Oh I tried building a bongofish special, using a convertible laptop, and all sorts of things. Then I finally found a good one on ebay for $300. I built this "desk" / tray thing around it out of black foam board, hot glue, mounting tape, coat hangers, black duct tape, and strap iron. It's got an apple keyboard there on top, along with a Razer Tartarus, and a generic touchpad for windows. I found two 120mm fans that plug into a USB port and are controlled with a built in switch. Those are attached with strap iron hooked around the coat hanger brackets covered in mounting tape. I made a little pen holder on the right side and a simple holding place for the remote that goes with the LED light strip that's mounted on that strap iron over the keyboard.
It works okay mostly, but it's a bit clunky and big. I'm always having to swing it out of the way on it's ergotron LX HD arm when I want to do anything to the right of my desk. If I had more space for this thing it wouldn't be such a problem....but I live in my room so it takes up a lot of valuable space. But aside from all that, unfortunately... I found after an hour or so of drawing on this the back are around my should really hurts. I haven't even used it in days now, but i can still feel a dull ache in the same place.
So...this dream device that I believed would make me better artist somehow isn't really all that great in actual use. It may have been that I tried to use it standing up a lot, leaning over it. Or that I had to constantly hold my arm out in front of me instead of being able to lean on it (it would sink down). When I do actually have it in a sitting position, using it doesn't hurt so bad. That's kind of how I've been doing it, but then...if I'm just sitting at my desk again like I did with a screenless tablet then what's the point of owning this? I've spent years drawing with a tablet laying flat on my desk directly in front of me. Boro here might have a good point about ergonomics after all.
I might end up disassembling it and selling the cintiq. It does make me a bit sad, but...well....I guess half of life if learning to let go, right? I can't imagine lugging this around with me everywhere and just "needing" it to draw. But I can imagine having a tablet in front of me with a decent monitor. Maybe even an ipad again (i learned I could use procreate with a keypad after I returned it...oops! XD).
If anyone has any questions about this crazy desk, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer :P
Thanks ^///^ I remember there was another model of arm that used electromagnets to lock the arm in place until you squeeze the side triggers. It might be easier to have a height adjustable desk with a normal tablet though.
Thanks ^///^ I remember there was another model of arm that used electromagnets to lock the arm in
