Obsessive hobbies....

[RCHeliGuy]

Gorgeous mark!!

So how many coats of what? And sanding between coats - I always mess that up it seems. You use sand paper (what grit) and lots of tack cloths??

In the picture it just has BullsEye SealCoat on it (unwaxed shellac). That was to protect it while I worked on it over almost 2 months. It sands very easily and I could remove it completely since I was working with 1/4 and 3/8" veneers in case I changed my mind. I'm loving my new bandsaw with woodslicer blade. It resaws great!

I have been using Festool's Granat 220 and 400 grit papers with my hand sanding blocks. I love these sanding blocks have them in two colors.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007R501B4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also have some 800 grit pads for final finish.

Before that I use a Festool ETS 150/3 to get it to a good surface.

But before that I used a #6 hand plane since my straight blade planner would tear this wood up! I'm really wanting a helical blade planer now and wish I had gotten the Dewalt 635 which has a Shelix helical blade available for it.




How I'm finishing it now is with General Finishes Arm-R-Seal Satin which is an oil based poly. Arm-R-Seal has a nice look on hard woods much better than Minwax.

Both the SealCoat and the Arm-R-Seal have a similar effect making the wood look a bit more gold. A water based Poly would stay clear.

I experimented quite a bit with Waterlox dies and Varathane stains. The results were very uniform, but my wife liked it natural with the live edge of the birds eye maple showing detail.

So I finished it

Hand plane
Random orbital sander 220Grit
SealCoat
hand sand 220 Grit
Arm-R-Seal
hand sand 400 grit
2 x Arm-R-Seal

For the table top, I'm going to sand it again with 400 grit paper put a final coat of SealCoat on and then the Bar Top Epoxy.

SealCoat is great stuff! It is alcohol based so it is compatible with oil or water based finishes.

Epoxy is fun stuff. You have to mix it really well.
Pour from the center in circles out to the edges and then fill in the gaps.
Wait 5 minutes then work with a heat gun over the entire surface
Wait 10 minutes and hit it with a propane torch to break any bubbles.
Let it sit for a few days to cure.

I'm going to do this in a basement room. I'm going to block off the vents so there is no air flow and any dust settles and keep the room closed off.

This is the tray. White oak on the ends, curly maple on the bottom and bird's eye maple for the front and back with the live edge against the curly maple. There is 1/4" baltic birch plywood under the birds eye and 1/2" baltic birch on the bottom. I encapsulated it with 1/8" veneers and capped the top. I'm hoping with the plywood core and all the glue involved that I won't have any issues with wood movement. Fingers crossed!



Prepared for the Epoxy...
The room's vents are shut and it is closed off. I'll bring the table top down tonight and wipe it off in the morning before I begin.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

The epoxy went down well.
There were very few air bubbles that all came out with the heat gun on medium. There are a few pieces of dust, but I can live with them.

I carefully mixed the epoxy for about 6 minutes until it was crystal clear, poured it all out and then spread it with the plastic applicators.
There are no fish eyes from oil / epoxy reaction.

Now I just have to wait a few days for it to cure well.

 

[twich54]

Looks great Mark, with your woodworking skills have you ever made your own speakers ?

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Looks great Mark, with your woodworking skills have you ever made your own speakers ?

I like to design furniture that takes care of a specific need that I can't buy and I'm perfectly happy with my speakers. I'm not sure what my next project will be but I have promised my wife to take a break this fall to spend more time with her hiking.

I'll never say never, but building speakers isn't on my radar. This year I dove into wood working after dabbling for a couple years. I'm not sure where it will take me or if I'll get bored with it. So far I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

I built this 24" deep 16 drawer cabinet because I wanted lots of storage for tools, RC heli parts and camera equipment.



I built this so that our cat wouldn't have a place to sit and eat the plant leaves.



I built the media room table to eat on which is why it has an epoxy finish. It has a snack tray behind it and 3 small drawers for remotes and my wife's nail files etc..



My next project "might" be this which would hold my camera tripods and take the place of a shelf unit in my room. It would hang on the wall on a french cleat and have room under it.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

OK, I've got to ask with all the car enthusiasts here.

Does anyone have a Simulation Racing Rig at Home?

I noticed that the equipment has improved a lot as has the software and a lot of people are loving car racing in VR.

This is also something that has unlimited spending potential with good racing rigs around 500-2000 but simulation rigs going way up into the the 10's of thousands and a few near 100K.

I've watched piles of YouTube equipment reviews and I suspect I have been hooked in some fashion by the idea of building a decent home racer setup.

 

[RUR]

Spent some time in these guys booth at the recent CEDIA. Every single prospective customer said the same thing: "Its totally awesome!!!" Followed by "But my wife would $&@?!! kill me!"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xvcmqL0ZYL4

Can't recall the price, but it was well into five figures

 

[JonFo]

OK, I've got to ask with all the car enthusiasts here.

Does anyone have a Simulation Racing Rig at Home?

