How I built a Laptop Notebook Computer Tray for my Toyota Tacoma Pickup

Once I had all the pieces of the arm cut, I dry-fitted the parts together to see how it looked. I also removed the metal grate from the top of the drain fitting.

Once the plywood tray top was bolted onto the PVC drain fitting, I could test assemble the whole unit and try it out in the truck.

A trip to the local mega homecenter store was necessary to pick up the parts I'd need to build the tray. I needed two 90 degree elbows, a coupler, some sort of flange, a short length of 2 inch pipe to cut up to make connecting pieces, nuts and bolts. I also bought some fresh PVC pipe glue. I already had some scrap plywood on hand to build the tray. I couldn't find a flange. All the flanges were for 3 inch and larger pipe. But I did find a drain fitting that would work just as well. I just had to remove the metal grate on top of it and drill some holes around the edge of it for the bolts that would hold the tray top on. Total cost for all these parts was less than $15 so far. Not bad.

I cut a piece of 1/4 inch thick plywood to 11 by 13. I rounded off all the corners. I also drilled and countersunk mounting holes, and drilled out a hole where the laptop cooling fan will be for improved air-flow. I forgot that I had the laptop upside-down when I measured the position of the cooling fan intake. I almost drilled the air hole on the wrong side of the board (as can be seen by the circle drawn on the upper left). It wouldn't have mattered much, since I could have always flipped the board over, but I wanted the best looking side up.

I drilled holes in the PVC drain fitting to match the the holes in the plywood.

Next I test-fitted the arm in the cup-holder. It fit great, and it looked like I had just the right clearance.

This photo (click for a bigger version) shows the tray being tested in the truck. It works well and looks great. The PVC pieces aren't glued together yet at this point. I wanted to make sure the arm was just right with a full scale test first. Even just fit together dry, the friction of the PVC pieces held the weight of the laptop just fine. I was very happy with the position of the laptop. So I glued the PVC pieces together. I like the way the tray will just pull right out when not needed or if I have a passenger. No tools needed. Due to the snug fit of the coupler in the cup-holder, the weight of the laptop locks the tray in place. But if I lift up on the tray a little, I can swivel it around to different positions. It locks again when I let go of it. An unexpected bonus.

Next I cut up the length of PVC pipe to make the short pieces I'd need to connect the parts together. I cut 2 pieces at 2 inches long, and one piece at 3 inches long to go in the middle of the arm (see drawing above). These measurements are pretty arbitrary, but I didn't want to cantilever the laptop out any further than I had to. I just wanted it to clear the shift lever and armrest.

I needed to measure up the dimensions of my laptop to know how large to make the plywood tray. My laptop is 11 inches deep by 13 inches wide. I also wanted to measure the position of the cooling fan, so I could cut a hole in the tray for air flow.

The 2 inch PVC coupler is an almost exact fit into the top of the cup-holder. However, the cup-holder must have a slight taper to it, because the coupler would jam part-way down. So I got out my sander and sanded down the outside of the coupler until it would slip all the way down to the bottom of the cup-holder. I left it a snug fit though. I didn't want it too loose.

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