
June 15th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
I see you painted the chair black. It looks good, but I like to do the 24-hour endurance races sometimes, so I could really warm up a seat. What’s the chance of that paint peeling or wearing out?
June 15th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Cool, I want one of these.
June 15th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
I have to say that this is a fantastic idea. Being a racing fanatic myself, I can’t believe I didn’t think about this. While $380 is a little steep for me right now, it is certainly a project that I would like to take up in the future. Maybe I can split the costs with some other racing geeks?
Thanks for the great read!
June 15th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
This is a good write-up of whats involved…. There are a lot of these types of projects on race sim central
June 15th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
Looks cool, not a huge racing fan, but could always start if I win
June 15th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
I’m going to build one of these when my son turns 15 so he can practice driving.
June 15th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
Haha crazy! I was just paging through Sharper Image and some online stores the other day looking for a good gaming chair, but they were all expensive. Nice job with the idea and design
June 15th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
NICE CHAIR! Too bad I don’t have the time/money to build one. Props on the hard work and DIY mentality.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
WOW! I wish I could do something like that…
June 15th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Awesome. I’m going to see if i can get my hands on a welder, though I doubt I’ll be able to.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Very nice! A simple concept, and great design. That would be much more fun that sitting on the lounge or floor to play.
All thats needed now is to add a nice big subwoofer at the back of the chair for those vibration effects.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
Great idea — keep up the good work.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Wow. Great. Clean welds, I’ve been looking for a nice setup to buy for a begeniner and I might check into that.
Thanks.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Wow, that looks so awesome. If I had the time and money I’d build 2 of those. Another thing you could do is add an arm with joystick support. It would be like some kind of cockpit. Would go great with my gaming rig.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
That is very original. I’ll have to look in to making one
June 15th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Awesome project!
indeed a sub under the seat or in back of it would add another level of enjoyment. An easy addition once the initial chair is built.
Also a great project if your mainly interested in learning to weld since the welder is most of the cost.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
I would add a drink holder and a seat belt for realaism, even building a platform under to add so shocks and some hydrolics that would move when i turn the wheel , and souroun sound speakers with the woffer under mu butt for the tachtile feedback! oh ya baby! 0-60 in .3 sec! maybe even mount a plasma on the front with mu limetless budget for GAMES!
June 15th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Looks really clean. I was thinking of building one myself but never got to it. My guitar has kept me occupied for a while now ^__^
June 15th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Cool, I want one!!
June 15th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
Nice job! This certainly beats shelling out the cash for those Playseats (see link below to see what I mean)!
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3308494
June 15th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
For everyone that’s balking at the price of a welder:
Check pawn shops! I picked up a very similar model to this (a bit older, however) at a local pawn shop near Ft. Campbell for peanuts. Like, under $50. Just go in and talk to the people, ask what they want. It was listed for eighty, I said I’d drop a fifty right there. They plugged it in and tested it and I picked it up for next to nothing.
If you’re on a super tight budget or just don’t have the cash to buy your own, that is one route to take.
If you’re still in high school, talk to the metal shop teacher. Back in the day our teachers would let us use the equipment after-hours as long as we’d qualified on the safety tests and he had to stay later to grade tests. If you have a cool teacher (we did) you can probably even get free scrap, or if you’re taking a class you might even be able to incorporate this project into a final or a test.
Just a couple ideas: don’t let your lack of knowledge (The best way to learn is to do) or money be the thing that holds you back from doing some cool DIY.
June 15th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
This is a great idea I have been toying with the idea of making one with wood. But this metal one looks really good!
Thanks for the plans I will probably be building my own in the near future!
June 15th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Hey guys I think the chair idea is great and I’d really love to do it, but is there anyway to cut down costs for your poor I’m still in college readers?
June 15th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
I love the chair — nice job! I’ve been dreaming about doing something like that for ages. I keep threatening my wife that as soon as the basement’s done I’m building one. =)
June 15th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
First off… I would love to have this seat! Secondly… Did you think about using a cloth seat then maybe cleaning it up or freshening it up then putting a car seat cover over it? That way you could add that extra flair to it.
June 15th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
I just thought of something else. That bar for the steering wheel makes a perfect spot for a cup holder!
