Thread: Powerbook/Laptop Stand

Making a simple, comfortable Powerbook Stand

Have you ever noticed the variety of contraptions people use in offices and at home to get their computer monitor to the “correct” height? Apart from the telephone books and bricks there are the commercial models with large Heath Robinson metallic frames and swinging arms like dockyard cranes. There are desks with all manner of hydraulics which could double as hoists on aircraft carriers, and there are the petite curvy clear plastic jobs which look as if they should be holding a pavlova or something. Recently I saw a moulded plastic job but found it soulless and very black.
I have often looked at my powerbook and wondered how things could be better. So this is what happened when I decided to make a stand recently…
I propped up the PB with various books and pieces of wood so that the screen was where OH&S experts suggest. The top of the screen is at eye height, so you can keep a straight neck. I needed to allow for a fan powered cooler which sits underneath my PB and raises it 25 mm. The front of the PB and the keys were sloped down at an angle which I estimated was good for shedding dust and one which the open PB would allow without breaking its hinge. The screen is almost vertical. Then I measured the front height of the PB 150mm and the back height 250mm. This would give me the height of the back and front legs if I subtracted the thicknesses of the base, the fan cooler and the PB itself.
The power book is 325 mm long and 240 deep and 25 mm thick. So I chose a piece of wood to those dimensions plus allowing a little more for the front which would take the pegs. The base piece of maple happened to be 30mm thick, just because I had a piece of scrap that size and it looked agreeable. I rounded the front edge rather than have a square front.
Next I cut the legs from a piece of scrap 80mm by 25mm. To do this I marked out on a piece of ply wood (story board) the front and back heights of the stand and measured the angle of slant with a protractor at 32 degrees from the horizontal. I set the protractor on my saw bench to that angle and cut each leg on the angle before cutting off the other end of the leg, the right angle, at the correct length. So now there were five pieces, four legs and a top.
Turning the top upside down I placed the legs where I thought they ought to be keeping them the same distance from the edges of the top piece and parallel. I then drilled holes from the lower side and countersunk the top of the holes to take the screws which would hold the legs. After much fiddling and frustration I realized I had to attach the back longer legs first, to give me something from which to work in placing the shorter legs. Others may have much more professional ways of doing this, than this wannabe craftsman.
By moving the front legs until the whole lot was stable I was able to fix them in position without legs being of different “heights”. I fixed the legs with two screws each from the top side of the stand.
Then I had to provide ways to stop the PB sliding down the sloping top. Not only the PB, but also the fan cooling base. So I fixed 12.5 mm (1/2 inch) dowels at the bottom of the slope. One 20mm dowel sits under the PB and restrains the centre of the cooling base. Two others stop the PB itself from sliding. The dowel on the left is 80mm from the left edge of the PB. The dowel on the right is 145mm (centre measurement) from the right side of the PB. This allows access to the slot for discs in the front of the PB.
After a try out I found I had to adjust the heights of the dowel pegs to 40mm to allow for the added height of the cooling base. Then three coats of clear Cabot’s Crystal Clear water based interior coating, with a mild sanding between coats.
When I installed the stand I tidied up the various leads and the USB hub which I attached to the back leg with a cable tie. The external hard drive and the toggle for the wireless mouse also sit under the stand with cables furled and tied with cable ties also. Generally the PB is easier to use and there is less clutter on the desk.