As many should have understood by now, I'm a bit a do-it-yourself aficionados, not that I am particularly good at it, but I like to try to fix a problem by myslef instead of relying on already-made stuff. Especially when the solution is freaking expensive (or way too expensive for what is it) or it doesn't really satisfy me.
This week I've reorganized a bit my workstation and began to think that if I could put my laptop with the screen higher and closer... so I had the idea of a laptop stand.
A quick on-line search told me what I already knew: stands are really expensive. How the hell can you ask 80+ euros for something that probably cost less than 1 to manufacture?
And then the mad scientis in me stirred and I thought... Why not? Why not make my own stand? After all, a stand is nothing more than two piece of... something with an hinge in between and some mechanism to keep them at an angle. I can do it.
Since my goal was to keep the cost to a minimum I checked the content of my rommelbak.
For some reason (leftover of several move) I have a bunch of Ikea plunks but not the rest of the Ikea furniture that uses them, and without that part the planks are nothing more than wodden planks, so they are usable. After a bit of planning I fixed a simple construtions scheme.
Materials:
- 2 wodden planks (size depends by the laptop or what you have)
- 1 or 2 hinges for articulation, I had 2.
- 4/6 antislippage feet, I ended up putting 6 also to keep the plank away from the surface of the desk and avoid scratching.
- 2 doorstops (or laptop-stop in this case)
- 2 cable tensioner (to keep the planks at an angle and allow some adjustment) screws, bolts, nuts and whatnot.
Since I had it and it wasn't in use, I decided to throw in an usb hub that got fixed to the stand with velcro.
The first step was the removal of the 'rails' from the plank's sides, this was achieved with a pliers and some brute force.
Next step was to put everything togheter.
The doorstops (that, if ain't clear, are used to stop the laptop from sliding down the stand) have been fixed with 2 long bolts from the bottom, with a nut on the top. To keep the two planks at an angle I've used two cable tensioner that have been fixed directly on the plank on one side and using a small hook/ring on the other side. This way it act as an hinge and allow for adjustement and to take a part the entire thing for transportation.
I've drilled recesses for the screws, so they are inside the wood and avoid scratching both the laptop and the surface of the table, I've also placed rubber or felt pads on the screws. This means that removing the screws is going to be complicated. For screws that are not side-to-side I've just used short-enough scres.
To finish it up I've used some sandpaper and some paint that I had lying around. To be something that has costed me next-to-nothing it didn't looked so bad. In fact, I've decided to make another one sans hub and take it to the office.
)