June 15th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
thats a pretty sweet chair
i want it!
my neck hurts
June 15th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Looks like a great project! Has to make GT4 so much more fun
June 15th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
That’s a beauty of a gaming chair, would work very nicely in NFS: MW ^_^
June 15th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
This is great. The only thing that could make it better is some motion like in the theme park rides. I am afraid that would be a bit much for most DIY’ers though. I find today’s crop of driving games very realistic, but without the g-forces, it just isn’t the same as real.
June 15th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Good job. I think my grandson would like something like that. I don’t care much for driving games, I’m a FPS guy myself.
June 15th, 2006 at 10:19 pm
Badass! I was just thinking of doing a project like this on my way to work. Scored on that seat too. Looks Comfy
Should head to the junkyard next time I need a computer chair. instead of paying top dollar for the garbage at Office Maxx
June 15th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
I’ve only been into racing games a little bit, but my lack of enthusiasm has been due to the lack of “realness” by sitting on my couch. This makes me want to go out and start welding! It’d be cool if there were instructions to build other items for games as well; DDR for example. Or maybe a tank for Call of Duty 2.
June 15th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Way cool!
It’s amazing what a little bit of ingenuity can provide!
You can even use this same technique to make a ‘cockpit’ for flight sims as well.
June 15th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Thats definitly a cool build. I was asking for one of these types of chairs for Christmas this past year but my parents couldn’t find one in a decent price range, and without the steering wheel. Seeing as I already paid over a hundred bucks for my top of the line wheel, I didn’t want some crappy one included. I’ll definitly have to take these instructions to a freind of mine who does some welding and see if he will make it for me.
Or I can hope to win too
June 15th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
Freakin sweet chair, thanks for the design ideas!
June 15th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
What words or code can i type here so randomness falls on me!
June 15th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
You should try adding one of these:
Link
Good work by the way.
ps: Wheres the cup holder?
June 15th, 2006 at 11:12 pm
The way I thrash around when I game, I’d have to put a roll bar on that thing!
Nice work!
June 15th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
Now here are some guys after my own heart. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is learn to weld and what more worthy reason could there be than to make such a cool game chair. I’ve used a cheap driving setup that took so much energy to balance and keep in place that it totally robbed from the gaming experience altogether. This really looks like fun.
June 15th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
I would definitely like to test this bad boy out with a Nascar game. Just needs a side shifter + clutch and we’re good to go!
June 16th, 2006 at 12:02 am
I Like it much better than the other project linked ealier: http://inventgeek.com/Projects/ForceFeedback/Overview.aspx
It is much cleaner looking.
June 16th, 2006 at 12:50 am
Ok I cannot weld, my wife would beat me senseless in my sleep if I bought a welder right now, and lastly I love to play racing games, particulary project gotham and grand turismo. I can hardly wait for the new 360 logi tech whell and pedals, but I have to use two chairs put a 2×6 across them, then take some of my weights and put those on both sides to hold it all down, I then fasten the whell to the 2×6 and place the peddals on the ground, and play from my couch in the most uncomfortable, un-car like position ever. It is almost easier at this point to just use a contoller and forgo the whole assembly… I would love to have one of these, and yes I do have room with or with out the wifes approval. The kids would love it cause then they could drive like daddy.
Thanks for the consideration…
June 16th, 2006 at 1:15 am
I’m moving in January. That would be cool to have in my apartment. I may make one before than.
June 16th, 2006 at 1:29 am
Great job guys!
Now this is what I’m talking about, a professinol looking car racing chair with a real comfortable leather chair (not some cheap plastic one) that bothers the back and is a pain in the butt.
You guys did a wonderful job, I wish I had the time and talent to make one of these, it sure would make my kids and their driving games a whole lot better to play, just like an arcade at home.
Solid construction and cool seat, that game chair was built to last a lifetime.
That chair blows my mind, awesome!
June 16th, 2006 at 1:34 am
Awesome! got my finals exams this coming 2 weeks
but it looks like I got my future project for my month or so vacation after that.
June 16th, 2006 at 2:41 am
This is VERY cool.
The selection of really entertaining video games out that are really OK for small kids and entertaining to all ages is limited.
All 4n of ours love racing games.
My oldest (http://tinyurl.com/hdla4)
thinks she wants to race formula 1 (yeah right)
We have the wheels and pedals but they don’t work on our Comp desk.
This is a great idea.
Ask around I’ll bet a lot of you have friends with access to a welder.
