A MAKE reader sent in this eBay auction – “Looks like a guy is making his own unimount for 25$ – I’ve seen these for over 100$ everywhere I look.” – Link. Seems simple enough to make your own based on the photos, but $25 is a pretty good deal if you need to mount a laptop in your car.
8 thoughts on “Homemade unimount laptop mount for cars”
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It’s very unfortunately a misdemeanor to operate a laptop in the front seat of an automobile in California, see an article here for more details. I’d love to put one of these in my car, but… I can’t.
I would also check the feedback on the seller. The repeated mentioning of the same problems was enough to discourage my purchase. I didn’t know you could not have a screen in your car in CA.
Go to the plumbing section of your hardware store and get gas pipe. You will need, one flange (I used 3/4 inch) which I then bolted to the passenger seat track, one lenght of pipe in 3/4 inch suitable for lenght desired, a 90 degree bend, with 3/4 inch coupler on one side and 1/2 inch coupler on other side (on mine at least, you might just make the whole thing out of 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch gas pipe) a lenght of 1/2 inch gas pipe to go horizontal, an second 90 degree bend, a female/femaile coupler, a male/male coupler, and then a 1/2 inch flange. You bolt a peice of screw a peice of wood to the flange. Then you take some velco and stick it to the laptop and the wood. The laptop can just be set on the velcro, won’t move on its own, and yet can be adjusted a bit. Just screw the pipes together tight enough to not allow the unit to move on its own, but not so tight you can’t move them when you want them. Mine cost me about 15 bucks.
So I bought a laptop mount from Ebay. Good deal, about $50 after shipping.
The ebay ad did not show how the unit was made, but when I got it home I was suprised to find that it was made of gas-pipe fittings.
This is a very easy (simple) way to make a low-end laptop mount.
It is not the best, but it will suffice.
Mind you, there is no shock resistance, pivot or tilt. (maybe a little pivot).
Here are some of the parts (all of which can be found at a hardware store).
These are all basically gas pipe fittings.
A couple of pipe joints, a couple of flanges, and a few various sized pipes. Then of course the table part, which in this case is made of plexiglass, but it can be made of sheet-metal, wood, whatever.
Pictures from the net of similar parts:
Fittings:
http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00olEtPafsTTNrM/Forged-Steel-Pipe-Fittings.jpg
Flange:
http://colomar.com/Shavano/LightPlateFlange.jpg
$20 for these parts at most.
Bending plexiglass entails scoring the area that you want to bend, and then heating it up with a torch. Then lay the plexiglass against a 90 degree angle made of something hard (preferrable steel at room temp or above). Then press down, and you get your fold.
More information here:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=98289
In about 2 hours, you have a laptop mount, custom made by you for less than $20. Enjoy!
http://modwatch.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8&forum=12&post_id=9#forumpost9
Phillip, your solution although inexpensive does not address the many ergonomic, usability and safety issues that confront professional, business and emergency mobile office users. Readers of your article might find it interesting to learn more about these issues. Comfort matters (http://customers.havis.com/index.php/learn/havis-design/comfort-matters), back strain, wrist strain and eye strain are important considerations for people who continually use their laptop or tablet in a vehicle. Safety also matters (http://customers.havis.com/index.php/learn/havis-design/toughest-in-safety). Preventing projectiles during an accident and understanding air bag deployment can mean the difference between life and death during an accident. Severe car crash and rollover case studies (http://customers.havis.com/index.php/case-studies) make it clear that using your inexpensive laptop or notebook mount solution may be short-sighted, fool-hearty and down right dangerous. I would argue the one-time cost of a high quality and thoroughly tested notebook or laptop mount is an incredible value.
Your readers can learn more about high quality, tested notebook and laptop vehicle mounts here (http://www.havis.com/catalog/Recommended_Packages-988-1.html).