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Help with folding steering wheel project please!
Turnarcades:
Sorry I missed the link when I read through :)
Quite flattered actually that my designs inspired you, even if the driving cab design doesn't quite work for you. Your cab isn't actually that far off our model, but is probably just a bit bigger. The important thing is you've included the sloped lower front which (as you've no doubt discovered) improves the centre of gravity to increase stability, and creates much more usable interior space at the base.
Cretster:
Not sure about your driving one - I don't actually remember seeing that one for some reason.
I wouldn't have dreamt of not having the sloping front edge as it would have been quite unstable without.
As it is, it sits really sturdily so with two small kids in the house I'm not at all worried.
Very pleased to hear that you approve though. I was careful to ensure I literally just used yours as a rough outline without copying dimensions etc. You never know when people might get really upset about something like that, and I don't like potentially treading on peoples toes or anything. I hope I can do it justice, so I'll let you know once it's come along a bit more. :)
As I mentioned the general profile of the slimline design suited perfectly my needs for fitting the narrow donor panels I had, and the fact it has to not intrude into the room too much. So hopefully everyone's happy this way.
One reason I got the nod from the mrs to make it was that it was to have a big cupboard in the front that could house my consoles etc to help keep things tidy.
Well sadly that cupboard space now won't really be available because of the folding wheel design. Oops - how careless of me! ;D :o
Cretster:
Ok I have done some work on this tonight and it's a good step closer towards having a steering wheel that folds fully out of the way. It's nearly sorted now so that the steering wheel fits in place and looks pretty tidy I think (considering it's not a finished build etc).
Here is how it looks with the wheel in place for playing a driving game:
Then after opening the front cabinet door the wheel folds down like so:
Then once the front cab door is latched closed it looks like this with the wheel completely hidden:
Looking inside the cab at the back you can see the wheel folded away inside:
So Im pleased how this is turning out because I think it looks ok with the wheel in situ, and Im pleased with how the wheel folds away completely out of sight.
What I need to somehow achieve now is for the front panel to look ok when the wheel is not in use.
I was thinking about some sort of sliding panel to cover that hole, perhaps a bit to each side that slides across, but I only have vague ideas.
I'd really appreciate suggestions on how I can hide that nasty looking steering wheel cutout with something that moves as required.
Show me how clever you all are! :D
BadMouth:
Wow! I'm impressed. I think you might start a trend. :cheers:
I don't have any great ideas on how to cover the cutout on the front.
Some quick thoughts (but I think there's a better solution out there):
Paint the area satin black, so it isn't as noticeable.
If the sides are deep enough, make a flap on each side that swings around front and latches in the center.
Work it into the design somehow.
(I started working on a driving cab knowledge base. I will probably post it sometime this weekend so that others can help improve it)
Cretster:
Thanks! I think your suggestion is along the same lines as I was thinking, to either have 'doors' that fold or slide apart from the hole to open it up for the wheel.
I want to do my best to make sure it doesn't end up looking absurd and that's not easy to do, especially for a beginner like me on a first cab and not much woodwork skill!
Don't worry about colour as I will be using a combination of black paint and vinyl wrap that I received today (80s style black ash wood effect) which will cover the cab when finished. I will be painting the interior bits black where they might be visible.
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