This might be a good family project this fall.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:01 am
Brilliant idea!
Sit that in front of a 42″ plasma tv and I think you’ve got hours of gaming fun right there
May I suggest doing a version with a built in mini fridge to keep cans of coke/lager cool!
June 16th, 2006 at 3:15 am
Awesome idea. I would try to add some LCD holder, matter of adding one frame for it.
June 16th, 2006 at 5:44 am
I wish I had any handicraft skills… :/
Anyways, great article!
June 16th, 2006 at 7:31 am
That’s pretty cool! I saw something similar to this at Fry’s Electronics the other day, but that was about $300. I’d love to get my hands on one of those ^_^
June 16th, 2006 at 7:33 am
[...] This incredibly detailed tutorial walks you through the whole process with 30+ photos and technical drawings of the build. Or, if you don’t want to build one yourself you can win the one in the article.read more | digg story [...]
June 16th, 2006 at 8:10 am
Excellent and simple how-to! Well done.
Hoping you will have more how-to’s like this…
June 16th, 2006 at 8:14 am
Great article, v nice looking seat… only thing I would have to add is something to raise it up a bit to prevent a sore neck as my TV’s up on the wall!
June 16th, 2006 at 8:18 am
Pretty sweet if only I had a welder . . .
June 16th, 2006 at 8:20 am
man, if i could weld….i’d be building one of these stat.
June 16th, 2006 at 8:31 am
[...] How to build a game chair with a $380 welder. - We actually had this SAME EXACT design mocked up on paper (except we were going to make it out of wood) about 6 months ago when I got a Logitech wheel to use with Gran Turismo 4. I was going to use a seat that I had from a 93 Integra GSR. We got lazy and never ended up building it. [...]
June 16th, 2006 at 8:50 am
I’m planning on doing the exact same thing but I don’t trust my abilities with welding, so I’ll probably just use wood. I’m already off to a good start though, I got a chair out of an old Civic for only $25. The guy lowered the price when I told him what it was going to be used for :).
June 16th, 2006 at 11:44 am
I just finished my new office chair; a Jeep Grand Cherokee leather bucket attached to a wood base, then bolted onto an office chair frame. It blows any standard office chair out of the water. Good show fellas.
June 16th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
That would be awesome to use with Project Gotham or Burnout 3. I want one!
June 16th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
[...] Story Link [...]
June 16th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Very nice project. This is going onto my “things I want to make but have no room to in my NY apartment” list. Other things on the list include Mame Cabinet, LCD picture frame(actually waiting for a laptop on this), and a guillotine(ok just kidding).
June 16th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Good work! I’ve wanted to get into welding for a while now, and if it’s as easy as you make it look, I’m out of excuses.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Really cool project! I might even consider building something similar but with small aluminium tubing… And rubber pads under the metal not to scrape the floor…
Maybe even add wheels with locks to be able to push it away while not playing (hum… when am I not playing…? May need a recliner seat to sleep in there… ) Hah! One of those Cadillac massaging seat!!! 
Anyway, great project!
June 16th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
A couple of thoughts: Aluminum would be light, but is a bit tougher to weld. It is possible to weld Al with a MIG unit, but you’ll need the right gas and wire combination. If you wanted some rubber feet, it’d be pretty easy to paint on some PlastiDip.
As far as reclining seats go, you’re not far off the mark with the Cadillac seat idea. Though the seat we used on this one does move forward and backward (with the standard adjuster) and reclines, we’ve considered grabbing powered seats for fun. You’d need to add a 12V power supply, and you’d probably want to find a seat with the controls onboard (as opposed to in the door or center console) to keep things simple.
Good ideas, though.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:17 pm
Look at these gamers, all bad-ace and tool savvy. We can be proud to sit on our butts all day long in the fine piece of furniture we made ourselves from scratch.
Now, all we need is for some ingenious reader to go further upon this idea to complete chairs for the Ace Combat flight stick as well as the Steel Battalion mech console.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
All I can say is: snazzy! This must be very immersive when used with a nice big HDTV I’d hook a Mad Catz wheel into it and drift my brains out in Project Gotham 3. Too bad there’s no force feedback there….
