Laptop stand/table

Last year, after stumbling upon this design of a laptop table, I kinda liked the idea, and decided to make something similar as a birthday gift for my mother-in-law… I had some 1/2” Baltic birch plywood leftovers, which seemed to be a good material for a project. The proportions (size and angles) were mostly copied from photos on the website mentioned above, with some adaptations to a wooden construction. The table itself was made with holes in it to reduce the weight and provide some passive cooling for a laptop. All components were shaped using a router table and belt/disk/drum sander. First, I was going to buy some standard knobs for adjustment elements, but then thought that black plastic would look rather ugly, and decided to make the knobs myself out of the same plywood. A drill press, hole saws of two sizes, a forstner bit and a sanding drum did the trick. I used 4-prong insert nuts inside each knob, and assembled them using a quick epoxy. Paired with 1/4-20 carriage bolts, they made quite reliable and decent looking joints. The finish is 4 coats of Zinsser Bullseye SealCoat (dewaxed shellac).

For securing the joints at a certain angle, I originally used the high-friction rubber pieces (visible on the last photo), but they didn’t last long, and the joints became flimsy, and din’t hold anymore… So, I retrofitted those joints with metal plate reinforcements with holes drilled at every 15 degrees, and metal pins fitting into those holes. That worked much better, and even though it provided less choice for setting an angle, it made the construction rock-solid. Sorry, I don’t have photos of those elements…