RGD - Custom Built Surround Monitor Stand

[complx]

By: Complx​

Reasoning:

The basic idea for this project was was born out of frustration out of seeing what was available on the current market, a lot of triple monitor stands I saw were wildly expensive. Some cost $300 or more and even after spending that much money on these stands, you still would see people complaining that their monitors that were mounted to the outer arms would often sag and not line up correctly.

Another thing I noticed about a lot of these stands was a complete lack of added functionality to the user, besides just holding the monitors, they often would have no real added value or function to them, the only exception that I could find in my research was the XFX Triple Monitor stand, which incorporated 2 USB 2.0 hubs and a Headphone and Mic jack into the base of their stand.

So after a bit more research, I still could not find a monitor stand that really offered what I was looking for. In all honesty the XFX stand would have been almost perfect, but the price was a little off putting and I found out that they don't make it anymore. Also, the places that still do have it in stock are charging even more for it than before.

So I have set out to design and build a monitor stand for myself that can support up to 4 monitors!

Research:


As stated before, I did a fair amount of research for the project before i started the real work. There seemed to be 2 "go to" companies when it came to monitor stands, though I know, and looked at, many more. Ergotron and Ergotech seemed to be the big two. But a lot of their models that supported 3+ monitors can run up in price. ($200-$300 or more)

One of the issues I had with these off the shelf monitor stands right now is the "sag" some of them tend to have, especially when it comes to the arm which the 2 side monitors (Left and Right) are often attached to. To compensate for this, a lot of the monitor stands have VESA mounts that allow for height adjustment to help line up the end monitors with the center one.

While this was a good solution to the problem of sag, I felt the bigger issue had not been dealt with, just kind of patched over. So this was one major area I wanted to focus on, rigidity.

The next issue I had was for the price, these stands often lacked additional functionality, besides holding the monitors in place. As mentioned before, the XFX stand had a USB and sound hub built into the base of their stand, which I really fell in love with. So this was the second thing I wanted to focus on, added functionality to the user.

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The Hardware:

For this project, I went out and purchased 3 23.6" Asus VN247H-P monitors, the main reason I wanted these was for how thin the bezel was on them, Asus claims it has less than 1cm of bezel on either side.

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I have these monitors purchased, but I will post some images of them later.

The Concept:

So for this project I will be using a material called extruded aluminum, very light weight, but very strong and very rigid.

I have made an initial concept model in CAD program to make sure I have a lot of the measurements and tolerances worked out before I purchase the material and start the first steps of the build.

These first 2 images were the base I started to work with to get an idea of how I wanted to lay out the main supports.

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Then I started to work out some of the details on how it would go together:

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Right now this is the most current version of the project in CAD form, there are a few more elements I wanted to incorporate into the model before I start the prototyping and building phase.

As it stands now I still need to figure out:

- Cable management of the power and video cables

- Incorporating speakers onto the stand

- Designing the USB hub which will be at the base of the stand

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Here is a WIP shot of what the speakers might look like when mounted: (Please excuse the gray block, it was a place holder model for my 4th monitor.

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Stay tuned!

 

[Soulcatcher668]

Subbed

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Looks great!

 

[Leegit]

Sub. So awesome, can't wait to see the outcome!

 

[nomadcrossfire]

looks kool, i may be doing something similar in the near future, might need to piggy-back off this awesomeness

 

[complx]

New update! Sort of a bitter sweet one at that. One of the first things I wanted to tackle was the speaker stands that would be allow a 5.1 sounds system to be incorporated into the stand itself, getting the speakers off the desk and up in the air.

Here was the finished product at the end of the day:

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This system would allow for the speaker height to be adjusted independently and could be adjusted to different monitor sizes as well to, allowing it to be much more flexible if I wanted to get bigger monitors at a later date or wanted to go with a portrait setup at any time.

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This system was more of an addition to the overall system and a necessary part, but after finishing about 95% of the modeling I decided to do a cost estimate to get an idea of how much more this would add to the total cost of this system. Sadly, the cost of the brackets alone would cost around $300-$400 alone, and with the cost of the other materials I would need, I would push the price of the stand WAY past what I had originally hoped.

So for the time being, I will have to scrap this portion of the project and leave it for a later day, but here are a few more rendering of the RGD System as it looks right now. Enjoy!

Next Update will be the completed stand base! (Which is still a WIP in these photos)

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[Knufire]

That's 80/20 extrusion, extremely easy to work with.

