DIY MacBook Stand

https://github.com/ergenekonyigit/diy-macbook-stand

by ergenekonyigit • 9 years ago

173 125 9 years ago

github.com

exhilaration• 9 years ago

That looks kinda flimsy... I'd be a little scared of putting my (employer's) $3000 Macbook on that.

Faaak• 9 years ago

Seriously, are you afraid that your macbook can break falling from 10 cm ?

I'm worried when my thinkpad falls from 1 m high.

Raphmedia• 9 years ago

Aluminium dents easily.

pvdebbe• 9 years ago

Apple makes nice but brittle bodies.

bdcravens• 9 years ago

It looks as steady as some of the pricey aluminum stands I've bought.

rconti• 9 years ago

Looks fine to me. I've dropped my Air from over 4 feet with not a scratch, granted it landed on a wood floor.

Even if this somehow broke, it would only break in one direction, causing it to tilt and fall meaning the speed on the vertical would not be so huge.

d133• 9 years ago

Yeah, they're really tough - a drop of a few feet is fine.

nkoren2• 9 years ago

I use this for my MacBook stand: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/small-storage-organisers/...

It folds up compactly, is extremely lightweight, and has survived 4 years of almost daily use without complaint. Highly recommended.

pcl• 9 years ago

I usually use these: https://www.amazon.com/HP-Printer-Office-Letter-172160R/dp/B...

jordache3• 9 years ago

heat dissipation?

nkoren2• 9 years ago

Better than sitting on a desk.

AdamGibbins2• 9 years ago

I'll stick with my superior Roost, thanks.

johnwheeler• 9 years ago

The nexstand, although a knockoff, is half the price and more robust

AdamGibbins2• 9 years ago

It's also depriving the inventors of their return for their excellent invention and the quantity of R&D that went into making it.

falcolas2• 9 years ago

The diagram of the center spreader piece doesn't make any sense without context. Are the four pieces glued in place? Is there a tab that isn't visible in the picture which allows it to be sandwiched between the other two pieces?

What materials? Is there a cad save file for cutting it ourselves?

ChuckMcM2• 9 years ago

Agreed it is confusing, the JPEG "is" the CAD file (although there is a DXF file as well) but laser cutters will often use a JPEG as the profile image.

Here is my guess, you laser it out of acrylic, you slot the two large parts together to form an 'X' (looking down from the top) and you glue in the four wedges using solvent glue to stabilize the X shape of the two pieces.

knolan5• 9 years ago

Which is daft because you can just cut another slot and shove a bit in at an angle to lock it — no glue needed. Also the CAD is useless unless you have the exact thickness of material to laser cut since you can't adjust the cut width. This could easily have been a clever script to generate an SVG to match your material thickness and laptop dimensions.

This is submission is well below the bar for what I usually see on HN.

TheSpiceIsLife4• 9 years ago

laser cutters will often use a JPEG as the profile image.

Laser cutter operator here. Never heard of laser cutter, plasma cutter, or oxy cutter (our company has all three) accepting a JPG as the input file. I've spoken to two other local operators and they all require a DXF / DWG or some other type of NC (Numeric Code) file as input.

Frye• 9 years ago

No one heard of thingiverse?

ericskiff2• 9 years ago

I think this is great and like the approach to the design! Amazingly it was almost 10 years ago that I put mine up on Thingiverse - thing 32, while we were still testing before making Thingiverse public :) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32

ZeroGravitas2• 9 years ago

Does the cardboard version in the photos work, or was that just a prototype?

mfonda• 9 years ago

My DIY MacBook stand is simply a pile of old textbooks. Gets the job done and comes with the added bonus of adjustable height.

jakelarkin• 9 years ago

ah, the mythical $500 MacBook stand (4 or 5 college textbooks)

TheSpiceIsLife4• 9 years ago

Sunk cost though. I use parking tickets as bookmarks. At least I'm getting some value out of them.

xab9• 9 years ago

I just love how github ends up being blog, forum, wiki, disqus-clone etc. for us tech people.

