cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1252248

Very basic and simple, yet it might be handy for some people. We were thinking of making one for a teenager who wants to play games on the laptop in bed, albeit with a different look.

From the blog:

This scrap wood DIY Laptop Desk is a one-hour project to get that overheating laptop off your lap! Complete photo tutorial inside!

Want to know a semi-secret about me? I’m a gamer. When I tell people this, I always feel the need to clarify a bit- not one of those first person shooter gamers. Violence freaks me out. But simulation games (Sims, city builders,) and strategy games (Settlers of Catan on steroids,) I’m all for.

As you might expect, I have a pretty hefty laptop. It gets hot. Really hot; enough to burn my legs. And if my legs are burning, that’s probably a bad sign for the insides of the laptop.

So I wanted to create a laptop desk that not only holds the laptop off my lap, but also helps cool the laptop. What I mean by this: most laptops have fans on the bottom of the machine that blow hot air out of the machine.

On a normal desk, the hot air hits the desk, and then is pushed right back into the machine by the desk. But on the DIY laptop desk I built, there are spaces between the wood, allowing that hot air to escape.

Those spaces are a simple solution to help keep laptops cool and therefore extend their lifespans. Plus, this plan is super easy, coming together in under an hour of work!