$0 Laptop Desk

I needed a desk. So naturally I made one. The only thing you might have to buy are the zip-ties.

So here's the ingredients:

3 Milk Crates
3 Soft Drink Crates
An old computer case with an aluminum "sleeve" usually found on Pentium 2 and older
A piece of cardboard about 48in long 15in wide
zip-ties

the crates can be acquired from the usual places

Step 1 Flatten the aluminum sleeve

The pictures pretty much sum up the process, these are pretty easy to bend but it's important to try and make them bend in the right angles..

Comments

[shooby]

3 layers of cardboard, glued together with wood glue and assembled such that the each layer's corrugation is rotated pi/2, will be just as strong as this. I use a similar setup, but with 6 milk crates, and a piece of 10" x 4' x 5/8" MDF (found in the trash). Works well when the milk crates contain books, as my setup is not against a wall.

[action_owl]

"assembled such that the each layer's corrugation is rotated pi/2" I wanted to make an all cardboard desk but didnt think I could find strong enough cardboard, can you elaborate on this it sounds awesome

[shooby]

Basically, like the layers of veneer in plywood, cardboard has a "grain", determined by the directions in which the corrugations are aligned. If you were to glue panels of cardboard together, surface to surface, you'd want to rotate successive layers by ninety degrees, so that each layer is offset ninety degrees from the two that are sandwiching it. This is how plywood is assembled,and it yields great results with cardboard as well. The reason I specified three layers is that, as with plywood veneers, you always want to use an odd amount of layers. An even amount results in the weakest plane being at the separation of two pieces. If an odd amount is used, the weakest point will be at the center of the center piece, which is far stronger.

[Utahtabby]

wish there was a 'like' button on instructables, i learned a lot from your reply. Thx!

[Yerboogieman]

This is great. I really believe it's $0. Or maybe 5 or 6 cents.

[purduecer]

you'd better really trust that cardboard, otherwise it could be a very tragic tragic moment sometime

[DELETED_craz meanman]

(removed by author or community request)

[purduecer]

^{oh, well okay then...}