Hi Folks,

I have a T410 with a mini dock. I'm trying to get my desk all neat and clean, so I'm looking for potential ways to dock my T410 vertically, perhaps on the side of my desk or something. Given that you have to push the T410 down, it makes vertical docking kind of a challenge, and I'd have to figure a way to put a cage or support of some sort so that the laptop is kept in place too. Not sure - any ideas out there?

Thanks!

I built one of these and used it for a couple of years. Took it down about 6 months ago. I don’t have any pictures. I had a full docking station but it would work with a port replicator.

Maybe I can explain what I did.

I purchased some drawer slides (2). I mounted some fiber board on them and put a 1 by 2 board at the bottom with a grove so the laptop would set in when docked. Mounted the port replicator on the fiber board so the laptop is resting in the groove of the 1X2 at the bottom.

Then the whole thing mounts on the side of the desk. Mine went next to my right leg because I’m right handed. Also, with this set up, you can pull the rig out to access the CD ROM if needed. All of my TPs had a side mounted CDs.

Hope this helps.

hi bill,

thanks a bunch for the reply! i must confess, i'm a bit confused about your setup though. If you have a few free moments some time, perhaps you could draw a quick sketch and snap a photo of it? I realize that's an imposition, so no worries if you don't end up having time or gumption. Thanks again!

I'll try to post some pictures. Know that the drawer rails are the sort that come on a computer rack (sort of). The kind that do not come apart easily and extend more than their original short length (see top picture). Fasten these to the back side of the board. cut the board to size.

The weight of the laptop is resting on the 1 by 1 or 1 by 2 that is fastened near the bottom(see center picture and arrow on the right in the picture). The prot replicator is held on with some brackets I made and attached to the serial port lugs (see bottom picture). Originally I used several of these.







Hope this helps.

this looks cool bill, I think you have to put them on a hosting site for us to view them...

awesome Bill! looks great!

hey bill - thanks a ton! so, when mounted vertically, you rely on the locking mechanism of the dock for it to not topple out (even though it's supported on the bottom by the 1x2), right? I might do something similar, but perhaps have a swing-arm to make sure that the laptop doesn't fall out.

thanks again!

Yes. You are right. The security lock of the port replicator or docking station will hold the laptop from moving off of the 1 by 1 board at the bottom that takes most of the downward stress off of the docking station.

I found any extra strap around the laptop just gets in the way when trying to remove the laptop when needed to be remote. On second thought it is more about re-docking the laptop. I wanted it to be hassle free.

If you look closely at the picture, I have a KVM connected to all of this. With the KVM and this setup, I had all kinds of flexibility. So many TP fit my docking station. However not all of the TP had the same dimensions to fit on the board.

Any way, have fun.