DIY Custom Sim Racing Cockpit + Custom Flight Sim Rig Build!

Because I like to overcomplicate things, I’m turning all of this, into… this! Why? How? And how can you do this too? All of that is coming right up! Starting with why am I not just buying an existing sim racing cockpit? There are a whole bunch of ready-to-go ones that are £200 to £500, but I spent on the upper end of that AND I’ve spent two weeks designing this, modelling custom parts and printing them on my shiny new Bambu P2S and Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra – and the short answer is customisability. I have wanted a sim racing cockpit for probably two decades at this point, I’ve also wanted a flight sim rig, and recently I got myself a Logitech X56 HOTAS and have been tearing up the skies in Ace Combat 7 – hardly realistic I know but I’m working my way up to DCS, it’s a big commitment and requires more autism than I have spare right now – and so I decided if I’m going to take up a worrying amount of space with a sim rig, I’d better make it so it can do both. Also, I’m tall, and most of the pre-made sim rigs just look uncomfortably small and cramped, and I decided if I’m gonna need to buy some aluminium extrusion to make this a flight sim too, I’d better just build the whole thing myself to my specs. So, that’s what I’m doing. Let me walk you through the design.

I used CraftyAmigo’s online extrusion modeling program to model pretty much exactly what I want to do here – I’ll try and link this design in the description if you want to have a look and copy it for yourself – but basically it’s all 40×40 millimetre extrusion. The lower frame bolts together with M12 bolts and the cube connectors, then the pedals and the display mount to this hoop at the back. The wheel mounts to the 40×80 hoop in the middle, and the seat bolts to these two rails at the back. As for the flight sim hardware (and the handbrake I bought too!), I spent literally two weeks trying to work out various ways I could make that work, because they need to be able to move out the way so I can get in the thing, but also so I can swap to the handbrake for driving, and flight stick for flying. I was thinking about swinging and pivoting mechanisms, about quick release tabs, and a whole bunch of wildly overcomplicated options, but I eventually settled on this. This is a custom right angle sleeve mount for some extrusion. You bolt the flight stick to the extrusion, slide the extrusion in, then slide my custom pin bolt to lock it in place and hey-presto, you’ve got a hot swap flight stick mount! I’m actually really proud of the bolts. I started with a fully 3D printed design, mostly just as a shaft with a bit of thread on the end to hold it in place. But as I fettled with the design, I realised I was just designing a big thumbscrew, and plastic threads won’t hold up to metal ones, so why not incorporate a bolt in there? Plus, if only the lower bolt holes are the only thing holding this mount – with all the weight and leverage – the stress path is all through the plastic. So, just use a bolt right? Well the 80mm M8 bolts I have already are too long, they’d sound horrible and be loose fitting going through the extrusion, and I don’t want to use a ratchet every time I want to move the flight sim bits. So I modelled a sleeve with a knobbly head, a hex pattern to act as a built in spanner, and a 10mm OD sleeve that fits the bolt snuggly inside while acting as a bit of a bushing for the extrusion to keep it nice and solid. Plus, with two bolts, the load path is mostly through the bolts rather than the plastic mount, which works great for me. Oh, and the flight stick mounts are also a custom TTGB design, sliding onto the extrusion and bolting to the throttle and flight stick. Oh, and I printed these sideways holsters so when not in use I can holster the flight sticks on the side out the way. 

Finally before we get to building, let me run down the parts list. I spent about £300 on the extrusion, which I ordered cut-to-length from Ooznest here in the UK. I tapped the M12 threads myself in the ends that needed it to save a tenner since I already have a full tapping set, but if you don’t you absolutely can spend the one or two pounds it costs to have them tap it for you. I’m also using a 10mm HSS drill bit to drill the cross holes for the hot swap mounts. I bought this seat that comes with the sliding rail mount for £130 on ebay, and I’m pleasantly surprised by it. This is clearly a market Noblechairs needs to get into though. I bought a monitor arm, a whole bunch of brackets and bolts, drop nuts, slide nuts, and spring loaded slide nuts. While you can buy most of the bits I’m using from Ooznest, I worked out buying packs of brackets/bolts/washers from Amazon was cumulatively like £200 cheaper overall, so I’ve definitely gone the budget route. Also buying without tapping means I got bulk order discount too for especially the 600 mm long bits, which saved some more too. Actually here’s my terrible spreadsheet, and in short I saved £270 buying the brackets and bolts elsewhere, and tapping the holes myself. Not bad! Right, that’s enough talking, I’m far too excited to get this set up, so let’s get to building this thing! Fair warning though, I have a very recently collapsed disc at the base of my spine and sciatica, so this is going to be a struggle so I might not film everything here. I’ll show what I can though!

You’ll have to watch the video to see the build!

As for the hardware ON the rig, that’s the Asetek Initium wheel and pedal set I reviewed recently – video in the cards above – a USB hall effect handbrake, and the flight side is the Logitech X56 HOTAS I mentioned earlier. The system I built for this thing is a 13600K and 3060ti, and the most important thing is the display! This is the Philips EVNIA 6500, a stunning 3440 by 1440 175 hertz quantum dot OLED panel that is the exact same panel I already use daily, so this is the perfect most immersive experience possible!