I've owned an Android 2.2 based Viewsonic gTablet for a few weeks. My 10 year old and I upgraded my Lego phone stand to accommodative the tablet, but I wanted something fancier for everyday use.
I found a few on Amazon, and sure enough, some of the nicer ones are bent aluminum. I have this nice 1/8th inch, 2 foot by 4 foot aluminum sheet in the garage, so a few hours later, I have a tablet stand.
I had to figure out how to do the radius bends without any proper tools. I used a piece of aluminum tube and a hammer :)
Pics of the process and results below. I want the little android guy on it, but I don't have a CNC plasma, and no way I can cut him out by hand and have it look good, so it will be acid-etched or a sticker :>) I also think I'll making a matching stand for my Nexus One...
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| 4" x 14" aluminum, 1/16" thick, slightly rounded corners. Might be my straightest cuts with the plasma cutter to date... |
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| I protected the metal during the bending with a roll of plastic wrap... it worked well! |
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| Illustration of the bending process |
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| Two pieces of angle to hold the piece, 2 clamps holding the aluminum tube. Its all stuck in the vise... |
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| I spent an hour getting the edges all straight and removing wobble...but it looks good! |
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| Only a few more days of Angry Birds Seasons... |
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| I decided on a rough finish...for now :) |
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| I've got a carbon-fiber vinyl backing I ordered from someone on xda-developers.com |
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| I had to rework the front lip a few times to get the tablet to sit nicely... |
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| I'm sporting a TRON background and the Vegan B3 with Tron-colored slim status bar... |
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| It is quite stable, even in portrait mode... |
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| Why yes, my tablet does have usb, there's even a micro-sd card and a full-sized host usb port under the little plastic cover... |
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| Thanks to the VEGAN-TAB developers - you guys rock :) |
