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Posts: 154 | Thanked: 73 times | Joined on Jan 2009 @ Toronto
#5
Pictures show an extremely light and sturdy folding desk stand, made from cross-laminated boxboard, flat toothpicks, popsicle sticks and rubber bands. It was built for Nokia 770 and the proportions are not good for the N800's large-radius corners. Addition of the half-tube support overcomes that problem.

As shown in the last picture, the N800 remains stably supported on the half-tube even when placed eccentrically and held by gravity alone. Rubber bands are highly recommended, though, to make the whole structure solid. The half-tube was made from a piece of nominal 1/2" CPVC water-supply pipe, sawn down the middle. (Sorry it's not on the picture of components. I just cut it today, while in the middle of preparing this post. Its edges and corners could use some smoothing.)

Blotchy appearance results from varnishing over a messy glue job. Glue was used for laminating the board, attaching the popsicle-stick frame and reinforcing the edges with toothpicks.

It was built high for two reasons. (1) To allow room for the various cables to plug in at the bottom of the 770 (see picture). (2) The height and angle are perfect for me to work at a table, using an external keyboard. If you do not need so much height, you will have an easier time making the structure rigid and stable.

The base rests on four silicone pads. The three black rubber pads were an earlier idea that turned out to be inadequate - they did not make enough friction to keep the stand from sliding around when the stylus was poked at the Tablet. Stability is not affected by the incipient curling up of the cardboard at the right (a result of cramming the dismantled stand into a small box with all other accessories, for storage and travel). The base is there mainly to keep a constant angle between the faces of the partially folded upright. The bottom of the upright lies on the table.
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