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Laptop Revival Day 3 - Building the frame

To build the frame it is really important to know the dimensions of the laptop screen and the thickness of the stacked display and hardware. You do not need to be very precise as long as you find the minimum thickness of the frame that you need and allow space for nice border around the display.

To find the minimum thickness of the frame I stacked the bottom half of the laptop and the display and measured the thickness of the package. Then I added ¼ to ½ inch space for the glass, the mat and some kind of isolation and allowed some space to make sure I have good air circulation. I ended up with a requirement for a minimum thickness of 1 ½ inches. I definitely did not want to use a thicker frame than this. That set in stone the thickness of the frame.

The second requirement I had was purely aesthetic. You should follow your personal preferences, but I wanted to achieve a clean contemporary look. This narrowed my choice of possible frame materials to metallic frame and wooden frames with not a lot of detailing.

The next requirement was about the mat that defines the picture border between the display and the frame. Because the laptop display is almost black and has an anti-glare coating I wanted to have a mat with nice satin texture that will match the display. I figured black display will match black, silver or white mat and therefore the only choice for a frame will be a black frame.

With clear idea what I wanted to achieve I went to the stores and looked for a metallic or and wooden frame that had clean lines, black or very dark color and relatively low price. After browsing in the stores for couple of hours I figured that it will be good if the frame is easy to assemble and disassemble. I was going to work on the project for a while and I may need to modify or change something in the future. If I had a solid frame it will be a lot more difficult to pull the thing apart and work on it.

Before I list the materials I purchased let me describe how I figured the dimensions of the frame. Again I did not use exact measurements. After browsing in the stores I knew that they could build any size custom frame. The custom frame was going to be approximately 4-5 times more expensive than a frame build out of pre-manufactured modules. The pre-manufactured modules come in standard sizes, so I picked modules that will allow me to have nice 2 ¼ to 2 ½ inches border around the display.

I measured the visible display area trying to do not cover any of the display pixels and making sure that all the rest is well covered. Here is a drawing that shows the dimensions of the mat that I was going to use to cover the display.

!Replace with picture

After researching the mat materials I found that I will have to pay between $15.00 and $45.00 for custom size mat. This was unacceptable so I looked for alternative solution. I will get back to it when I describe the final list of materials that I ended up purchasing.

The very same thing happened with the glass that I needed to cover the display. You may decide to do not use glass, but I preferred to have one and that was going to cost me approximately $30.00. I was not happy about that either.

Finally I needed something that will allow me to hold the display in place. It had to be rigid to hold the display steady and light to do not force me to put huge hooks on the wall to hang the frame.

After all the research with the mat drawing in hand I went and purchased everything in one trip. I purchased most of the materials I needed from a chain arts and crafts store, but I am sure that there are many other stores that carry similar products. Here is the final list:

Item	Description	Part No.	Price	Quantity
1.	SHDWBX 16” BLK	44021130766	11.24	1
2.	SHDWBX 14” BLK	44021130759	10.49	1
3.	P-FOAMBOARD 20X	79946140002	4.99	1
4.	SHEET-CHROMOLUX	12017452260	2.49	1
5.	P-FRM POSTER 16	44021096196	9.99	1
			------
		Subtotal	39.20
		Sales tax	3.45
		Total	42.65

This made me happy with the price, but it needs a little explanation.

The list above contains the material the part number from the receipt the price per piece and the number of pieces that I purchased.

Item 1 and 2 are the frame segments. They come in pairs. Two pairs complete a frame, so I got 2 pairs 16” and 14” inches long.

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Item 3 is a foam board that I found in the craft store. The foam board is intended to be used for posters, but I found that it is rigid enough to hold the display and light enough to do not make the assembled picture frame too heavy. Also it is very easy to cut to get the desired shape.

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Item 4 is a piece of colored paper that that I decided to use instead of the expensive mat. It is really thin, because it is paper, and this will bring down the aesthetic look of the frame a little bit, but it has a great price of $2.49. I picked a great silver colored paper with a satin look that compensated for the thickness. It actually created really nice high tech brush steel look of the picture border.

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Finally item 5 is a pre-manufactured poster frame that I found in the isles of the store. This was a great buy. It provided the glass for the frame I needed and the card board that I used to cover the bottom part of the computer and hold it in the frame.

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After the discovery that I could use the card board to cover the computer and hold it in the frame all I needed to find and purchase was some nuts and bolts. I found that nuts and bolts with the specification M2 x 20 (2 millimeters diameter 20 millimeters length) will do the job, so I went and purchased 20 from a local store that carried them. You are not going to find M2 nuts and bolts in Home Depot and Lowe’s, do not waist time for the trip, these stores do not carry them. You will need to find a specialized hardware store in the area.

With this I was all set to start building. I cleaned my desk and dived into the project. The following is the list of steps to build the frame.

1) Assemble the 3 pieces of the frame

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2) Disassemble the poster and get the glass and the backing card board

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3) Cut the glass to fit the frame.

Keep the plastic protection on the both sides of the glass while you are cutting it. It protects the glass from scratches. I kept the protection until I completed the whole project and removed it when I was doing the final assembly.

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4) Cut the foam to fit the frame

While cutting the foam be careful to do not scratch that fancy desk or work table that you are working on. Put something under the foam before you cut. I used a piece of card board.

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5) Cut opening in the foam to hold the display

Measure the display and draw the opening in the center of the foam board before you cut. Leave equal spaces on the side to get even boarder around the display.

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6) Duct tape the display to the foam.

What project is complete without a duct tape? Duct tape - the man's secret weapon acording these folks: http://www.redgreen.com/menu.asp

I found this to be the best material to accomplish things. It works great in this particular application, it is strong and at the same time heat resistant. Duct tape the both sides of the display to make sure it will hold steady.

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7) Cut the paper

Draw the dimensions of the mat on the back of the paper and then cut it very carefully. If you are brave enough you can draw on the front and cut from the front. This will result in better and cleaner lines for the cut. I preferred to do it from the back because I was not so sure about my cutting skills. I used a regular card box cutting knife and not a special tool.

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Here are the final dimensions of the mat that I used for my display and frame. Update the dimensions to fit your particular implementation.

!Replace with picture

8) Cut the backing board to fit the frame

I used table saw to cut the backing board. I did not have a table saw in the office, because usually it is not necessary to build software, but I have one at home that I use to build things for the house.

After cutting the board I placed the bottom of the computer on top of it and marked the holes for the bolts that were going to hold it. I adjusted the computer this way to be able to access the USB, COM, parallel and video ports on the back. I also left some space on the top to be able to get to the speaker and microphone jacks. I placed the CD and SD reader next to the frame piece, hoping that at some point in the future I will be able to nicely cut the frame and have access to the CD/DVD player.

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After I had the holes marked I removed the computer and drilled the holes using 2 millimeters drill. Then I cut a hole in the middle of the card board for the display cable.

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The display is going to be stacked on top of the card board. The bolts heads are probably going to scratch it so it will be good if you use something to hold the display on a distance from the board. I used some soft stickers with a thickness about 2-3 millimeters that I had from Home Depot.

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After completing the backing board I figured that the power button and the Toshiba tools button of the laptop that used to be on top of the keyboard will be covered by the card board inside the frame. I could live without the Toshiba tools button, because I could activate the software from the start menu, but there was no way for me to power the future picture frame without a power button. I had to figure out how to solve this. Obviously I needed a push button, an extension wire and a hole somewhere on the frame for the button. At this point I decided to wrap up the day and continue the next day.

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Next: DayFour - Putting it all together