How to Make a CNC Stand | ToolsToday

Making a laptop stand for my CNC machine using Amana Tool® CNC router bits.
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How do you think this turned out? I used this on my Shapeoko 4 CNC but the plans will work with your setup.

The customizable and downloadable plans for this project are also available on our website item no. LAP-STAND
toolstoday.com/cnc-laptop-stand-plans.html

Feed, Speed & CNC Running Parameters

Amana Tool 46176-K CNC SC Spektra Extreme Tool Life Coated Compression Spiral 1/8 D x 13/16 CH x 1/4 SHK x 2-1/2 Inch Long Router Bit
toolstoday.com/v-14528-46176-k1.html
RPM: 18,000
Feed Rate: 40ipm
Plunge Rate: 20ipm
Depth per pass: 0.25”

Amana Tool RC-45711 In-Tech Insert Carbide V Groove 90 Deg x 11/16 D x 21/64 CH x 1/4 Inch SHK Single Flute Router Bit
toolstoday.com/v-10600-rc-45711.html
RPM: 18,000Feed Rate: 40ipm
Plunge Rate: 20ipm
Chip Load per Tooth: 0.002”
Amana Tool MR0112 Miniature 1/8 R Corner Rounding with 3/16 D Ball Bearing x 7/16 D x 3/8 CH x 1/4 Inch SHK Carbide Tipped Router Bit
toolstoday.com/v-11230-mr0112.html

Amana Tool 47116 Carbide Tipped Flush Trim 1/2 D x 1/2 CH x 1/4 Inch SHK w/ Lower Ball Bearing 3-Flute Router Bit
toolstoday.com/v-5341-47116.html

I then used the Fein AMM300 MultiMaster multi tool to trim the tabs and the Amana Tool #MR0112 3/16" ball bearing mini roundover bit to flush trim them and add a nice roundover to the knobs. The carriage bolts were installed and the knobs are ready to be used!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

Today I'm gonna show you how I made this awesome laptop stand. It's super functional, works great over at the CNC. It allows you to move it around to any location that you need. This is definitely a great project for your CNC machine if you're using a laptop. We do have plans for that available down in the description, so definitely check those out. Without further ado, let me show you how I made it.

It's time to start on our new project, making a laptop stand using the Shapeoko 4 CNC machine. I'm starting out using the RC-45711 90-degree V insert bit to go through and carve our logo into part of this laptop stand. The bit does a great job and it's definitely one of the bits that I feel like every person with a CNC should own as it does a great job carving perfectly clean.

I'll switch out for the 46176-K 8" compression bit. This bit has both a up-cut and down-cut portion of the bit, which means that you get a clean top and bottom surface of the material. As long as the first pass is below that up-cut portion and fully in contact with that down-cut portion of the bit, it leaves that nice clean cut. I went through in two passes and cut out all of the remaining parts on this sheet. You can see on all of the outside profiles, I did a lead-in, which means that we're starting outside the profile, and that way we get the up-cut portion below the surface of the material before it comes into full contact. So, it's full contact with the down-cut portion leaving clean top and bottom surface.

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Switch back out on a second sheet for the 90-degree V-groove bit, and we're just using this to mark out some screw locations. The deep holes here are ones that we're going to drill through and the small holes are just four screw locations to help line things up. The plans of this project do go through all of this in very fine detail to make things nice and easy for you to be able to get everything fully assembled and made.

So, we're going through and creating some pockets here where we're going to have other stuff attached later on. And then we'll get the rest of the sheet fully cut using that 8" compression bit. Once that's done, we'll get it all unclamped and we now have our second sheet ready to go. I'll use the Fein MultiMaster multi-tool to go through and cut all of the tabs free on each one of the sheets to get everything all nice and set. I use tabs here to hold everything in place while cutting. That way we didn't mar the surfaces at all. So, we have both sheets all fully cut. And I'll use the 47116 1/2" diameter flush trim bit to go through and flush up all of those tabs.

Most of the pieces throughout the project all received just flush trimming here, but some of the pieces I did want to soften to the touch. So, I'm using the MR0110 3/16" diameter ball bearing mini roundover bit. This is just going to go through and it's able to get into all of these smaller areas on these pieces and also leaves a really nice roundover along the outside of the piece. So, a lot of these pieces don't need roundovers, but we just did this on a few of the areas that we wanted to kind of soften up. And it also gets into the small 1/4" diameter pockets that are cut on some of these pieces.