I noticed that the equipment has improved a lot as has the software and a lot of people are loving car racing in VR.

This is also something that has unlimited spending potential with good racing rigs around 500-2000 but simulation rigs going way up into the the 10's of thousands and a few near 100K.

I've watched piles of YouTube equipment reviews and I suspect I have been hooked in some fashion by the idea of building a decent home racer setup.

I only have racing wheels and pedals for Forza (Xbox One) and GT (PS3), and play those infrequently. But every time I do, I also lust after a full motion rig, as I find the lack of physical feedback very disconcerting in sims. My g-force sensor (inner ear) is one the most finely calibrated driving inputs I have and relying only on eyes, some force-feedback in the wheel just does not do it for me.

I think a VR-based visual input plus a motion rig that triggers enough inner-ear clues would be quite the ride. When one shows up, I'll dedicate the third bay in the garage to a full-on 20 or $30K system.

In the meantime, I take my old WRX (with new STI motor + Cobb stage 2 mods) over to Atlanta Motorsports Park and do laps there. But it gets expensive in tires ;-)

 

[twich54]

OK, I've got to ask with all the car enthusiasts here.

Does anyone have a Simulation Racing Rig at Home?

I don't but my oldest son does, I couldn't tell you much about it other than it's extremely sophisticated (3 monitors) multiple steering wheels for each type of venue and incredibly expensive. Personally I have zero interest in 'gaming' so I can't tell you much other than it is no game but a real simulator.

I can inquire of him if you want more info.......

 

[twich54]

Spent some time in these guys booth at the recent CEDIA. Every single prospective customer said the same thing: "Its totally awesome!!!" Followed by "But my wife would $&@?!! kill me!"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xvcmqL0ZYL4

Can't recall the price, but it was well into five figures

opps, my bad I didn't see your post Ken ..........yup, that's the one my son has.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

For the record I'm not a gamer at all. The only thing I use is an RC Helicopter simulator which has allowed me to advance much faster in the hobby while saving many thousands in crash costs.

I'm not even sure this will stick so I'm thinking about starting simply before dumping piles of money into it.

Initially, I was thinking of starting with the Thrustmaster TX Leather bundle and a Next Level Racing Wheel stand.

Basically something like the image below. I've already got my flight simulator / media server box connected to a 65" UHD TV so I could pull this out and then tuck it out of sight when I'm not using it so my wife would have no complaints. I think I'd start with Project Cars 2.0



From everything I've read the force feedback and pedals on this system are "enough" to be competitive but I wouldn't be in too deep if I decide it's not going to stick.

If I find I'm really enjoying this then I would go in deep. Upgrade my box with a GTX 1080TI graphics card and VR rig. Then I might reach out to the online racing community using the iRacing software. With a VR rig then I would setup a full racing frame in the basement since I would only need a small monitor just to get things going. At that point I might consider the Fanatec Club Sport Forza bundle with full load cell brake and serious force feedback power.

Sometimes I think it is more fun to shop for this stuff than actually use it. It looks interesting. I just don't know yet if I'm more excited by the idea of doing this or actually using it. I've been fooled before. I currently have an Arcade rig that allows me to play Missile Command, Asteroids Deluxe, Defender and a few others with real a full sized track ball, configurable arcade buttons and heavy duty joysticks. It seems to get about 20 minutes of use every few months. I think I was just getting nostalgic for some of the old video games I played as a kid.

FYI, the full motion systems are coming down in price too. This one is about $3,000.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=109&v=P--3QIBfioE

 

[RUR]

opps, my bad I didn't see your post Ken ..........yup, that's the one my son has.

He's a lucky dog!

Here's a vid of the simulation in action:


"If you crash the car, you must remember to release the steering wheel or it will break your wrists." !!???!!!

 

[RCHeliGuy]

He's a lucky dog!

Here's a vid of the simulation in action:


"If you crash the car, you must remember to release the steering wheel or it will break your wrists." !!???!!!

I have to wonder how much of an advantage VR really has compare to a large 3 monitor setup like that one.

I've read many people talking about how much more realistic VR makes the experience, but from what I can tell VR is still in its infancy.

There is a whole slew of new head sets being released before Christmas and next year that up the resolution dramatically but also the graphics processing. Most have upscaling to help reduce jaggies and allow less powerful graphics cards to drive them. The one 8K system I've seen (4K per eye) requires two 1080TI graphics cards with one card driving each eye piece by displayport cable. It still sounds pretty clunky to me.

Edit: I just watched more about this and the bottom line is that most people are in agreement that the stereoscopic depth of field in VR as well as head tracking is a dramatic improvement over 3 monitors no matter their size.

 

[twich54]

He's a lucky dog!

Here's a vid of the simulation in action:


"If you crash the car, you must remember to release the steering wheel or it will break your wrists." !!???!!!

I've tried it once, it physically beats you up !

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I've tried it once, it physically beats you up !

I've read that these systems are typically set up more "violently" for demo mode because they look more impressive on video if they move a lot.