June 16th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
i am a big Gran Turismo fan (currently 40% in GT4), and i have the driving force pro wheel. i built a small setup with my uncle that is basically two pieces of ply wood and 4 wood support beams. it is very simple, just so i can sit on my couch and have the wheel secured to something. i would love to try out this metal frame chair, but i dont have the money or the time. i guess ill have to stick with my bare bones setup, but i love it anyway. it still works fine.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
^oh yeah, i also CANT WELD!!!!! lol, that is a big reason.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
very well done this is a great idea and thx for putting together this article so i might even try this out for myself and i say again this is really awsome and i love wat u done
June 16th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Cool
June 16th, 2006 at 4:13 pm
[...] How-To: Build a Game Chair with a $380 Wire Welder (June 15, 2006) Our first major how-to, which is currently making its way around the ‘net. [...]
June 16th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
Awesome chair!!! Same wifely problem of my brains getting beat out if I buy a welder (almost died when I brought a propane torch home to fix some water heater piping!). I would love to have the chair for gaming and my daughter would get a kick out of it too! Thanks and keep up the good work!
June 16th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
“A couple of thoughts: Aluminum would be light, but is a bit tougher to weld. It is possible to weld Al with a MIG unit, but you’ll need the right gas and wire combination.”
Straight argon, very fast wire feed (8-10 on a max of 10), high current, and you have to make a circular pattern with the gun. Not to mention having to “push” the gun instead of drag, which reduces visibility, and the nylon gun liner (a must with the soft al wire). So you’re probably better off using 8020 or bolting it together, but don’t let me stop you. It’s possible to weld aluminum with a mig.
June 16th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Whoa! too bad i don’t ahve the welding equipment… :(…
June 17th, 2006 at 3:25 am
Wow. I am impressed. This is such an open ended design and the possibilities are spinning in my head. You could weld on another mount on the front of the frame that could hold a LCD or TV in front of the driver. Maybe I will venture to a home depot . . . hmm. I don’t NEED my passender seat in my Saturn. HA HA. Thanks for the great idea.
June 17th, 2006 at 4:22 am
I love this project but I’m wondering if there is a way to do it minus the welding. There should be some sort of metal fasteners to connect those pieces that would cut down on the cost of the project if you’re buying a welding tool just for this. any suggestions?
June 17th, 2006 at 5:42 am
For those who don’t have a welder or don’t want to buy one, you can rent a welder for under $50 a day at several shops and online sites. How often would you have used it anyway? And there’s no need to worry about your spouse’s wrath.
Although I like the concept of the angled wheel mount best, I like the detachable model because you can take it apart (obviously). I can imagine sliding the frame under a bed and putting the chair in a closet. Actually, I just might leave the chair somewhere on the floor in front of the tv.
When I first saw the setup it reminded me of a go-kart. I can see myself making some cheap, flimsy cabinet for it out of cardboard. (I told you it’d be cheap and flimsy!) Something reminiscent of the ‘Jurassic Park’ or ‘Deep Space Nine’ arcade cabinets.
June 17th, 2006 at 7:12 am
This could maybe potentially be made out of wood, but it would require larger hardwood stock and precise joints in a lot of places. Doable, but certainly not for beginners, and far more expensive materials. Drywall screws in 2×4s will not hold up. Dados, mortis and tenon joints, and some other advanced techniques could work, but I wouldn’t build it out of plain old pine.
Welding isn’t really all that hard. I was raised on a farm, so I picked up a bit of stick welding out of necessity. Farm equipment is expensive, and you have to be creative sometimes to get the job done. Watch American Chopper or Monster Garage for pointers. They usually have pretty good shots of the welds going down, and you can go from there.
Don’t forget your local trade schools. Many times, if you supply the plans and the materials, students can practice on your project, with oversight from the instructors of course. You could probably print this article out and use that for the plans.
There aren’t many corners to cut (no pun intended) on this setup. It’s pretty basic. If you need to make it portable, you could make a 2 piece base that bolts together to shrink the storage footprint a bit. Other than that, it’s fairly customizable. You could put all of the drink holders you want on it, maybe a monitor/TV mount, or any number of things.
June 17th, 2006 at 7:19 am
Let me rephrase just a bit. Basic, beginning, getting two peices of metal to stick together welding isn’t all that hard. It can get super advanced, and that statement was no knock on professional welders. I can maybe handle something at this level, but I know when real, true precision is needed, like auto bodywork, aviation, or pipefitting (among others), I’m way out of my league. Those guys could do this job in their sleep. When you are talking about someone welding a live natural gas pipeline, the mind just boggles.
