With the new monitors coming I wanted to make a nice stand for them. Layout is monitor one is in the center, two is above it and upside down, three is portrait on the left and four is portrait on the right. Sort of an open cabinet looking thing. I’d planned it this way and ordered a couple of longer DVI cables.
I had to create a couple of stands for the two portrait monitors immediately as the stands don’t permit rotation. I got them set up without too much trouble using the original stands mounted to the the boards and the mounting hardware attached to the board. It’s leaning back with the monitor tilted forward for balance. Even so it’s a little front heavy.
Next up I designed a cabinet based on the desired layout. One of the problems is that the bottoms of the monitors are pointed. 13 5/8″ at the center and 12 7/8″ at either side. So there’ll be some hand cutting with the jigsaw.
First off I needed to create a base. With the monitors in place on the desk I drew out a base. 44″ wide at the front and 23″ at the back with 3″ between the back and where the monitors will be sitting. The first time through I had the marks for the cuts too far to the left so I repenciled them in a couple of inches to the right. Then when I cut, I cut on the wrong lines.
First piece of scrapped wood.
Once I got the base lined out correctly and cut, I cut out the base pieces. Several 2×4 cut down and glued into place. That went well taking a couple of cuts to get the end pieces done right. I also found a nice front piece that I set aside.
Next I got the measurements out for the center piece and measured it out. When I got done cutting it, I found I miss measured it too short.
While I couldn’t use it for the back piece, it was big enough for a side piece so I set it aside.
I didn’t have another piece handy so I checked out the stack of plywood in the back of the garage. It was harder to get to but I found another sheet of 1/2″ plywood and pulled it out. I measured out the back correctly and cut it out. I jigsawed the pointy bit at the top and set it behind the base to check out the measurements. Looking good.
I took the left piece, measured it out and cut it. There was an off angle I needed to cut which turned out to be 28*. It fit against the back board correctly so I cut out a second piece for the right side. I measured out the pointy bit for the left side and put it up to check it out. The more I looked at it, the more I thought the back board, which would be holding two monitors, wasn’t going to be right as a straight cut and decided to cut a new piece.
Another piece of scrap.
I cut a second piece and recut the left and right pieces with a 14* angle. The center piece was cut with a 14* angle on either side which worked out well. The angle pieces would provide additional support for the board. I would be putting a board under the front pieces as well (some 3/4″ oak plywood) for support but it’d be nice if there wasn’t so much weight on the front. I measured out the pointy bit from the bottom and again miss measured and cut the sides too deep.
Another piece of scrap.
Ok, time to stop for the night.
I still needed a stand for the top monitor as it’s arriving Tuesday so with some scrap I whipped up a stand. Some quick jigsawing and of course it’s too short. As it’s a temporary stand I simply glued and screwed a piece on the top which worked out. I moved the left monitor to the top (upside down) and got it in place without too much trouble. It was a tiny bit too short but it worked.
I’ll continue working on the official cabinet this week.