How to Make a Broken Laptop Screen Still Work

The stupid latch on my laptop broke a few months back after years of use, making it impossible for the screen stay up on its own without flopping flat on its back. It really wasn't a big deal as I still have a desktop that worked just fine, but last week a nasty virus took over, and despite 5 straight days of battle, I finally had to throw i the towel. So to satisfy my internet fix, I had to find a way to make my laptop functional again.

I've had a few designs in my head since the laptop originally broke for a device that would make this work, but hadn't gotten around to making it. I took a rare sun break on a rainy day last week and attempted to put together a very basic form of this design using some scrap wood I had laying around under my work bench. Here's the result.






It works pretty well. I had to eyeball the angle, and I'd say it's a bit too obtuse. I certainly don't want it at 90 degrees, and 135 degrees was going to be way too large. I think I hit it at around 120, but I should probably have made it around 110. Considering that I only had scrap wood and 15 minutes of sunshine (my workshop is my backyard), I think I did a pretty good job.