June 17th, 2006 at 10:14 am
[...] You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your ownsite. [...]
June 17th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
This is cool! I built a sitdown type arcade for driving games out of wood, but it is big, bulky and a pain when the monitor went out and I had to replace it. I have an extra seat from the project, though, so this can get me going on learning to weld.
June 17th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Man, now I NEED one (maybe two) of these chairs… better get started…
June 17th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
This is great! i’ve had the forcefeed back gran turismo wheel for a while now. If i had the money and time i would build one of my own. Keep up the great ideas.
June 17th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
loved it. want one. probably gonna have to build one myself…
June 17th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Cool, thanks for the step by step. I have wanted to learn to weld and now I have the perfect starter project. I have the seat, 2 actually from a Ford Probe. I plan on using one for driving games and the other for a Star Wars X-wing/Tie Fighter/Mech Warrior setup. The computer is in a Millenium Falcon Toy my son had. I am now going to haunt the pawn and used equipment stores for a welder I can afford (budget is killing me). If all else fails I will buy new when year end bonus comes but I hate to wait that long. This will go right next to my MAME Machine. You guys rock!
June 17th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Wow, really great guide you guys! This is definitely something that a lot of people, myself included, are interested in. The article has been getting a lot of publicity as well; it’s been on both Digg and ArcadeControls.com. Good work.
June 17th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
Outstanding project! Once suggestion based upon my desire to buid something similar; buid the entire thing about 18″ off the ground or the equivalent based up the average height above the ground that an actual car seat sits. This makes it much easier to sit in and get up from.
June 17th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Nice project - found it via Make, have been looking for a good article on a basic welder. Only thing missing from this project is the wooden seat beads!
June 18th, 2006 at 5:03 am
Indeed, amazing project
if only I could win that chair… what about adding some sort of vibration to the chair in relation to a force-feedback wheel? it would just be great…
June 18th, 2006 at 7:28 am
cool !
I have build one chair like this a couple of year ago, with a Hunday Excel seat. For a great experience, I suggest you to add a subwoofer fixed on the frame and two satellite (5.1) on the header of the chair. Also you have to find where you put your monitor, mine was an old CRT 19″ and shit it have to be very close to the steering to the game be a minimum immersive..
I played Nascar Racing 2003 with a configuration like this… couple of year ago. I gave it to one friend one day, don’t remember why..
Anyway I plan to build one with a bigger subwoofer, a LCD 23″, and I wait too for the Logitech G25.
For the seat I suggest to take one from a 80’s Camaro with electric group. The seat is confortable and have a discrete command panel on the left. Can be usefull…
Hope we’ll see such chair on walmart soon :p
June 18th, 2006 at 7:30 am
oh, and scuse my poor english, i’m a canadian from Quebec
!!
June 18th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Hello!
Great project !!
What luck to have this in front of his computer !!!
Bye
June 18th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Nice looking project. Thanks for sharing.
June 18th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
What an awesome setup! I need to build one to play with Need for Speed !
Oh man ! Woohoo !
June 18th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
nice project, gave some good welding info too.
June 18th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
Looks great guys, can I have your welder?
June 19th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Wonderful build, and thanks for posting it on the PSU boards! Would love to win this one, but I may try building my own, now. Good job!
June 19th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
thank you for the useful project information. i am looking to buy a racing wheel and pedals but was at a loss for how to use them well. i didnt have any furniture that i could use well and i have novice building abilities and have never welded befroe. after reading the arcticle i tried out welding on a pals welder and am looking to build my set up.
June 20th, 2006 at 6:08 am
Wow, this has to be the neatest project since the building of my MAME cab. SOmehow, here’s always something better out there, waiting for me to build! Great job, and very detailed. Thanks!
June 20th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Thanks for the inspiration. I was going to pay to have a project welded up. Now I am going to save up and buy a welder and try doing it myself. Keep up the great work.
June 21st, 2006 at 2:43 pm
This sounds a heck of a lot cheaper than keeping up a race car. I might have to make something like this to feed my need for racing until my wallet can recover.
June 21st, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Found this article while searching for design ideas for my own chair setup. Thanks for the ideas and tips.
