laptops are great for their portability
but when it comes to getting some
serious work done it's often a good idea
to get it hooked up to a monitor and
peripherals to help you get things done
faster
unfortunately plugging in all the cables
can be a bit tedious and often ends up
looking messy and while you can get
sport replicators for some laptops these
aren't particularly elegant and still
take up a lot of room on the desk so to
solve these problems we will in this
video be building a super sleek
wall-mounted laptop docking station that
not only looks neat on the wall but is
also super practical as the laptop can
be just slid in place to connect it to
all of your devices let's get to it so
the first thing we'll need is a sheet of
low density PVC plastic which is perfect
for this project as it's lightweight
easy to work with and comes in a variety
of colors as its going to form the main
base the first thing to do to it is cut
it down to size and for aesthetics I'm
going to round off the corners using a
coping saw following it up with some
sandpaper for neatness size wise this
base needs to be three centimetres
larger than the laptop in all directions
which leaves room for all of the
connectors that will be adding later in
addition to allowing space for two
supporting side pieces these can be made
out of the same material and need to
have some holes drilled through them for
mounting purposes one thing to check
here is whether either of the side
pieces will block any vents on the
laptop if they do mark the vents
position on the offending side piece and
carefully carve out a gap for it on the
underside which should allow air to flow
freely through the vent
so before we screw these side pieces in
place we need to make two little tabs
that will later act as locks to stop the
laptop from falling out they can simply
be made out of a thin sheet of aluminium
using some tin snips and must be heavily
sanded down to round off all the edges
so that they won't scratch the laptop
when deployed these can then be attached
to the side pieces using some m5 flange
head screws these are supposed to slide
through the side pieces easily but I
made my hole slightly too small so they
were a little stiff now we can add a few
washers to act as spacers and tighten
them onto the base note the holes here
need to be smaller so that the screw
bites in securely as the tabs are likely
going to rotate the screws at this point
which we don't want we need to back off
the screws slightly and add some glue to
the underside which when dry should keep
the screws in place while still allowing
the tabs to be rotated so why were the
washers necessary
well they lift up the side pieces just
enough to match the inside height of the
laptop which allows the tabs to slide
over it to keep it secure next we'll
need a selection of cables which we can
use to make what's essentially a docking
interface I've got a USB extension to
monitor cables and a power port
extension with the laptop in position on
the dock these cables can all be plugged
in after which we can mold some tack
around the area of each plug to prevent
the glue we're going to use from
touching the laptop or spreading too far
you may want to make some grooves in the
base as well to give the glue something
extra to adhere to and it's a good idea
to rough up the plastic on each
connector for the same reason the glue
I'm using is slow drying epoxy which has
a working time of about an hour I'd
recommend this over the fast drying
stuff as those often set within 10
minutes which makes it a little bit
stressful as you'd have to rush to get
it all done in time so once it's
thoroughly mixed it can be spooned into
each tap mold as well as being added to
the underside of each connector
you need to take care when plugging
these in so as not to let any glue enter
the port at all which would be quite
disastrous for obvious reasons once it's
in place some more glue can be added up
the sides for some extra strength they
now need to be left until the glue is
completely cured and it's important that
they are in a very neutral position for
this not being pushed in any particular
direction so that they will be perfectly
in place once set so once it has set the
tack can be peeled away as much as
possible which leaves the port solidly
and securely in position so much so that
the laptop can be slid in and out and
they'll remain securely anchored as if
set in stone now it's time to tidy up
the cables so it can bundle them
together with a cable tie and get some
black cotton ribbon wrapping it around
and round it so tightly bind them
together this makes for a single exit
cable that looks really smart so now
there's only one thing left to do which
is to make a covering piece to hide the
connectors I made mine out of a single
piece of aluminium and use some tin
snips and files to make a little cutout
in the middle which makes a small gap
for two fingers to make the laptop
easier to pull out to finalise this you
might want to use some water and a very
fine grit sandpaper to add micro
scratches to its surface which should
give it a brushed look once it's washed
and dried very nice indeed this can then
be screwed in place after which the dock
is complete now you may have noticed the
four holes on the base
these are mounting holes to allow it to
be mounted onto a wall for this it's
just a case of using a pencil to mark
their positions and adding some raw
plugs which allows the dock to simply be
screwed in place so with that we can now
plug in all of the devices
I used a USB hub to give me four USB
ports which was attached to the back of
the desk for ease of access and for
power I simply connected the laptops
original power brick to the power port
extension now the laptop can be slid in
place which is super satisfying by the
way and powered on as you can see it
looks really neat especially compared to
the other methods I showed you earlier
and it keeps the desk free from clutter
giving you more room it has a cool
industrial look to it as well thanks to
the brushed aluminium flanged hex screws
and cotton covered cable by the way to
keep the laptop from going into standby
with the lid closed it's just a case of
going into power options and changing it
to do nothing we can even set up dual
monitors with this and when you're ready
to go the laptop can simply be pulled
out and you can be on your way now it's
worth noting that to successfully make
one of these your laptop must have at
least a monitor port a power port and a
USB port along a single edge doesn't
matter whether it's the back or one of
the sides as if it is one of the sides
you can make it so that it slides down
vertically instead so I hope you've
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other than that I'm at you've been
watching DIY perks and I really hope I
see you next time
good bye for now if you'd like to see
another laptop related project then why
not check this one out in which I show
you how to convert a smashed-up laptop
into a beautiful desktop PC with pretty
interesting results