Build a cheap laptop cooling stand from cardboard

Money is always a serious issue, even when you have too much and of course when you have too little. That’s why when I stumbled upon this article about how to build your own laptop cooling desk stand I thought of sharing this idea with you. Cardboard is cheap, so that’s what you’ll use as base material, together with some tough pieces of wood, or plastic if you have.

The idea is simple: cut the bottom (or side) of a cardboard box in the shape shown in the picture below. Then blue the tough pieces of wood in the four corners. They will act as raisers and have to be tough enough to withstand the pressure of your palms propped against the laptop rest pad area. Also glue some U-shaped cardboard pieces on the four corners to make sure your laptop stays in the right position all the time.

The cardboard frame

After those steps you already have a laptop desk stand with an inch or so of space beneath it. To make the air below your laptop flow, thus cooling it you can use a cheap USB fan like this one. It’s USB powered and flexible enough to be oriented toward your side and bottom of the laptop at the same time. If you want more cooling you can use bigger raisers and even buy a second USB fan. It’s up to you.

This is how it will look like in the end

If money is not problem then you can take a look at more professional laptop cooling stands.