June 21st, 2006 at 7:26 pm
Great Job boys, nothing like the satisfaction of building something like this yourself, cheaper and more self fulfilling. Nice result too and well presented!
June 22nd, 2006 at 9:01 am
Very cool. I have some welding friends that may be able to make this for me, but given my budget (I have a baby), I may have to wait! Either way, very neat. What would of been even more interesting is if you took this and formed a wood box around it so it looks like the racing arcade machines that you see at the malls and what not. The steel would be the frame and you could box it all in.
June 22nd, 2006 at 1:16 pm
This is hands-down one of the most innovative ideas ever. I’ve wanted to make a sit-down arcade unit for driving adventures and couldn’t think of the best way to make it happen (within budget) and this nails it square on. Thanks guys!
June 22nd, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Nice work! Could this be done without welding using bolts, etc?
June 26th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Love the chair been wanting to build a racing game cabinet for racing games. With that chair i would want to build a car shaped (cockpit)arcade racing game style cabinet,with monitor and sweet sound sytem.
June 27th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
[...] One quick note: We saw a lot of comments on our game chair build along the lines of “that’s great, but I don’t know how to weld.” We can’t stress enough how simple it is weld with today’s wire welders. It’s nothing like the bad old days of stick welding. By just reading the manual and spending 30 minutes practicing on some scrap, you can easily complete projects like the game chair — and certainly handle projects like this. Why not give is a shot? [...]
June 29th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
This would be awesome for the racing game I am starting to work on. I am only 13 so I really couldn’t make one myself.
July 2nd, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Thats really neat, but I’m not gonna spring for a $380 welder to make this, although it would be neat, I would wonder if it’s possible to make one out of PVC or wood.
July 3rd, 2006 at 4:52 am
This Chair Is A Great Design. A Friend Of Mine And Me Created One And It Suits Us Perfectly!!! I’d Like To Thank Those From TOOLMANAGER For Releasing The Design
July 10th, 2006 at 3:10 am
[...] [...]
July 14th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Since some chairs are not adjustable (forward or backward), do you have any suggestions for an adjustable steering column? Some sort of quick release would be great.
July 19th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
This looks like a very worthwhile project. I could see being able to sell a few of these things of one was so inclined.
Thanks for publisihing these plans!
July 22nd, 2006 at 6:06 pm
Awesome. Very good idea.
July 24th, 2006 at 9:34 am
The chair design is pretty good. It could use some additions, like removable arm platforms for joysticks and smaller demensioned keyboards for other types of games. Also, if had sockets to make speaker stands around the chair perimeter it would be perfect for all gamers.
July 24th, 2006 at 9:46 am
About time! So frustrating having the pedals sliding around the floor trying to grip the wheel between your legs. My friend tried to make one out of wood but the whole thing kept falling apart and his girlfriend wasn’t too happy with a wooden frame sitting in the living room - dont forget about some rubber feet to save your hardwood floors. Maybe in Version two you could take the seat runners out with the seat at the junk yard that way you vertically challenged friends can have a go and be comfortable.
July 24th, 2006 at 10:03 am
Very clean design, I like it!
July 24th, 2006 at 10:11 am
Dude they are stupid if you wanted to keep cost down why in the world would you buy a $380 welder. Just rent one cheap from and you can make your game chair for less than $100
July 24th, 2006 at 10:29 am
I think this idea rocks! Even more the fact that you can take it anywhere. Now I believe than in an extra couple of hours you can get a nice speaker system built into this thing and it would not only look awesome, but also soound like the real thing. I hope I win so I don’t have to build it because I can’t do crafts.
July 24th, 2006 at 10:30 am
Great idea. I’d like to add 5.1 speakers to the front and seat’s sholders, a cup holder, and a simple shelf for a monitor at eye level.
July 24th, 2006 at 10:43 am
Thanks for the info. Been looking for plans like this. Plus the contest doesn’t hurt either!
July 24th, 2006 at 10:47 am
I’ve been wanting to get a setup like this for GT4. Luckily, Cnet’s RSS feed provided a link to your guide. Looks like DIY is the way to go!
July 24th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Awesome. My sons have always wanted one of these and they are just too expensive to buy 2 of them. Now I can make two of them for less than the price of one. Add a cup holder as somebody suggested and maybe even a moveable tray for snacks and they will have a blast. Thanks for sharing this DIY project.
