Laptops might have been designed with portability and long battery life in mind, but they weren't designed for comfort.

Use a laptop on your coffee table for more than five minutes and you're transformed into a warped and twisted, hunchbacked visage of a human being.

What you need is something that raises and angles your fine laptop into a more human-friendly angle. And while we do thank a clever clogs for pointing out a book shoved under the back of the laptop would do just that, it's hardly what we'd call an elegant solution.

As it happens, it's easy enough to grab an acrylic sheet and bend the two ends to produce an effective custom laptop stand. You just need to vary the height of the back-end to adjust the angle. It's also very easy to add cooling, via an extra case fan powered off a USB port.

An A3-sized acrylic sheet should be fine for most laptops. We've opted for a 3mm thick sheet that costs less than £3, but for laptops over 3kg, use a sheet 4mm thick.

What you will need

A3 acrylic sheet
Case fan
USB cable
Protective gloves
Hot-air paint stripper
Soldering kit
Clamps
Workbench
Wire wool

1. At its heart this project is superbly easy, but due to the hot-air gun, we'd recommend a workbench.

2. Make sure you get a decent-sized acrylic sheet. We'll need about 7 to 10cm for the rear fold and 3 to 5cm for the front fold then 20 to 30cm for the main section (depending on the size of your laptop). As it turns out an A3 sheet is about right and widely available on eBay.

3. Measure and clamp the sheet in place and peel any protective plastic well out of the way. Pop on