Main Project Report Part 1: 2-size Tablet Stand

Background

For my project the goal is to make a desk stand to put my tablet/monitor side-by-side of my laptop, so the stand needs to fit both 12-inch and 16-inch tablet/monitor, holding about 1.5 kilogram (3.3 lbs) without breaking.

Before I was using an easel to hold them, but is was too far from the desk

First Sketch

My first idea was combining the easel with a monitor mount that clamps to the desk, to make it fold so I can take it with me, for aesthetic, I decided to either make the structure look like a maple or a star…

…or go for the “folding paper fan” style with faces that can be swapped, here’s something random I sketched for the faces

And here’s what I did for the 3 aesthetic blog post, they have completely different mechanisms for holding the monitor.

And then the monitor mount arrived…

The monitor mount is way heavier than I expected, it is made from some serious metal tube, guess there’s a reason they are advertised to hold up to 27 inch monitors…

VIVO Single LCD Monitor Desk Mount Stand (STAND-V001)

Since the whole thing is not likely to go anywhere (other than the expo), I decided to abandon the pretty complicated easel design and make it as sturdy as possible, but still has the “2-size” capability.

That gave me more freedom in aesthetic choices, so I decided on that first, my inspiration came from all the gaming laptops, with all the triangular elements accompanied by RGB lighting, after some sketches this was what I got, with some calculations on thickness vs filament needed and cooling vents to avoid:

For size-changing I used the slider idea from Nintendo Switch, by having 4 slides on the base connecting to the monitor mount I can switch(no pun intended) between 2 (…or 3) sizes.

Then it was making the CAD models, I use Solid Edge (which no one seems to have heard of), I also measured the screws I had to make sure they don’t stick out of the slides, the result is the slider base is about 4 mm thicker than necessary.