Welcome to the Poor Man's Ergonomic Laptop Stand page. On this page I will explain a simple and cheap way to create your own ergonomic laptop stand. With this stand, the laptop's screen will be at eye-level and you'll be able to use a full-sized keyboard and mouse. These three things are recommended for ergonomic laptop use.

The stand is based on some commercial solutions I came across on the web, but I believe my use of the nylon straps and the self-stabilising design are quite unique. It was explained to me by aliens the previous time they abducted me.

Click on a photo to see its full-size version (1760x1168). If you wish to discuss the poor man's (also known as "ghetto") laptop stand or just leave a comment, go here.

In any case, because I'm not an award-winning woodworker, I opted for using 9mm MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) and a cool staple and nail gun for most of the construction. The nail-gun cost me a measly 12 euro-bucks!

Cut (or have them cut) three boards. I have a large 33x29cm laptop, so I made two 35x35cm and one 37x35cm boards. The larger board forms the base. Use your staple gun to attach these boards to each other using nylon weave. I used the strap from an old tog-bag. When you cut nylon weave, remember to singe the ends with a candle or your flame-thrower, if you're Sigourney Weaver and you're trying to build a laptop stand in the idle moments between being terrorised by a terrifying alien. The figure below shows you how the boards should be attached to each other:

The board on the far right is the large one. Note the two wooden blocks on the middle board: they have been glued and nail-gunned to the MDF. The laptop will rest on these two blocks. On the under-side of this MDF train you'll see two small blocks of MDF that have been glued and nailed on the far left. Take into account that everything has also been flipped from left to right, so the larger board is now on the left:



When we fold the whole thing into a weird-assed pyramid, these two blocks will keep it from collapsing. Well, it's not really a pyramid, it's just a self-stabilising triangular structure:



This structure is able to carry my very heavy laptop without complaints and seems very stable:



but, just like all that brilliant home-exercise equipment Advertised on TV(tm), the Poor Man's Ergonomic Laptop Stand can be folded for easy storage (under the bed, if there's any space left with all your stowed-away exercise equipment):

This is what it all looks like with full-sized keyboard and conventional mouse:

I already feel so much more ergonomic than this morning...