[Tenacious Dyl]

Hello everyone, I looked around on the market for a decent stand, and I couldn't find one (at least to my liking, that didn't cost a load of money!) and so I set up a project...

1) Removed the "power supply" section of my old Que! USB External Burner (see my other thread, the burner is ca-put).

2) Purchased an Antec, 3.5" Fan with 3 blue LEDS.

3) Found a nice piece of finished and stained wood in my basement.

4) Took a ruler, and measured out a "grid" on the top of the wood.

5) Got a drill press (from my father) and drilled a 1/2 diameter hole in the wood at each point the ruler-lines intersected. Thus making a giant "checkerboard" or "grid" of holes.

6) Found another piece of the same nice wood, and cut two small pieces of it, and glued them to each end, making long legs and raising the platform itself.

7) Cut a hole the size of the fan (using a drill, drill-press, and jigsaw)

8) Drilled 2 holes in the back of one of the "legs" and inserted the power supply "line in" port, and the switch (all from the burner). Ran the 4 pin male cord coming off the switch under the stand.

9) Secured the fan in its position, and plugged it into the 4 pin male out from the burner's power supply.

10) Got small hexagon-shaped foam "feet pads" (about 1 mm tall) and made 8 stacks of them, 3 high, on top of the stand.

Now my al book sits atop the foam "risers" or "feet" and underneath it are many many evenly drilled holes and a blue led fan. It looks sweet, it has an on/off switch. And it cost me 9 dollars + tax.

Will post pictures soon.

[Tenacious Dyl]

Quick update... my computer now runs at 33.5-37.5 degrees C. That is with intensive applications open. I strongly recommend building a similar stand!\

Also, I run dual monitors with my 12" which makes those temperatures even more outstanding.

If I can get a link to somewhere I can host my pictures, I would love to share with you all.

[euphras]

Pic�s ?!?

[Tenacious Dyl]

need a place to upload them!!!

[Lateralus]

OS X has a built in server, FYI.

Activate it by going to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Sharing > Personal Web Sharing <--- Turn it on.

After turning it on, you will find a folder called 'WebServer' in 'Hard Drive/Library' and in the WebServer folder you will see a Documents folder. Throw everything that is already in the Documents folder into the trash and put whatever you want to share in it.

You can then access those files by going to your machines IP address in any web browser.

[d4nth3m4n]

Originally posted by Tenacious Dyl:
need a place to upload them!!!

www.photobucket.com. its free.

[andretan]

Erm, Spymac has free pix hosting, 100mb webspace, blah blah and email.

[Tenacious Dyl]

Sweet... will use photobucket shortly (when I have time).

[ul1984]

bump - any pictures available yet?

[Tenacious Dyl]

Pictures finally up.

Sorry for the delay, work and school are VERY busy for me! Sorry also for the poor picture quality, photo-bucket limits ya.

http://img43.photobucket.com/albums/...l/DSCF0003.jpg
http://img43.photobucket.com/albums/...l/DSCF0002.jpg
http://img43.photobucket.com/albums/...l/DSCF0001.jpg

The screws on the top are chome-looking and very nice. The blue lighted fan lights the underside of the stand very nicely when its dark. Sorry, camera doesn't show it too much. Also, you can make out clear rubber feet, to allow more air circulation.

Feedback? Love it.

Dylan I.

[cdhostage]

Cool. Does it make much noise?

I've been thinking of doing a similar thing this summer when the fan will probably be on all the time otherwise. I'd find a spare piece of unfinished steel to do it, though. Wood and foam does the job of lifting the PB off the desk, but it's no better at conducting heat than the desk.

Apple did a really smart thing, routing most of the hot air from the AlBooks up past the screen, where people's hands generally don't go. Out the sides, back, or front, and you'd be able to find it easily.

Where do you live, [BOLD]Tenacious[/BOLD]? I mean, what's the ambient temp and humidity? I'm going to be in Connecticut this summer where it will hang between 50 and 90 F and high humidity for the entirety of July.

[IamBob]

For a 1.0, very nice. It's functional and there's no duct tape...awesome!

Thinking on a 2.0...

You could've fit the top piece in flush instead of having it sit on top of the risers. It looks like you didn't take the fan into account when drilling the vent holes. You really shouldn't be able to see the screws and a little stain would've rounded it all out.

[Tenacious Dyl]

Thanks Guys,
I live near Lansing, Michigan, so pretty hot in the summer, and decent humidity.

The particular fan I use *is* audible... but slightly less noisy than the powerbook's fan, which has not ONCE come on since I made the stand.

As for version 2.0 ... I plan to paint the stand gloss black, but leave the chrome screws nice and shiny.

And yes you are correct, at the start, I was more concerned with all the holes being perfectly in alignment w/ another, that I forgot about the fan... lol.

I considered making this out of aluminum or steel, but again. All the materials I used were just lying around in my workshop / downstairs except the fan.

[ul1984]

Thanks for posting pics

thanks a lot for the idea, since you posted it, ive been thinking alot about building my own.
my idea is to build it using metal(possibly)

my goal is to lift it up and make it coolor, and im not sure if im gonna need a fan or not, i was thinking of somehow leading the heat from the PBs back, out to the stand.
To lead the heat, i need it to stay in contact with the stand in someway, my problem is i need some kind of rubber like material that is heat conductive, anyone got any ideas?

if im to use fans ive thought about running them at a very low speed, to reduce noise.

[Charles Bouldin]

Originally posted by ul1984:
Thanks for posting pics

thanks a lot for the idea, since you posted it, ive been thinking alot about building my own.
my idea is to build it using metal(possibly)

my goal is to lift it up and make it coolor, and im not sure if im gonna need a fan or not, i was thinking of somehow leading the heat from the PBs back, out to the stand.
To lead the heat, i need it to stay in contact with the stand in someway, my problem is i need some kind of rubber like material that is heat conductive, anyone got any ideas?

if im to use fans ive thought about running them at a very low speed, to reduce noise.

I have a slightly modified iPerch+ stand that was formerly made by MacMice. They've discontinued this product, but the modification I did was simple and might pertain to what is being discussed here: If you use a fan, put a small 10-turn trim resistor in line with the fan. Since the fan has an internal resistance, the 10 turn makes this into a voltage divider, which is a poor man's speed control. You can then turn the voltage seen by the fan up until the fan just starts and then keep going to trade off airflow vs. noise as you like. If you start with a good fan, this easily lets you tune a fan system that is -silent- and can still greatly reduce internal powerbook fan on-time. Note that none of these fan systems will keep the internal fans off all the time, but they do help a lot.

[rag on a muffin]

thats really cool! i might make one out of metal too. because its conductive, and it matched the theme. i also might sit it on some sort of heat conductive gel, for minimal fan noise.

[brapper]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
OS X has a built in server, FYI.

Activate it by going to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Sharing > Personal Web Sharing <--- Turn it on.

After turning it on, you will find a folder called 'WebServer' in 'Hard Drive/Library' and in the WebServer folder you will see a Documents folder. Throw everything that is already in the Documents folder into the trash and put whatever you want to share in it.

You can then access those files by going to your machines IP address in any web browser.

WOW.
Learn something everyday!
Thanks