The key for force feedback and any motion system is to dial it in appropriately so it gives you useful information and adds realism without beating you up.

Some of the best sim drivers who win regularly use lower settings on force feedback. You want to feel when the wheels are breaking free etc.. but not get hurt in a crash.

Fortunately there are many settings that allow you to set these up to taste.

For Sim racing the force feedback in the steering wheel and brake modulation are the two biggies. The rest doesn't help you play better.

They have vibration motors to simulate ABS brakes pulsing which gives you a bit more useful information and seat of the pants vibration to allow you to feel the car approaching redline. Past that it actually tends to hinder game action.

 

[twich54]

your last sentence says it all Mark.....game vs. simulation !

My grandson has his own set-up and yes, it is a game !

Remember, unlike football and baseball, when was the last time you saw a 'fat' race car driver ?

 

[RCHeliGuy]

your last sentence says it all Mark.....game vs. simulation !

My grandson has his own set-up and yes, it is a game !

Remember, unlike football and baseball, when was the last time you saw a 'fat' race car driver ?

Absolutely it's a game!

The question is only what sensations are enough to create the illusion well enough that it is fun.

I once tried out a car simulation system that involved sitting in an enclosed car cockpit traveling around a centrifuge. It could rotate you any which way to create strong G forces that felt like acceleration, braking and cornering. It was scary good.

I'm simply looking for something that is fun and feels good enough to enjoy.

BTW I am not a car racing fan, or a spectator of any sport. I find them all horribly dull to watch. I like to play sports, and enjoy many physical activities. I just think this "could" be fun.

If I decide that this is really not doing anything for me, I'm sure my son would happily take it for me.

I bet my ML speakers could make some great car noises :ROFL:

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I'm pretty amazed as how far these companies are going in the name of realism.

The race tracks are laser scanned so they can get the appearance and physics right. They have the bank angles, surface textures, dips and surface details down pat.

The people at iRacing take online racing very seriously. They have strict rules and you are assigned both a safety rating and license level. You have to qualify for a D license and then work your way up. You have to qualify for races and starting positions. They have races scheduled to kick off every hour and they split the races by ability level. If you crash, you are done and have to wait for the next scheduled race to begin. Members vote for tracks to be added and have to pay a monthly fee to participate. There is no play at home mode. You are always racing other people. You race under your name and they prohibit having multiple aliases.

iRacing is where Dale Earnhardt Jr and many other professionals race.

It appears I've gotten interested enough to stick a few bucks into this.

I'm starting off with a Fanatec system which is good enough to be reasonably serious. Their Porsche 918 racing wheel is a 1:1 scale replica of the Porsche racing wheel using the same leather. Their brake is adjustable load cell based. I'm also getting a hand brake for drifting in Dirt Rally.

Basically I'm starting with decent force feedback, a good brake that I can modulate well and pedals that should heal toe pretty well. Of course the wheel also has paddle shifters like the real wheel.







What I found was that the less expensive equipment tended to have a high failure rate and poor warranty support and that the higher end equipment has much better resale value if I decide this is not for me. So that is where I'll put my foot in the water.

If it really grabs me than I'll look at an RSEAT system. The rig is very solid tubular steel and has 3 levels of motion systems that can be added to it later from ~16K upto ~36K



So at this point I'll test the waters and see what I think. If I like it, I'll keep it. If not I'll sell it off. If I get seriously into it, then I'll take things up a notch.

 

[Hocky]

Driving in real life seems like the better gig.

 

[timm]

Driving in real life seems like the better gig.

Haha... isn't that the truth!! 16-36K for the nice rig? wow..... I feel like we are becoming a society that doesn't do the real thing anymore... Baseball diamonds sit empty as kids play pretend baseball on their tv.... Nobody could use a map anymore because of GPS.... auto-correct - who needs to know how to spell? I know - I sound like 'old man gramps'..... lol... but I am as guilty of it as anyone as well....

And this is not meant as anything against people that love this stuff.... as I said .... me too... I just reflect on it.... and it just makes me wonder where are we headed.... what is the next simulation? Uh, honey... not tonight - I'm in the simulator!!! lol...

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Virtual Reality is starting to pick up steam, but it isn't mainstream yet.

You may be right though. The pornography industry is typically an early adopter of any new visual technology. They helped drive down the cost of HD cameras and I'm sure when VR gets to a certain point they will jump in with lots of capital. There is already a company that jumped into VR porn, but I think it is a bit early and they misjudged the market penetration.

FYI, I'm only putting about $2K in this to start and I'm going to stick with that until I'm ready to make the jump to VR and I think VR has matured "a bit more" which might be next Spring. VR still has a LONG LONG LONG way to go, but I think the 2nd gen equipment will be where I start playing with it. The hardware I purchased has high resale value and I can get most of my money back pretty quickly if I decide this doesn't grab me.

I doubt that I'll ever get a full motion rig, but I think VR would be fun.

For now I'll be simming in front of a low latency 65" UHD TV, and my son is likely to come over a bit more often