| UberRoo |
07-08-2005 11:53 PM |
I built a laptop mount for someone once. It was basically the same design police cars use for their radio stacks / mic racks / radar gun mounts / etc. I started with a 1/8" plate of metal about 10" square and welded a post to the center of it. The plate was bolted to the floor, through the floor. Another plate was welded to a smaller post at a slight angle. This plate was covered with adhesive-backed Velcro. The smaller post and plate was inserted into the larger post, (which was bolted to the floor.) The larger post had a hole drilled in the side of it with a nut welded over the hole. A screw through the nut would clamp the smaller post inside of the larger post, making the height and rotation of the assembly adjustable. The underside of the laptop was covered with adhesive-backed Velcro and placed onto the stand.
As horrible as it may sound, putting holes through the floor of your car to bolt things to isn't all that bad. If the stand is removed, the holes can be patched very easily (tire patches work well) and the carpet heals to hide the holes.
The downside is that you have a big metal stand hovering somewhere in the middle of your passenger space, but it's not half as noticeable as the laptop which hovers far more conspicuously in the middle of your passenger space.
The idea in the picture in the preceding post is clever, but I wouldn't recommend it. I suspect the copper tubing will not last very long. Copper fatigues. I'm also not sure you could find any flex tubing large enough to support a laptop. Exhaust tubing perhaps? They do make special flexible shafts for this very purpose. CB and HAM radio shops often carry it. It also wears out, but it doesn't fail like copper tubing would. It just becomes weaker. You'll still have a hard time finding it in a large enough size. I had a Clarion remote mount equalizer / crossover controller that used that flex shaft stuff. It was cute for the first week, but I eventually zip-tied it to my parking brake lever.
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