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Friday, May 15, 2009

$8 DIY Aluminum Laptop Stand

We've always been keen on DIY laptop stands, but reader Aaron Kravitz—inspired by an attractive $50 stand—went above and beyond, creating one of the most attractive DIY laptop stand we've featured to date.




To his credit, it's also a very inexpensive stand, especially considering its good looks. Aaron writes in:

Cardboard's great and all, but with $8 worth of metal, a hacksaw, and a few strips of leather, I built this thing. I got the idea from the $50mStand; seemed to me that making something that sexy shouldn't be all that hard. For the bend I used my hands and a sawhorse.

As far as specs go... nothing exacting, but here's what I found worked best.

Supports: 4 x 5.5", 1/8" by 1"
Bent Bar: 1 x 24", 3/32" by 3/4"

I chose aluminum because it looks nice, plus it's soft and easy to work with. I couldn't find any at home depot, but my local mom and pop hardware store had plenty; I got just what I needed for about $8. A quick look online and it looks like you can get it even cheaper.

The top supports are on 6.5" centers, the bottoms 6". This worked best stability-wise for a 15" MBP, but it works fine for anything bigger than a netbook. The supports only have one bolt apiece for looks, so I added a little bit of epoxy to each joint so things don't slide around. As for bending the bar, I really just eyeballed it. Unloaded the top is about parallel with the bottom, so it sags nicely with a laptop on top.

I added leather pads (found at a local craft store) attached with double-sided tape so my laptop won't get scratched; those who care about their desks might want 'em on the bottom too.

Naturally, this thing is pretty durable. I've been using it for over a year now and the only wear is on the leather pads.

The only DIY laptop stand we've seen up until now whose looks come close to Aaron's is the paper towel holder laptop stand, but Aaron's sweet DIY creation is another inexpensive and attractive alternative to the more expensive commercial options.

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