I can't work on only one monitor, or at least not efficiently. I've been using three large extra monitors at home for many years; better to forget about the electricity bill :) When I travel, though, I usually do so with my laptop only, and I just survive the short period of time on that one screen. The exception is the several months of my winter stay in the warmer climate near Africa, where I've regularly been escaping regularly from the Central European winter. For these getaways, I pack one or two small external monitors.

I used to have a 15.6" ASUS ZenScreen; it was the only portable external monitor on the Czech market. Still, it didn't pass my travel test - the monitor bent and curved within a few weeks, which is kind of a cool thing now, but it must have been the original intention from the beginning of production. I buried the ASUS monitor for good in winter 2022 when I accidentally pinched it in a foldable table.

In June 2022, I flew to New York City, where things like that are usually cheaper there. Long story short, I didn't hold back; I immediately bought two monitors from the brand Arzopa.

The monitors are fine, smaller, lightweight, and have a built-in stand, which is good if you're using only one at a time. However, I wanted to use both at once, and I wanted the second one at eye level above the first monitor. That’s the setup similar to what I have at home and I’m used to it. I started thinking about how to make a portable, foldable but sturdy stand for one or two external monitors.

Because I decided for good that I would need two external monitors for good, I started thinking about how I could use this for my benefit. Maybe one monitor could help the other one with stability? I had an idea that the lower one would be placed on the table at a slight angle to the second monitor, which would be fully upright in the air. As they pushed against each other, one would hold the other.

First, I did a couple of small test prints to find out what size of monitor would fit firmly both upright and lying down and what angle to choose for the lower monitor.

The monitor fits nicely into exactly 10 millimetres, and I ended up choosing 60 degrees for the angle of the tilt. I also chose the height of the base for the lower monitor by visual guess: is about 35 millimetres in the form of a hollow triangle.

It was a lot of measuring; the rulers did not move from my desk for two days.

I wanted the first (lower) monitor to end exactly where the second (upper one) started so that there was no wasted space between them. Spoiler alert: I managed to get it almost to the millimetre.

One of my requirements was that the stand must be foldable so that I could disassemble and travel with it. I designed two tubes/legs, which fit exactly and a little rigidly into the lower part and held everything firmly. The option of a screwing mechanism entered my mind, but I quickly rejected it when I realised that the rod would have to be screwable from both sides (top and bottom).

It was time to 3D print it. I wanted it to be nicer, so I printed the 0.2 millimetre layers more slowly. Thus, the printing of the lower parts – two bases and two rods – took almost ten hours.

In the meantime, I started playing with the upper part. I chose a length of 20 centimetres and a width just wide enough to insert the rods into it. At this moment, I seriously doubted the stability of this solution and thought that it would surely fall on me immediately once assembled.

I aligned the model nicely and rounded the corners, if nothing else, to make it look nice. I didn't put the print supports all the way through, just over some parts, as I don't like the first layer that follows the supports; it’s just ugly.

Four hours later, the print was done and I assembled everything. I was shocked; the model held very firmly. I simulated hitting the table, banging it sideways, even a small earthquake, and the monitors didn't budge! My ego was the size of Jupiter and I imagined myself as MacGyver.

I thought that was it for me, but I was still a bit paranoid and decided to try assembling my whole setup. Good thing I did because it turned out that the top monitor was too "perpendicular" for me. While it was at a nice 90-degree angle from the plane, visually, it seemed to me that it was falling on me. If I had found this out a few weeks later on an island next to Africa, I'd probably have pulled my hair out.

What about it? I thought of tilting the top monitor just a little bit, ten degrees tops. But at the same time, I thought to myself that it would definitely not be so stable anymore and that MacGyver would laugh at me behind my back about what an idiot I am. I tried to model it and print it anyway.

A few hours later, I had the other top mount printed with the tilt. When I compared it to the old version, the ten-degree difference was pretty damn obvious from the side of the holder. But what about the monitor?

My stand defies the laws of physics and holds up. I did stress tests and it didn't budge. I also tested to see if it visually fits better with the monitor on and it really does; the ten degrees were enough. I can work from the ocean again for a quarter of the year! Even a tsunami can't take this down!

STL file

• Stand for two external portable monitors