Now that my buttkickers have arrived and been tested it’s time to mount them onto my obutto r3volution for what some people call the ultimate 4D experience. No this won’t be a 4D cinema where water is shot from the ceiling when the characters on-screen get wet, although…..
I’ve decided to mount one buttkicker LFE onto the underside of the obutto’s chair to the crossbrace after I move it from the back-most frame holes closer to the center, which should shake the chair a little more than the back position. This one was relatively simple to mount and to work out where it will be going, I used a simple 34mm square U-Bolt to mount to the cross-brace with the buttkicker still on the couch mounting pad to make it easier to mount, although taking it off is simple enough for cleaning or transportation purposes with the four square bolts that come with the couch mounting kit. The buttkicker actually touches the ground when the chair isn’t attached to the frame because it joins the frame about 3 inches above the ground. After set-up you can easily slide a piece of paper under it without it getting stuck although you can’t fit much of your finger underneath. If you’re using rubber isolators on the contact points of the chair you’ll have no trouble with either buttkicker touching the floor.
I’ll be mounting the other LFE to the foot-rest at the front of the obutto to give any games and movies the whole body vibrating experience, because it would be lame if only your body shook and your feet didn’t. This one will be tricker to mount however as there’s less vertical space for mounting the buttkicker and it will be touching the ground slightly even in the highest footrest position, after testing it though it doesn’t diminish the vibration at all and it actually shakes more then the chair attached buttkicker probably due to it having to shake more of the frame and travel further. There are three positions that the footrest attaches to the frame and I didn’t bolt the front-most one because it would have surely pushed down into the ground. Therefore I left it loose which only makes it rattle against the frame when the buttkicker is turned up fairly high for those extreme explosions.
Firstly I take no responsibility for any personal injury or anything you do to your Obutto or Buttkickers by following this guide and watch out for those metal shards after drilling any metal, they can easily cut into your skin like one of them did to me.
Alright here’s how I mounted them both with pictures of most of the steps and what the finished product looked like, feel free to copy my mounting layout if you’d like or ask questions in the comments below if something wasn’t clear.
This guide is pretty flexible as you’re able to move the cross-brace wherever you like underneath the chair if you feel it doesn’t work in one position. The footrest buttkicker however is limited to one position although I made sure that both buttkickers can be moved slightly to allow two LFE’s for both the front and back mounting points. The footrest LFE can be moved left or right using the previously drilled holes and allow another, although I would only recommend one as there’s plenty of vibration. The chair LFE needs half of the couch kit sawed off (leaving at least 5mm of metal to the drilled holes for stability) but can again be slid across to allow for two LFE’s for more shake which i’m fairly likely to do in the future if the single amp can handle 3 buttkickers.
I tried to minimise the drilling to the actual Obutto’s metal in the guide, as such there’s only four holes in the Obutto’s footrest (8 if you want to mount 2), the chair mounted buttkicker doesn’t require any holes to be drilled and can be removed without any damage.
Equipment Needed:
2 Buttkicker LFE’s
2 Buttkicker Couch Mounting kits
1 Buttkicker Hex-Wrench included in the BK’s box
1 Obutto Revolution Chair
2 32-34mm U-Bolts (for the chair) I used a 34 as 32’s were unavailable.
2 42-44mm U-Bolts (for the footrest) I used a 42 here and it fit better than the 34’s.
8 Washers or spring washers (if desired)
1 Drill with various drill bits
1 Metal File
1 Dremel Cut-Off Tool
1 Soft HB Pencil
1 Ruler with millimetres
1 Variable Size Spanner
Step 1:
Work out where you want to mount your buttkickers and if you want to follow this guide or go your own way. I specifically designed it so both mounting points can take two LFE’s if desired. Move the cross-brace to where you want it under the chair or to the back of the chair if desired. Make sure you decide which way the LFE will be facing on the couch-kit as it’s much easier if the plugs are easy to access, although you’re able to change this direction later without much hassle.
Step 2:
Draw in a soft HB pencil where you are going to drill the holes on the couch mounting kit, measuring them carefully first. The dimensions are specified below in the pictures although you should check if you can get the same size square U-Bolts in your local hardware shop (32-34mm and 42-44mm) as I had to drive to 4 locations to find some that fit.
Step 3:
Drill the holes in the chair mounting kit. You should use a 2mm wide thread first then move to a larger size which will make it easier to get through the 2mm thick steel.
Step 4:
(You may do steps 5 and 6 now or after step 4 depending on what’s easiest for you)
Put the 32-34mm U-Bolt into position and bolt on the couch mounting kit to the cross-brace firmly (making sure the buttkicker isn’t on the couch kit yet) and checking that that rubber isolation pads are facing up into the chair to prevent them from being seen as much. Check to make sure that there’s no wiggle if you’ve reached the end of the thread for the bolt and can’t tighten it any more, if so grab some washers and put them on until it’s on tightly. Alternatively you can put some rubber tubing around the U-Bolt to transmit the vibration more effectively and add some clearance while doing so. Once you’ve done this it should look like Fig.9.
Step 5:
Mark the excess thread on the U-Bolts with a permanent marker (or just go ahead and cut it) taking into account the nut and any washers you want to use. You can skip this step although depending on how many washers you use the bolt may or may not fit and will come into contact with the LFE and could damage it when it vibrates.
Step 6:
Cut off the excess thread on the U-Bolt and file down the rough edges. (Make sure that the hot metal doesn’t burn through the chairs material as one of mine did when it came off, you can avoid this if you do this step before Step 4)
Step 7:
Repeat the steps again for the front buttkicker using the 42-44mm U-Bolt, here’s the dimensions and pictures for you to follow. Here are the pictures in order of the footrest mounting.
Step 8:
That’s it you’re done, you now just have to attach the chair to the frame again and test them out! Leave a comment if you’re stuck, you’ve completed it successfully or have questions about dimensions.
The only regret I have from this project is letting the sawn-off bolt thread melt through the chairs ‘vinyl’? layer. Also I would have liked to cut off the excess on the chair mounting kit before mounting it so it’s slightly more centred and to make it easier if I want to mount a second LFE under the chair.
I hope this post has given you some ideas on how to mount your own buttkickers for the optimum gaming or movie experience!