July 24th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Very nice. Just mistyped my e-mail. Will be doing this in the future for my sons. Thanks for sharing this how-to.
July 24th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Man I wish I had an arcade somewhere remotely close to where I live…this game chair would be the best thing since pong!
July 24th, 2006 at 11:10 am
Dang that thing is burly! Nice work. I think it would’ve been even better if you would’ve gotten one of those $100 racing seats off eBay for a more authentic race car look. But the one you built looks like it’d be comfortable for hours…
I play Need for Speed Most Wanted and Gran Tourismo 4 on a Playstation 2 with a Logitech GFP wheel/pedal setup. That is the only way to play driving games!
July 24th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Is this chair movable? It looks very heavy, and I was wondering if it is portable. I have two locations that I would want to have it for two different systems in two separate rooms.
Is there a way to make it out of lighter materials and still have it as durable as it is, or should I just save up so I can build two of them?
July 24th, 2006 at 11:28 am
Nice clean design. I’d like to build one that has a mount for my LCD and a adjustable keyboard mouse tray.
Good article.
July 24th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
Cup holder.
Where’s the cup holder?
I guess I could duct tape a bottle of Bawls to the side….
July 24th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Looks like an awesome idea, but how great is that considering everyone’s a different size? Obviously if you weld the chair to the frame (well, looks like screw it in it the picture), you will not be able to adjust it, unless you also took the adjusts that was attached to the seat. Even so, that still could be quite difficult because of the fact that people have different leg and arm lengths.
How much more work, or how much harder would it be, to add in support for adusting the items?
Is the seat comfortable sitting that low to the ground, or do you think that if the frame had a little height it would be better?
Lastly, do you think it’s possible to design something more interactive for FPS (maybe have the movement keys as a DDR dance pad? You laugh, but now you are thinking about it, hahaha)?
Thank you much for the guide to the assembly of this chair! I might be a soon to come project being that my wife and I love playing NFSU AGAINST each other…
July 24th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Just need to add a monitor stand and I’m all set!. Now to see if I can talk my wife into letting me get a welder….
July 24th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Nicely done. I’ve been contemplating making one from PVC pipe myself and doing EXACTLY what you did to get a seat. Great work
July 24th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Wow, great comments today! Let me try and answer a few of the questions posed recently. Some of you observed that the chair looked quite heavy. I will say that it’s not feather light being made out of steel and all, but neither is it super heavy. One person can pick it up and move it with little trouble.
The chair is able to slide; we took the seat rails – which consisted of 4 bolts at the bottom, with the seat upon removal from the vehicle. It has about 10 inches of adjustment travel from front to back and of course the back of the seat tilts as well.
As for making the wheel adjustable, our current design actually can be modified for vertical travel by the addition of a few holes in the frame mounts holding the steering wheel if desired.
It is quite comfortable to sit in, in fact we were commenting just recently that it is the most comfortable design we have come up with yet, we would have no problems racing in it for quite some time.
In the end, it all comes down to whatever your imagination can crank out. Whether it’s cup holders, snack trays, laser light shows or full hydraulic motion systems, the cool part about building your own rig is that there is not another like it. Ok that, and seeing your friend’s jaws drop when you tell them you built it yourself. We love that part.
If you do happen to get out there and make your masterpiece, drop us a line or send us a pic, we’d love to see it!
July 24th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
This is the THRONE on which true gamers must sit!
July 24th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Looks really great! Thanks for the tips regarding locating a seat from a junkyard.
July 25th, 2006 at 8:57 am
Wow - my son would love one of these - or I could use it in my classroom!
July 25th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
This is totally wicked. I had looked into getting something like this for a friend of mine. A total NASCAR Fan who is totally into NASCAR ‘06. I may have to build him one for his birthday. One question is how do you run the cables from the wheel? Did I just miss it? I was thinking you could cut a hole at the top of the tubing and the bottom so that you could run the cable down through it, and when you were done you could still unmount it without much extra hassle.
This is awesome. Thanks for the info People, keep up the good work.
Russ
July 26th, 2006 at 11:32 am
Looks great. I might ahave to upgrade to a seat with lower lumbar suport becasue when I play I end up playing for long periods off time. once again, Looks great guys!