 

[complx]

That's 80/20 extrusion, extremely easy to work with.

Yep, main reason I chose it to work with. Super easy to use.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Which brand extrusion are you looking at?

I've used Rexroth quite a bit, and its awesome.

 

[complx]

Which brand extrusion are you looking at?

I've used Rexroth quite a bit, and its awesome.

80/20, the place where I work has some scrap which they can't use and I'm allowed to go through it to see what I can find.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I thought 80/20 was the size.

Scrap is always good, I get stuff I need from dad's scrap or the school's scrap.

 

[awktane]

Very nicely done! I've been thinking about doing this for my 27" monitors. I've never found something on the market that can support them. I especially like your idea with the speakers... I wouldn't have thought of that.

 

[complx]

Friday Update! Today I got my 80/20 extruded aluminum in today, and its beautiful, for being "flawed" I could only find one real blemish on the metal, but overall I'm very happy. Sadly I didn't receive the living hinges I needed so the prototype will have to wait until next week.

The only blemish I could find!

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That's it for now! Stay tuned!

 

[complx]

EDIT:

After a quick discussion with a friend about the project, I think I might have found a solution. I will keep you posted!

 

[awktane]

Can you outline the actual problem you ran into for the record?

 

[Knufire]

Can you outline the actual problem you ran into for the record?

I saw his post before he edited it, it was financial problems.

 

[awktane]

I saw his post before he edited it, it was financial problems.

I got the impression from that post that for some reason he had to spend more money on the project than he had originally planned. Some design problem. Either way let us know. Very interested!

 

[cullam3n]

While the design and presentation looks very aesthetically pleasing and clean, do you have any plans for routing the wiring? The single post looks thin relative to the size of the monitors, and I wouldn't want to have such amazing work ruined by DVI and power cords shown underneath the monitors or on the sides of the post looking willy-nilly.

edit: I didn't see you had mentioned this above in the original post, I apologize. Keep up the good work

Also will the arms be adjustable (for the angle of the side monitors) or are they fixed?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

While the design and presentation looks very aesthetically pleasing and clean, do you have any plans for routing the wiring? The single post looks thin relative to the size of the monitors, and I wouldn't want to have such amazing work ruined by DVI and power cords shown underneath the monitors or on the sides of the post looking willy-nilly.

It can easily be routed into the extrusion. The gaps on the sides are great for that.

 

[complx]

I saw his post before he edited it, it was financial problems.

This was an issue yes, for 2 reasons, first, I don't have that kind of money to spend on this mod at the moment lol. Second, for the overall cost to go way past what a high end stand would cost to buy seemed a bit ridiculous. It was a bit illogical to spend more on a stand that I would end up building than to just buy one off the shelf. However, as I mentioned in my edited post, after discussing it with some people, I managed to see things from a different angle and would still be cost effective.

Hope that clears some of that up!

I got the impression from that post that for some reason he had to spend more money on the project than he had originally planned. Some design problem. Either way let us know. Very interested!

Some of the design problems were mostly due to how to mount the monitors to the stand itself. The way I had designed it, the monitors would not be able to swivel or rotate at all, however, I was not concerned with that overall since I would have them at an optimal angle and height for viewing. While doing more CAD modeling and looking at what was available on the market I found these: http://p.globalsources.com/IMAGES/PDT/B1055446129/Swivel-TV-Mount.jpg

With something like that, it solved 2 problems, the first being how to attach the monitor to the stand itself, and the second being it would provide some swivel or tilt functionality, depending on how I would mount it. The only problem that needs solving is how to mount that bracket to the arm, I will be buying one soon so I can get measurements off of it so I can get an accurate CAD model.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!

While the design and presentation looks very aesthetically pleasing and clean, do you have any plans for routing the wiring? The single post looks thin relative to the size of the monitors, and I wouldn't want to have such amazing work ruined by DVI and power cords shown underneath the monitors or on the sides of the post looking willy-nilly.

edit: I didn't see you had mentioned this above in the original post, I apologize. Keep up the good work

Also will the arms be adjustable (for the angle of the side monitors) or are they fixed?

As I mentioned above, depending on which type of bracket I get, and how I mount it will determine how much adjustablity it has, im still in the planning stages at this point, and there is a lot of CAD modeling to do at this point to make sure the overall build will go smoothly!

Im glad everyone is interested in this project, if anyone has any more questions, I would be more than happy to answer!