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| Stein's trackball build, finished. |
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| Stein:
UR, that was exactly the kinda stuff I was wondering. I was definitely impressed with the happs spin time, even when you roll the ball slowly the momentum keeps it going for an appreciable amount of time. It's getting smoother now after a week of playing with it (the actual pointer movement has always been incredible smooth tho). I think it's probly a combination of all three things you mention, also one thing I discovered while lubricanting the bearings on the shafts... all bearings definitely are not equal, some were louder, some would spin longer... I suppose the thing to do is have a whole bucket full of them to pick and choose from :) oh well... minor thing, the noise from the tb is reminiscent of the old days of playing in the arcades, so it's cool either way. The board is 3/4" and I routed down to 1/4", plenty strong for oak, could probly go to 3/16" even but then I'd have a problem aligning the router bits bearing to the hole for beveling. The bevel is an 1/8" corner round. I had thought originally I would build my future cab out of oak too, after getting more familiar with what people have done with acrylic, printed gfx and t-molding I'm back to undecided :D thanks for the comments btw Stein |
| u_rebelscum:
--- Quote from: Stein on March 05, 2003, 01:37:06 am ---.... It's getting smoother now after a week of playing with it (the actual pointer movement has always been incredible smooth tho). --- End quote --- Guess you'll have to play some more to get it even smoother. ;D --- Quote ---.. also one thing I discovered while lubricanting the bearings on the shafts... all bearings definitely are not equal, some were louder, some would spin longer... --- End quote --- Ahh, yes: another possibilty. Though, I didn't notice a big difference between the bearings in the happs TB, nor between those and the ones in the betson TB. I looked, but just to see if any of the bearings were broken, so could have missed it. *shrug* --- Quote ---the noise from the tb is reminiscent of the old days of playing in the arcades, so it's cool either way. --- End quote --- Yup. :) --- Quote ---The board is 3/4" and I routed down to 1/4", plenty strong for oak, could probly go to 3/16" even but then I'd have a problem aligning the router bits bearing to the hole for beveling. The bevel is an 1/8" corner round. --- End quote --- Very nice. Thanks for the info. |
| DeathMonk:
Very clean and professional! Im considering doing one like that. |
| Stein:
UR, what I found with the 6 bearings in my unit was that one was actually louder than the rest, and the slowest one spun on average for 4 seconds while the longest one spun for about 7 seconds, quite a difference! the loud one was neither the slowest or fastest... I should in the future make the trip to the bearing shop and see if I can find some higher quality ones. DeathMonk, thanks! :) always nice to hear. If you do plan on doing one like this I would make my sidewalls 1/2" higher than my plans show, things got a little tight ;) Well, I'm all done with the building of it now, my light kit from Happ arrived and (long story short) I scrapped it and brought some RadioShack parts :p the page is up and there is some new pics and me babbling on about things. Stein http://webpages.charter.net/mjellis1/index.htm |
| Dartful Dodger:
Great job! I'm thinking about doing the same type of thing with the track ball for my, soon to be cabinet, this way I can take out the ball to make room for a clip on a steering a wheel, with out much effort. I was afraid it would look crumby, but your's looks good. |
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