Main > Main Forum
Spinner plan, success!
(1/4) > >>
dkersten:
So in my first cab, I placed the spinner closer to the players, set it to the left of center to be close to the player 1 buttons, and put the trackball closer to the monitor (but still plenty far back).  Conceptually this worked out great for a few reasons:  First, it is very comfortable to play spinner games, I don't have to reach over any other controls.  Second, I can pop the knob off and stick the wheel on and play sprint and pole position and it is exactly in the right place for a wheel and works really well.

BUT, there is a problem with it - it is too close to the trackball and when the knob is on you can bump it easily when playing games like golden tee, pool, or shuffleshot.  This of course makes whatever you are doing take a sharp left turn.  So I usually remove the knob when playing these games and for the most part it is out of the way.  But then I went to hit a shot to the right in golden tee and nailed that shaft with the palm of my hand pretty hard.  That got me to thinking of a better solution.

What I need is a shaft extension, about 1.5" long, half of it with the 6mm diameter of the shaft, and half with a hole 6mm wide.  I don't use the set screw on the knob or the wheel, and it grips just fine because the tolerance is pretty tight, and this extension would need to be the same.  I don't care if the extension has set screws in it, I just won't use them and I need the extension to fit over the existing shaft and grip enough to spin the spinner, and also allow a knob or wheel to go over the other end and do the same.  So I can't just use a drill bit extension that is close, I need something machined to 6mm accurately.

The idea is to cut a small 2" square wood plate, drill the mounting hole for the spinner in that, then drill 4 holes and use threaded inserts in the CP to mount it underneath like a joystick.  This will put the shaft of the spinner almost exactly at the level of the surface of the CP, so when nothing is being used, you will never hit it.  Using the extension, I could still attach a knob or wheel to it when I want to use it.  With the knob on by default, the hole is covered, so the raw hole is no big deal.

So I googled the heck out of 6mm shaft extension and other derivatives, and all I can find is some out of China that take 4-6 weeks to get here, or some specialty pieces from places like Grainger that cost $35-60 each!  The Chinese ones are like $3-5 each, which is more where I want to be.  Now, motor couplings will work too since it shouldn't be hard to find some 6mm shaft to cut to length, but rigid couplings are also seemingly impossible to find in the U.S. and all I can find are the flexible couplings, which I am sure will fail with a wheel too quickly.  Other options are to get some stock and take it to a machinist to turn and drill out, but again I am back to $35+ to get it done.

Any ideas?  If I order from anywhere I don't want to wait 2 months to get it, and I don't want to spend nearly $50 and find out it is too loose and won't work.  Anyone ever try this before?  Can anyone come up with a U.S. source for this?
lilshawn:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-Drill-Bit-x-1-4-hole-6mm-Extension-Shaft-for-drills-scuff-hones-/231152917204?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35d1c99ad4

 :dunno maybe?
dkersten:
Those are actually 6.24mm, too big.. that is the problem, a lot of1/4" stuff out there but not much straight up 6mm..

Thanks for trying though :) 
 Hoping someone has done a spinner shaft extension and knows something that would work well..
PL1:

--- Quote from: dkersten on August 22, 2014, 02:55:55 pm ---Those are actually 6.24mm, too big.. that is the problem, a lot of1/4" stuff out there but not much straight up 6mm..

Thanks for trying though :) 
 Hoping someone has done a spinner shaft extension and knows something that would work well..

--- End quote ---
You can use a drill and sandpaper to grind the shaft down.

Either that or look for 6mm metal rod and use a shaft coupler.




Scott
dkersten:
I'd like to use a 6mm coupler but $50 shipped for one is a little high. I could sand off a quarter inch shaft to bring it down but I can't fill the quarter inch hole down to 6mm. It has to fit perfectly with no play (like the knobs do) because I won't be able to tighten a set screw.

There's gotta be a 6mm rigid coupler in the states that doesn't cost more than a few dollars. It's a piece of steel with a hole drilled in it, lol.  :banghead:
Navigation
Message Index
Next page

Go to full version