As for the stand I used this cheap ikea-hack: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c7/c9/a0/c7c9a072c328a3596186e1b71... (can't find the original post sry)

tambourine_man• 9 years ago

I don't know if I love that, but it has turned into all of those things indeed.

amelius4• 9 years ago

As long as GitHub doesn't abuse its control of the portal, it's okay.

bitwize• 9 years ago

GitHub is basically DeviantArt for programmers. When you look at it that way it all makes sense.

rootlocus• 9 years ago

While both are filled with low quality content, personal experiments without public importance, etc. I think github has some high quality, community relevant content that DeviantArt lacks. I see it like both DeviantArt and something like ArtStation.

mxuribe• 9 years ago

I actually dislike that fact very much. Oh, I don't disagree that github is that for so many users...and i can not disagree with the convenience of what github provides...I simply dislike that it is all controlled/owned by github...a single point of technical/infrastructure failure, and a single corporate entity where so much content (content beyond raw code, that is) is hosted...not unlike the facebook effect. I wish people hosted their content in a more decentralized fashion.

amelius4• 9 years ago

Well, at least you can easily get your and other people's data out of GitHub (unlike e.g. YouTube and Facebook).

It would be easy to create a giant mirror of GitHub, for example (once you have a distributed storage system).

Also, GitHub doesn't control what users are viewing (unlike YouTube and Facebook), which makes the platform less of a threat to internet freedom.

zitterbewegung• 9 years ago

Everyone says that people want a decentralized set of repositories for open source. I have never seen it happen and instead we just get better and better iterations on sourceforge.

pokstad• 9 years ago

Is there a github clone people can host on their personal site that handles git, wiki, issues, and pages? Not talking about gitlab either. Only for hosting at the project level to keep things simple.

jimmies2• 9 years ago

That's so true. I helped a friend who is hosting his freaking school research symposium website on there. It's easy to set up and collaborate on there. Love that.

madmod• 9 years ago

100 years from now maybe github will be the new geosites. Or maybe my great great grandkids can review that PR I made today.

jason_slack• 9 years ago

Wow, great thought. Maybe I had better write better commit messages then.

ktta• 9 years ago

Reminds me of how increasingly online everything has become, which is being documented in perfect detail. Would be interesting how sociology would change a couple decades from now.

Cthulhu_• 9 years ago

The difference being that you can clone the exact contents of a repo with one press of a button. That's just the code though, I wish Github also stored wiki, issues, images, and all other "meta" data into the repository as well.

That way, it would be easy for archive.org and other parties to build a scraper that just takes snapshots of all repos every once in a while, for posterity.

ralfd• 9 years ago

What is that ikea thingy?

kikimaru• 9 years ago

Looks like a shelving frame* with a door handle to hold the laptop.

jeroen3• 9 years ago

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/making-a-laptopbook-stand-o...

jeroen3• 9 years ago

Source for the Ikea stand: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/making-a-laptopbook-stand-o...

hoosieree• 9 years ago

Just needs swipe left/swipe right on the Issues tab...

KayL• 9 years ago

I use a roll of toilet paper (not a joke).

amcnett• 9 years ago

I use five little 4oz paper cups (also not a joke).

stevenjohns2• 9 years ago

I personally use an mStand[0] by Rain Design. I was using a small cardbox box before that and my employer at the time gifted an mStand to me.

The difference is night and day and it made me appreciate my MacBook's display much more even when it was connected to an external monitor. I also found myself using multiple (virtual) desktops so much more as well.

If you're able to afford it, I really recommend shelling out the extra cash for a proper stand. If not, and you have an employer that might buy it for you, go out on a limb and ask for one. It might really improve how you interact with your laptop.

[0] http://www.raindesigninc.com/mstand.html

bllguo• 9 years ago

I'm actually really surprised by this gushing review - I use the same stand at work, but I don't think too much of it. Could I ask you to elaborate? Just curious.

stevenjohns2• 9 years ago

A lot of other stands don't have the laptop sitting so high above the desk, making them much closer to the table or even flush but angled upwards from the back.

As it sits now, it is high enough so that it matches the exact same level of eyesight as my external monitor. This makes the external monitor compliment it rather than replace it.

The shape also allows you to move your hands around under it, whereas if it was lower or if the design was different it would interrupt movement and usage of an external keyboard.

Other things I like about it is that it's super solid, it's all just a single piece, made of aluminium (for heat purposes) and the rubber things on it keep the laptop held securely in place.

discreditable3• 9 years ago

I recently released a stand I made for my ThinkPad Yoga. It'd probably work for a Macbook too. They're very close in size. I like mine a little better because I can put the dock and cables under it.

https://github.com/KeenRivals/ThinkPad-Yoga-Laptop-Stand

vaporary• 9 years ago

Nice, thank you for sharing!

I'm curious, which 3D printer did you use?

knolan5• 9 years ago

It looks laser cut, most schools would have a laser cutter nowadays because they’re stupidly easy to use.

It would be difficult, and inadvisable to print something this large on a regular 3D printer.

