 Are you a slave to the tyranny of uncomfortable desk chairs? Do you long for the freedom and comfort of couch gaming? But are you plagued by uneven surfaces for your mouse and keyboard? Do the current solutions either provide you with diminutive peripherals, obviously designed by smaller than average gnomes that are unusable for your large, meaty man paws? Or come with a price tag so exorbitant that you'd have to sell a kidney to purchase it? Well, LTT has your back, plucky consumer. In this short video, we'll teach you fabrication secrets that the big gaming companies don't want you to know, and help you build a gaming platform that will let you dominate noobs in comfort, while retaining each and every one of your sweet, juicy organs. If you haven't seen Nerd Sports yet, check it out! All the episodes are available now for free over at youtube.com slash channel super fun. Let me introduce what our team of uncertified engineers is referring to as the Mark IV Knee-based Peripheral Support System, or Couchwood. It features a conveniently located 10-keyless mechanical keyboard, a large mouse pad for enhanced FPS gameplay, a phone charging dock, and a built-in beverage holder. If you'd like to download the plans for this gaming platform, or see a detailed step-by-step, check it out at the link to the forum in the video description. So the first step of constructing this marvel was to measure and cut out the top surface. We wanted to ensure that we had a large enough play area for even low sensitivity gamers, since one of the objectives in building our own couch gaming platform was not just to save some money, but also to fill some of the gaps that we saw in the design of the commercial products that we've reviewed. There's a slightly smaller bridge portion across your knees, and then an equally large surface on the other side that serves as a counterweight and a convenient snack holder. With that finished, we immediately went into cutting and attaching the small wooden components that will hold your keyboard, phone, and beverage in place. We chose to attach these fixtures right away for very technical reasons that I'm not going to bore you with, and certainly not because long-term planning is one of the DIY team leader's personal development goals for 2017. That being said, those of you at home who want to put this together might go for the coward's route of doing this step last, so that you don't potentially damage the extruding pieces while attaching bulkier bottom components. The exact positioning of the keyboard on the platform is pretty flexible. It's totally up to you, and this is by design, so you can arrange its location to be whatever is most comfortable for your right hand. The large gangly limbs of the lead designer on this project dictated its current placement here, but for the more fun-sized members of our staff, you might prefer to have the keyboard and mouse a little bit closer together. The two bottom boxes on either side exist to hide cabling and provide a measure of stability so that the surface doesn't tip around while you're using it. We built these out of 2x4s for a solid, weighty body, but if you're afraid that your frail and feeble thighs can't handle that sort of intensity, you can really choose any materials you want. A 1x3 would work just as well. Once all the wood construction is complete, make it beautiful. We went with a dark, dusky hue applied in smooth, even tones to accentuate the natural beauty of the, uh, plywood. But, uh, just make sure that you drill your holes for your cables before you apply your wood stain, or you will be forced to go back again and do touch-ups. Again, thinking we're pretty good at. Thinking ahead? Well, there's a reason they call them smart goals, right? Once your wood stain has dried, you can lock down your peripherals. The mouse pad is attached firmly to the surface, and to avoid the aggravation of the bumpiness that would normally result from gluing it down, we opted to use screws and washers in the corners. Our keyboard of choice was a Corsair K65, but the couch wood is also capable of accommodating larger models if that's what you're into, or really pretty much anything. By gluing the wrist rest in place, you'll not only stave off the eventual onset of carpal tunnel syndrome, and maybe splinters in your wrist, but you'll also stop the keyboard itself from sliding around. A USB hub on the underside of the surface provides connections for the keyboard, mouse, and phone charger, and once you have the cabling all locked into place, you can screw the bottom boxes into the top surface to keep all that nonsense out of sight. Now naturally, you wouldn't want to rest this on your knees for an extended period of time as is, so you'll want to add some sort of cushioning to the underside. Anything goes here, but we opted to attach a half-cylindrical foam exercise roller, as it provided the gentle firmness and soft support of a compassionate lover. Okay, Tyler, we're gonna have to talk about your scripts. Um... And if you've had a passing flirtation with yoga, the odds of you having one of these lying around, or something like it, are pretty good. Although, if the only downward-facing dog that you know about is Snoopy, then you can order one off Amazon at the link in the video description. So at this point then, it's time for us to attach a 10-foot USB cord to the platform, and get to gaming. So, in the end, the couch would cost us $138 in materials to put together, though it should be noted that 75 of it went directly towards the K65 mechanical gaming keyboard. So by using a budget keyboard, or simply one that you already own, the cost of this project can be comfortably kept under $70. In comparison, the Sova retails at $185, the Lapdog at $135 with no keyboard, and the Razer Turret at $120 with a keyboard and mouse that I wouldn't consider acceptable for gaming either of them. So all told then, the construction process took just under four hours, split into two days to allow for the wood stain to dry, and while it's weighty, the couch would sit comfortably on your knees, and the large surface provided a full range of mouse movement, as well as a lot of flexibility. Because building it yourself, you don't have to do it this way. You could put the keyboard over here, which is probably what I would do. You could shorten the drink holder and the snack holder. You could make the mouse pad smaller, and that's something that an off-the-shelf solution just can't do. While it lacks the ability to be tucked, you know, neatly out of sight for a more discreet look in the living room, all told, it's a sturdy enough battleship of a platform that can accommodate a full gaming experience. So if that's what you're after, well, it can be done for just a few bucks. Have you heard of using a VPN to browse the internet, but never really gotten around to looking into it? Well, you don't have to, because with TunnelBear, using a VPN is as simple as heading over to TunnelBear's website, linked in the video description, the download even like starts automatically, so you just install it, and boom. That's it. With TunnelBear turned on, once you press the little button, your internet connection is secured, and to the websites and services that you use online, you appear as though you are a different person from an entirely different country. TunnelBear also has a top-rated privacy policy and does not log your activity, and if you kind of want to go, you know, could this possibly be as simple as he says, you don't quite take my word for it, that's fine, because all you got to do is head over to TunnelBear.com slash LTT and try it with the first 500 megabytes for free. Then you can save 10% if you decide to go unlimited at the link in the video description. So thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do, but if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff that we featured at Amazon in the video description. Also linked down there is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one, and our community forum, which... let me drink some of this water... which you should totally join. Now that you're done doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering what to watch next, so maybe check out the reviews on the commercial lap board products that we'll have linked up there, I hope.