A DIY Joystick Chair

Locate a car seat for your DIY joystick chair that has the mounting points on the base that are on the same plane for easy attachment. The seat should mount horizontally both in front and in back so that it attaches directly to the frame. Find the seat in a salvage yard or purchase seats new at an auto-parts store. A bolt-down, leather-covered seat is ideal for use, as the bolt holes make for easy mounting and the leather is easy to clean.

Draw up a plan for your joystick chair to scale on a piece of graph paper with a pencil. Measure the length and width of the seat with a tape measure for planning. Make the seat frame’s base about an inch wider than the seat and long enough to contain your legs when seated. Measure the distance between the mounts beneath the seat and incorporate the mounts into the frame design.

Use horizontal mounting bars to position the seat in a frame with the rear mounting bar about 4-inches from the frame’s rear bar, and the forward mounting bar spaced along the frame interior at the required distance for mount the seat’s front. For the joystick mounts, place the chair onto a flat surface and sit on it with your arms placed in a comfortable, joystick-holding position. Note the positioning of your hands and measure the distance in front and to the side of the chair. Draw these positions into the design, including the height of your hands from the floor. The final design of the base should appear as a rectangle with the two seat-mounting bars crossing near one end for placing of the chair, and two vertical bars extending from the base for the joystick platforms.

Have the framework of your chair cut from 1-inch steel tubing according to your designed dimensions. Tell the steel supply shop where you purchased the tubing the necessary tubing lengths. Have them cut the tubing at the shop before purchase.

Set up the tubing in your workspace according to how it fits together as a test-run for your design.

Weld the pieces together following your design. Clean the welded joints with a 4-inch angle grinder. Grind the welds down as close as possible to the steel, smoothing the joints in the process.

Drill holes through the mounting bars at the same positions as the mounting holes at the chair’s base. Place the chair over the bars and bolt them into place through the frame’s base.

Create the platforms for your chair from PVC panels large enough for the joysticks. Cut the panels to size with a hacksaw. Sand a rounded edge into the PVC platforms with fine-grit sandpaper. Cover a 1-inch square area of the center of the PVC platform’s base with PVC primer, as well as the head of a 1-inch square piece of PVC grommet. The PVC grommet has a flat square PVC head over a one-half inch piece of PVC that inserts into the open steel tubing. Wait about 30 seconds, and then cover the primer with PVC cement. Press the grommet onto the PVC sheet. Holding it in place for another 30 seconds bonds the pieces together. Insert the grommet end into the two vertical joystick platform tubes welded onto the frame.

Fill the open steel tubes at the two ends of the frame with grommets that protect the floor from scratches from the cut open ends.

Mount the joysticks to the PVC panels. Most joysticks come with suction cups for easy mounting or bolt holes where you can drill mounting spaces through the panels for attachment with bolts.