July 26th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
I have been thinking about a similar project for a long time, but not limited to a gaming chair, setting it up as an entire workstation. The welded metal frame is a little different that what I had envisioned, but it is actually much more practical. I am certainly going to look at moving ahead with this project, as I also imagined it costing a lot more, and I am bouyed somewhat by how inexpensive it was.
Some comments about the comments..
I doubt PVC would be sturdy enough to get the job done unless you went with schedule 80 and that is not easily available, at least around here. HOWEVER, black iron pipe would work. It would also look a lot cooler than PVC.
In our area, there is always “adult ed” classes at local schools during the evenings. Welding is almost always offered here, and taking the class will not only teach you to weld (which is pretty easy and a very handy skill to have) it will also give you access to the equipment, and all the adult ed teachers I know would be happy to let you do this sort of thing as a class project. The cost of most of these classes in my area are substantially cheaper than the welder, let alone the other equipment.
July 30th, 2006 at 5:43 am
Wow, really nice driving chair design.
One of these days (after I finally finish the MAME cabinet) I’m hoping to start on 2 sit down driving cabinets. I don’t have a welder yet but it’s on my wishlist.
July 30th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
I wonder… maybe throwing in a pair of steel circles on each side of the steering wheel mount, with wingnuts to hold them together, would provide you with an approximation of tilt steering. Page 1, Figure 2 is an even better design for this - put the rotation in at the base, and you’ve got it made. (You’d have to get it to hold tight to hold up the arms, however, with the weight at the far end of the lever.)
July 31st, 2006 at 9:15 am
great chair!
July 31st, 2006 at 4:31 pm
[...] How-To Build a Game Chair with a $380 Wire Welder or Win One! [...]
August 10th, 2006 at 7:50 am
[...] This incredibly detailed tutorial walks you through the whole process with 30+ photos and technical drawings of the build. Or, if you don’t want to build one yourself you can win the one in the article.read more | digg story [...]
November 28th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
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December 8th, 2006 at 5:19 am
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December 9th, 2006 at 2:35 am
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Good reading! Makes my boring days at work work more pleasurable.. well.. I’m always bleating about something. Have a nice day!
December 14th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
[...] How-To: Build a Game Chair with a $380 Wire Welder [...]
April 6th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
[...] If you picked up one of Hobart’s portable “Handler” series welders a while back to try some projects of your own, you might want to consider protecting it with a custom-fitted cover. Sawdust, bugs, and shop grunge don’t make for a well-functioning welder. [...]
May 1st, 2007 at 7:44 am
[...] Just as an FYI: we reviewed a pretty nice starter welder quite a while back – Hobart’s Handler 125 EZ. We even built a small project with it to demonstrate its capabilities. [...]
June 10th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
[...] Build a Racing Sim chair And another project right up my alley ‘excuse the pun’ , a racing seat for that favourite sim racer. Racing Sim seat Purveyor of fine posts, replys and other useless drivel since Jan 2004 Last edited by Unknown Soldier : 9 Hours Ago at 03:34 PM. [...]
November 11th, 2007 at 10:23 am
[...] the whole process with 30+ photos and technical drawings of the build. Posted by racketboy @ 12/31/2006 6:42 PM Categories: GameRooms [...]
February 10th, 2008 at 7:56 am
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March 15th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
wow cool now i must build one
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Well i took his idea and decided to make one of my own and i f i knew how to post pics fopr you guys to see i think tyou would like it so if you could tell me how to post somer pics then i could show you guys mine zas wel;l and yes it is a very clean seat you have made gave me my idea
July 14th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
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July 16th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
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July 27th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Wow!
That’s awesome!
August 25th, 2008 at 2:19 am
[...] read more | digg story [...]
August 25th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
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August 26th, 2008 at 7:50 am
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August 31st, 2008 at 11:33 am
Cool Idea !!!
September 5th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Nice sim! I built one out of 1″ PVC shedule 40, it is strong and light weight but has no adjustments and it cannot be disassembled for storage. While reviewing this racing sim, I decided to build one out of square metal tubing. I like this design but will be making a few mods to fit my purpose i.e. adjustability, costs and making it easy to break down and store when not using it. I will share when I am done. Thank you for inspiring me!
June 12th, 2009 at 7:37 am
That’s very nice, i’ve been looking for something like this…But honestly if i had 380$ to spend i would just get an EVO racing sim seat alredy made^^
August 21st, 2009 at 9:42 am
[...] Our first serious “how-to” [...]