Spring-loaded monitor arms are too strong for laptop holders

[jaseg]

I figured it might save someone some frustration if I wrote down what I just learned.

 

My goal was to put one of these fancy 13" apple laptops on one of these VESA laptop mounts for monitor arms, so I got a nice quality cheapie monitor arm and the laptop holder thingy off amazon and got to work.

 

As it turns out, the spring in the monitor arm I bought was so strong that even at its lowest setting, it was only stable in the bottom and top positions. If it ever slipped from the bottom position upwards, there was a real danger that it would instantly move all the way up and just catapult that expensive piece of apple hardware through the room.

 

I managed to solve the issue by drilling some holes into two flat pieces of aluminium bar to mount them on the VESA mount in between the monitor arm and the laptop holder. I then bent these aluminium bars to a hook shape below the laptop holder, and put the heaviest laptop power brick I could find in my flat in there (which turned out to be a Lenovo 135W one that came with a type c dock). With that extra kilogram of mass, the laptop tray now fits the spring tension of the monitor arm perfectly, and as a bonus it has now got a built-in type c charger.

[jaslion]

Most monitor arms have a minimum required load. Usually in the specsheet. So for next time make sure to read that.

[jaseg]

Totally. Tbh I think for a laptop one of these "chain link" style arms that just doesn't have a spring in it and that height-adjusts at the pole in the back would just be a better idea anyway. It just did not occur to me that this could be an issue.