Curvy Plywood Laptop Stand ... With Keyboard Storage!
Introduction: Curvy Plywood Laptop Stand ... With Keyboard Storage!
Plywood is often thought of as just a construction material. It's strong, dimensionally stable, relatively easy to cut through and shape, etc. But its composition can actually be quite beautiful if you know where to look. The plies themselves can become an attractive point of interest, and if you "re-arrange" the wood properly you could be left with a real gem.
In our case, we chose to create a laptop stand that would also have a compartment for storing a full size keyboard when it isn't in use. The large surface area of the stand is ideal for a plywood project since it offers a lot of room to show the different plies. Additionally, the curved aspects of the stand are something pretty easy to achieve with this material since it really just ends up being a matter of getting it done perfectly one time and then just setting yourself for repeat cuts of the same thing.
This particular stand measures 17" wide, 11" deep and 5" high at it highest point. 415
The opening at the front is 2" high which is plenty to pass the keyboard through.
Supplies
As far as materials go, you'll need:
* a sheet of plywood (we used an approximately 3' by 4' piece 0.75" thick)
* a glue stick or spray adhesive
* plenty of wood glue
* double sided carpeting tape
* wood varnish
* wood stain (or you can keep the original plywood colours)
* you'll also need something to make the template out of, and a good choice is fiber board (we used a 12" by 20" piece that is 0.25" thick)
* wood filler (note you can also make your own with fine saw dust, wood glue and a bit of water)
For tools you'll need:
* either a jigsaw or scrollsaw to cut the parts out
* a router and a flush trim bit (with the bearing ring at the tip) to shape them
* a 1/8" router roundover bit
* sandpaper (we used 60, 80, 120 and 220 grit)
* sanding blocks and/or sponges
* orbital sander
* spring clamps
* plenty of long clamps (with at least four that are as long as your shelf's final width
* drill and 5/64" wood drill bit
* 1" wood screws
* If you have access to a rotary sander or sanding attachments for a drill that will also be extremely useful and will save you a lot of time.
Safety gear: You'll definitely want some ear and eye protection as well as a good dust mask. The steps involving sanding and (especially) routing will kick up a ton of sawdust and don't want any of that getting inside you.
Step 1: Making the Template
The template is the most critical part, so you'll want to make sure you spend a lot of time getting all the lines perfect, sanding down all rough edges, etc. It will be used in upcoming steps to trace all the cutouts and as a guide for the router to follow and shape the individual pieces, so any imperfection left at this point is likely to be repeated on all the pieces.
Start by sketching out or printing a pre-existing template. We drew ours on paper, basing all the measurements on the size of a laptop and its separate keyboard, and ensuring there was enough room in the front gap to be able to slide the keyboard in and out easily. We experimented with a couple of designs, got feedback from a few readers and in the end opted to go for the more rounded look.
Once the sketch was complete it was just cut out and glued to the fiber board using a glue stick. The board was then cut with a jigsaw about 1/8" away from the lines, and finetuned with sandpaper, sanding blocks and a rotary sanding attachment used on a drill press.
Step 2: Sketching and Cutting Out All the Parts
This part is relatively simple and straight forward, and you don't need to be very accurate with it as the final shaping will be taken care of in the next step. The only thing to do here is to trace the template on to the plywood as many times as necessary, group the tracings as much as possible to ensure there is little waste in between the cuts, and then use a jigsaw to cut all the pieces out. In our case, a shelf that needed to be 17" inches wide called for 22.6 pieces of 0.75" thick material, so 23 (plus a few extras just in case) were drawn and cut. 599