are you a slave to the tyranny of uncomfortable desk chairs do you long
for the freedom and comfort of couch gaming but are you plagued by uneven
surfaces for your mouse and keyboard do the current Solutions either provide you
with diminutive peripherals obviously designed by smaller than average gnomes
that are unusable for your large mey man Paws or come with a price tag so
exorbitant that you'd have to sell a kidney to purchase it well LTT has your
back Plucky consumer in this short video
we'll teach you fabrication secrets that
the big gaming companies don't want you to know and help you build a gaming
platform that will let you dominate noobs in Comfort while retaining each
and every one of your sweet juicy organs
if you haven't seen nerd Sports yet check it out all the episodes are
available now for free over at youtube.com/ channelsuperfun let me
introduce what our team of uncertified Engineers is referring to as the markv
knee based peripheral support system or
couchwood it features a conveniently located 10 keyless mechanical keyboard a
large mouse pad for enhanced FPS gameplay a phone charging dock and a
built-in beverage holder if you'd like to download the plans for this gaming
platform or see a detailed step by step
check it out at the link to the Forum in the video description so the first step
of constructing this Marvel was to measure and cut out the top surface we
wanted to ensure that we had a large enough play area for even low
sensitivity Gamers since one of the objectives in building our own couch
gaming platform was not just to save some money but also to fill some of the
gaps that we saw in the design of the commercial products that we've reviewed
there's a slightly smaller Bridge portion across your knees and then an
equally large surface on the other side that serves as a counterweight and a
convenient snack holder with that finished we immediately
went into cutting and attaching the small wooden components that will hold
your keyboard phone and beverage in place we chose to attach these fixtures
right away for very technical reasons that I'm not going to bore you with and
certainly not because uh long-term planning is one of the DIY team leaders
personal development goals for 2017 that being said those of you at
home who want to put this together might go for the cowards route of doing this
step last so that you don't potentially damage the extruding pieces while
attaching ing bulkier bottom components the exact positioning of the keyboard on
the platform is pretty flexible it's totally up to you and this is by Design
so you can arrange its location to be whatever is most comfortable for your
right hand the large gangly limbs of the
lead designer on this project uh dictated its current placement here but
for the more fun-sized uh members of our staff you might prefer to have the
keyboard and mouse a little bit closer together the two bottom boxes on either
side exist to hide cabling and provide a measure of stability so that the surface
doesn't uh tip around while you're using it we built these out of 2x4s for a
solid weighty body but if you're afraid that your frail and feeble thighs can't
handle that sort of intensity you can really choose any materials you want a
1x3 would work just as well once all the
Wood Construction is complete make it beautiful we went with a dark Dusky hue
applied in smooth even tones to
accentuate the natural beauty of the uh
plywood but uh just make sure that you drill your holes for your cables before
you apply your wood stain or you will be forced to go back again and do touch-ups
again thinking we're pretty good at thinking ahead well there's a reason
they call them smart goals right once your woodstain is dried you can lock
down your peripherals the mouse pad is attached firmly to the surf surface and
to avoid the aggravation of the bumpiness that would normally result
from gluing it down we opted to use screws and washers in the corners our
keyboard of choice was a Corsair K65 but
the couchwood is also capable of accommodating larger models if that's
what you're into or really pretty much anything by gluing the wrist rest in
place you'll not only saave off the eventual onset of carpal tunnel syndrome
and maybe splinters in your wrist but you'll also stop the keyboard itself
from sliding around a USB hub on the underside of the surface provides
connections for the keyboard mouse and phone charger and once you have the
cabling all locked into place you can screw the bottom boxes into the top
surface to keep all that nonsense out of sight now naturally you wouldn't want to
rest this on your knees for an extended period of time as is so you'll want to
add some sort of cushioning to the underside anything goes here but we
opted to attach a half cylindrical foam exercise roller as it provided the
gentle firmness and soft support of a compassionate
lover Okay Tyler uh we're going to have to talk about your
scripts um and if you've had a passing flirtation with yoga the odds of you
having one of these lying around or something like it are pretty good
although if the only downward facing dog that you know about is Snoopy then you
can order one off Amazon at the link in the video description so at this point then it's
time for us to attach a 10t USB cord to the platform and get to gaming so in the
end the couch would cost us $138 in materials to put together though
it should be noted that 75 of it went
directly towards the K65 mechanical
gaming keyboard so by using a budget
keyboard or simply one that you already own the cost of this project can be
comfortably kept under 70 bucks in
comparison the Sova retails at 185 the
lap dog at 135 with no keyboard and the
Razer turret at 120 with a keyboard and mouse that I wouldn't consider
acceptable for gaming either of them so all told then the construction process
took just under 4 hours split into 2 days to allow for the wood stain to dry
and while it's weighty the couchwood sits comfortably on your knees and the
large surface provided a full range of
mouse movement as well as a lot of flexibility because building it yourself
you don't have to do it this way you could put the keyboard over here which
is probably what I would do you could shorten the drink holder and the snack
holder you could make the mouse pad smaller and that's something that an
off-the-shelf solution just can't do
while it lacks the ability to be tucked you know neatly out of sight for a more
discreet look in the living room all told it's a sturdy enough Battleship of
a platform that can accommodate a full gaming experience so if that's what
you're after well it can be done for just a few bucks have you heard of using
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you can save 10% if you decide to go unlimited at the link in the video
description so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do
but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff that we
featured at Amazon in the video description also linked down there is
our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community Forum
which me drink some of this water which you should totally join now
that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next so maybe check out the reviews on
the commercial lapboard products that we'll have linked uh up there I hope