So the last thing to make here is the star knobs that we'll use for attaching everything or letting everything move. So, we're going to use that same compression bit to go through and cut all of the pockets necessary for this. The star knobs are included in the plans, but we do also sell those by themselves if you're interested in just making the star knobs for use with other sorts of jigs.

This is just a piece of leftover scrap flooring that I had. This has walnut on the surface. So, when we cut through that, you have a nice walnut top with a plywood core. So, we cut the standoffs off there and then I'll use that same mini roundover bit to go through and just round over the outside edge for a nice clean finish.

So we have all of our parts done and everything is ready to go. We'll start by getting those star knobs assembled. We'll just insert a carriage bolt in there and then get that tightened and that carriage bolt tightens up against that star knob, making a really nice knob that we can use for turning and adjusting the stand. So, we have both of those ready to go.

Now we can get our attention turned back to the other pieces that we had cut. So, all of those deeper pockets needed to have holes drilled so we went through with the 8" bit and just drilled those holes out.

Now we'll get some pieces all glued together. And the plans have diagrams and everything that go over how to get everything glued together and what exactly it is that you need to do for each piece. So, it's definitely super detailed and makes this process really easy.

Cleaned up a little bit of squeeze-out with just some water to limit the amount of glue squeeze-out that we had to deal with later on. I used the clamps for some of these pieces but I didn't have enough to do everything. So, that's kind of why I used the screws here. So, I'm using a pin nailer here just to kind of temporary hold things together. And then using those screw holes that we drilled through, we're able to get those all screwed together without having to use clamps. The glue holds long term. The screws are basically there just to make sure that everything dries quickly.

One quick little tip, if you use a straw, works super well for cleaning out the glue squeeze-out in really tight corners like that. So, that's definitely a great trick to use.

Using some Starbound adhesives medium CA glue here to help with assembling. It definitely dries quite a bit quicker and it's able to hold a little bit stronger for the temporary here and then the screws do all the long-term holding.

The standoff that I'm building is what is going to hold the mouse pad in. So, this stand has a mouse pad that allows you to slide in and out, and there's a hole cut in there that allows it to slide back and forth but not drop out. The pieces I'm gluing in here or what's going to allow us to tilt the top here. So, I got those countersunk from the front and then screwed into place, and then we can get the star knob inserted in and then get that all tightened up.

Now we'll turn our attention to how we're actually going to attach it to the stand of the Shapeoko CNC. So, we're going through drilling a 1/2" hole into each one of these pieces. And then after that's done, we'll insert a 1/2" bolt all the way through and then get that tightened up with just a lock washer. That way we have some play there and it allows it to turn.

So I used some lag screws here to go ahead and get everything attached. We're going to use those going into the leg brace here and it's plenty strong enough and it definitely supports the weight really nicely. So, I used three of those just for some extra security. This will be different on everybody's setup. So, you'll mount it however you see fit on your stand.

And then once we get that done, we'll get the other part that we had worked on, the laptop stand, inserted into the bottom and get that screwed on. The star knobs allow full adjustability here based on whatever height you want it to be at. The bottom portion allows for some cable management to run through it and the holes on the side allow us to store the cables there.

So we can put the laptop on top and we can slide out the mouse tray. You can see how it stops there and it's held in place. So, we have a nice comfortable area to use the mouse that can fold away when not in use. We can just take our cords out when we're ready to use the laptop and get those all plugged in how we need to. So, then we have everything ready to go and our laptop is nicely set up. I love the height here. I love the adjustability. And as you can see, these star knobs work really well and can be adjusted to whatever angle it is that you like or whatever is most comfortable for you.

One of the things that I love most about this laptop stand is that after you're done using it, you can just simply fold it down and fold it out of the way. For most people, they don't want a laptop set up all the time in the shop, so this will work out perfectly for that. And then you can just simply bring that back up just as easily and you have a laptop stand for your CNC. This is definitely a great design and I absolutely love the way that this project turned out and I hope you guys do too. As I had mentioned, all the plans for this project and all of the instructions are definitely available on our website. Be sure to check that out and make it for yourself. Let me know if you guys do. I would love to see it. But hopefully, you guys enjoyed this one. Have a great day, everybody.

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