I just finished building a wooden monitor stand, for my kid’s desk, as I want to build to him an entire set of office organizers.

I started with a simple design of pencil holders made out of ash, thermally treated ash and oak. My son chose the one built out of thermally treated ash, so I had to build the stand out of the same type of wood.

As he wanted a simple design, I had to find something to make it just a little bit special. I remembered an old project, a set of two oak wood floor speaker stands, so I decided to use the same type of joint at the corners.

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I started my project by designing and planning it.

Making the plans for this simple computer monitor stand

I just learned to use FreeCad, so I practice every time I want to make a new project. It’s just amazing how useful it is to turn your ideas into a nice viewable project. At the same time, you can be sure that everything will fit just as you want.

It took me half a day to make it but it was worth it. I planned everything in detail: lengths, widths, thicknesses, angles. Then, with the printed plan I went into the workshop to start building it.

Preparing the boards

I searched for 3 thermally treated ash boards about 90 cm long. They were some decking scraps with 2 mm depth channels on one face, and with all the edges slightly rounded.

When I planned my project I took into account that each board had 11 cm width. For my project, I needed 5 cm width boards. So, I used the difference up to 11 cm to straighten the rounded edges. I made only one pass through the planer to remove them.

Then, I used the straight edges to cut the boards into two pieces using the band saw.

Each board was a little bit wider than 5 cm, to be able to pass them through the thicknesser and get the needed width.

I used the thicknesser to get all the boards with the same width and the same thickness (18 mm). This way I also removed the routed channels.

I cut the boards to the size. First I set the sliding miter saw at 60 degrees angle and I cut one end of each board. I measured each piece and cut them being careful to get the right sizes.

Gluing the boards to get the shape of the laptop stand

I used a scrap of PAL to glue all the pieces together. They had to be glued at an angle of 120 degrees.

I started with the first layer:

• I secured one longer piece to the worktable
• I applyed the glue on one edge of a smaller one
• I positioned the small piece and I secured it to the table trying to keep it pushed in the other one (I repeated for the second small piece)

I continued with the second layer:

• I applied the glue on the edge of the first layer
• I position another 3 pieces (gluing the edges)
• I secured them all together using F clamps

I waited for the glue to dry and I repeated the operations until I got the shape of the computer monitor stand: 5 layers, to get a depth of 25 cm.

Sanding and applying the water-based primer and varnish

After I glued together all the pieces, I waited for the glue to dry and then I started sanding all the surfaces. I secured two pieces of plywood to the workbench thinner than the stand. I used them as stoppers for the stand when sanding it. I used the belt sander with 80 grit sandpaper to straighten and sand the surfaces.

On the back, I had to sand the corners using a wooden block as support for the sandpaper.

To be able to sand the sides, I secured plywood to the workbench as a stopper for one side, and 2 pieces of wood under the second side. The position was perfect to sand it with the belt sander along the wood fiber.

When every surface was straightened I changed the sandpaper with a 150 grit one. On the back, I used the orbital sander with 120 grit sandpaper. That way I could sand as close to the corners as possible and the surface became smoother.

I sanded the edges with 150 grit sandpaper and also I manually rounded the sharp edges.

In the end, I sanded manually all the areas with 320 grit sandpaper, to prepare the stand for the final finish with water-based primer and varnish.

I applied a layer of primer after I removed the dust with a clean cloth. First, I applied it on the edges and on the back, and then on the front.

When the primer dried, I sanded the stand with 320 grit sandpaper and then I applied a layer of water-based varnish.

After taking some photos, I gave the stand to my boy, to use it. He was very happy, that it was exactly what he required. His wooden monitor stand has a 6,5 cm space between the desk and the top, so he can put easily the keyboard and the mouse. The height is perfect for the monitor. It is not a problem with the watching angle, so it doesn’t damage the eyes.