Thingyverse is literally full of designs like this and often much better.

https://www.thingiverse.com/search/page:1?q=Laptop+stand&sa=...

discreditable3• 9 years ago

I used a MakerBot Replicator 2.

kevin_thibedeau• 9 years ago

Seems like a roundabout way to avoid using an external monitor.

majewsky3• 9 years ago

Much cheaper though.

cocoa19• 9 years ago

Geez. Spend $3,000 on luxury laptop, can't afford a $100 external monitor.

ThePadawan• 9 years ago

I use a similar (more portable) stand for another use case:

Hotdesking between offices. One external monitor on all desks. Using built-in monitor as well as external monitor sucks if you constantly have to look up and down.

Using a stand, I can have the typical multi-monitor experience (aligned top borders).

jordache3• 9 years ago

This is wonderful, and vents the bottom of the laptop

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Ventilated-Adjustable-La...

kadal• 9 years ago

I have this one and the thing that sticks up pokes my wrist all day. I don't think a human tested it for any amount of time.

mikewhy• 9 years ago

Do people use their laptops when on a stand? I thought they were to keep them off your desk and make room for a full sized mouse / keyboard.

jordache3• 9 years ago

huh? I use it while using the laptop in clamshell mode.

What else do people use stands for? Surly it's not to elevate the screen to eye level and still type on it? That's just awkward.

bhauer• 9 years ago

I might be missing something, but it looks like it would work with most 12 or 13-inch laptops, not just Macbooks.

chadcmulligan• 9 years ago

I use a couple of kitchen handles connected to a couple of timber angle brackets all from IKEA, cost about $20 I think and lasted me years so far

anotheryou• 9 years ago

Anyone else moving his monitors as far down to the table as possible?

I just use a stand to get more space on my desk by the tilting (on my home setup, where I have one big nice screen). At work it's dual monitors and I keep my laptop shut while docked.

wyclif• 9 years ago

Yes, I've never liked elevating the monitor. To me it's uncomfortable and bad ergonomics. I want to avoid tilting my head up to look at the monitor. I want my eyes looking slightly down from a completely level position, and this decreases eye strain. I've never understood why so many people want to jack their monitor up on a box, fat technical book, or stand. The most important thing is to make sure the surface of your desk is at the right height for working while sitting or standing.

tapia• 9 years ago

What makes this a MacBook Stand and not a general notebook stand for any other 13" notebook?

majewsky3• 9 years ago

Two guesses:

1. Adding "Macbook" to the title increases the chance of getting to the frontpage (like some sort of cheap SEO).

2. People starting to use "Macbook" when they mean "notebook" like when you use the verb "google" instead of "search on the internet".

yeukhon• 9 years ago

I can agree about 1 and the last part of 2. But I am willing to bet you people’d say “laptops” to refer to any non-Apple laptops.

dragonshed• 9 years ago

I've also made my own MacBook stands, but using MakerBeams[0]. After receiving a kit as a gift, I messed around with several small projects and simple things, but I've consistently used the stands since I've built them. Very solid and stable, yet open, and I'm able to use the desk space underneath them for dongles, cables, or whatever. Everything I needed was included in the kit, except for some vinyl endcaps and foam sheet material, both added to protect the macbook and my desk from scratches.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/MakerBeam-Regular-anodized-including-...

SimeVidas• 9 years ago

A bunch of shoe boxes works fine too

mesozoic• 9 years ago

I like this. I'd like to see more "open source" easy to make by the average person accessories.

abawany2• 9 years ago

I use this: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20302596/ . Works great at the desk for me since I don't use an external monitor.

Vinnl• 9 years ago

Isn't the screen still pretty low when you use that? (That's actually my gripe with most laptop stands, come to think of it.)

abawany2• 9 years ago

For me, it was a good improvement compared to the stock laptop position (13" MBP). I guess it reduced the angle of neck-crane by half so for the price, I was pretty happy.

teekert• 9 years ago

It's nice but a Samsung FullHD 24" PLS (Samsungs IPS) cost about 130 euro's nowadays. The DPI is to cry about but it beats working on < 14" any day for me.

Maybe this solution is nice and useful because you can take it with you together with the keyboard and trackpad and get a reasonable working posture anywhere?

michaelgrafl• 9 years ago

Your comment confused me at first, because it didn't even occur to me that people would use this stand to correct their posture when working with the laptop on a desk.

I use a laptop stand (stacked carton boxes) at work to use it alongside my two 24" monitors. If I weren't lazy I would build this stand and use it so my desk would look nicer.

jressey• 9 years ago

Shoutouts to the water bottle acting as an iPad stand.

andrew_wc_brown• 9 years ago

I remember building one of these 10 years ago. Nice to see the resurgence

DIY MacBook Stand

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