Make a Riser For Your Computer Monitors

By Chris Baylor, About.com Guide

While the drawers are in the clamps, we'll move onto the carcase and the top of the computer monitor riser.

Cut three pieces of hardwood 1x6 to 27" in length (we'll trim them to size later). If you have a jointer, you should joint each edge to ensure that they are perfectly flat. Then, line the three pieces side by side, alternating the end grain, and place a mark across the joints every six inches for biscuits. Cut the biscuit joints at the marks in each piece using your plate joiner.

Apply some glue in each slot and add biscuits, then clamp the entire assembly together and allow to dry.

For the carcase, you'll need four pieces of poplar (or pine) at 24-1/2" and four at 12-1/4" in length, all ripped to 2-1/2" in width. You'll also need two pieces at 12-1/4" in length, ripped to 3-1/2" width for the center slats.

We'll be creating two identical frames using half-lap joinery, one for the top of the carcase and another for the bottom. When completed, each frame will resemble a square figure-eight.

Begin with one of the 24-1/2" pieces. Make a center mark 12-1/4" in from the end, then measure 1-3/4" each direction from that center mark and scribe a line square to the length of the stock. Scribe another line 2-1/2" in from each end. These marks denote the material that will be removed for the half laps. Repeat these marks on the other three long boards.

On each of the six remaining boards you prepared earlier in this step, scribe a square line 2-1/2" in from each end. Again, this denotes the stock that will be removed to create the half laps.

Set up your radial arm or table saw with a stacked dado set, using a few chippers in the middle (the width of cut will only affect the number of passes you'll need to make to create the half laps). Set the depth of cut to exactly half the thickness of the stock you're preparing to cut.