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Stop moving

circatee

circatee

Contributor
Original poster
Nov 30, 2014
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Where I am
I have an iMac 24", and I also use an Ergotron Desk Riser. When raising the desk, often, the iMac moves somewhat.
Thus, I am looking for ideas and suggestions on the best way to keep the iMac from moving.

Even more so, since I have an iMac and a 24" Dell monitor, they sit next to each other. So, when I do raise or lower my Desk Riser, I have to realign my iMac to the Dell (I might just be an OCD thing).

If the iMac was heavier, this wouldn't be an issue...
 
circatee said:
I have an iMac 24", and I also use an Ergotron Desk Riser. When raising the desk, often, the iMac moves somewhat.
Thus, I am looking for ideas and suggestions on the best way to keep the iMac from moving.
Click to expand...
Move.. the base shifts left? right? forward? back? display pivots back? forward?
 
Bigwaff said:
Move.. the base shifts left? right? forward? back? display pivots back? forward?
Click to expand...
Sorry, yes, the former, the base shifts/moves slightly left or right. Thus, the whole unit shifts.
And the reason it is moving is the friction of the raising and lowering the Desk Riser...
 
My inelegant solution (I don't have a raisable desk, but I had to remove two racks and four keyboards in and out every weekend for gigs and I bumped this desk constantly):

A tipclip.jpg


Four plastic clips screwed into the wood desk (poor camera angle, sorry), think Home Despot sold them as window screen clips.
 
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BotchQue said:
My inelegant solution (I don't have a raisable desk, but I had to remove two racks and four keyboards in and out every weekend for gigs and I bumped this desk constantly):

View attachment 2585412

Four plastic clips screwed into the wood desk (poor camera angle, sorry), think Home Despot sold them as window screen clips.
Click to expand...
...nice idea. Thanks for sharing.
 
Do you have a lot of cables in the back of the iMac? With the weight and pull of the cables maybe it tugs at the iMac when moving? Maybe look at very slightly slackening the cables to allow for movement. My MacMini does something similar. You only have to fart near it and it moves.
 
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TumbleDryer said:
Do you have a lot of cables in the back of the iMac? With the weight and pull of the cables maybe it tugs at the iMac when moving? Maybe look at very slightly slackening the cables to allow for movement. My MacMini does something similar. You only have to fart near it and it moves.
Click to expand...
Cables pulling was my first thought as well. I don’t own an adjustable height desk but I would have thought that part of such a setup would include some sort of cable harnesses that could be attached to the moveable piece to limit cable movement between the equipment and harness, only allowing cables segments beyond the harness to move freely.
 
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TumbleDryer said:
Do you have a lot of cables in the back of the iMac? With the weight and pull of the cables maybe it tugs at the iMac when moving? Maybe look at very slightly slackening the cables to allow for movement. My MacMini does something similar. You only have to fart near it and it moves.
Click to expand...
Hmm, you might be onto something there. I will check when I am back in the office. I only have two cables, the power and a USB-C monitor cable...
 
Happy_John said:
Big Velcro strips. Two fat parallel lines should keep the base flat and stable, but will make it easy to remove the iMac when you need to, and reposition it easily too.
Click to expand...
I have thought about that. However, the strips would need to be very thin, to not make the unit uneven on the surface...
 
Use a thin rubber mat or shelf liner. Even those thin foam sheets that are used for things like monitors may work.

I don't think you need to spend money on this solution as you may already have some of this in your house.
 
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Something I've used for similar: 'blue tac' or whatever it's called where you are.
You'll only need a minuscule amount and it won't be permanent.
 
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I wouldn't use anything adhesive because it is a shelf that is going up and down. After some time, the adhesive may become very difficult to remove and if you do want to move the iMac it may be problematic if the adhesive doesn't release easily.
 
circatee said:
I have thought about that. However, the nd carefully applying both sides of the Velcro to the respective surfaces. It sounds too simple to be true, but getting it truly flat makes a difference. And use quite fine, not coarse Velcro, obviously - the stuff you want is as fine as the Velcro on a nylon Apple Watch band. If it is wide enough, or you use enough parallel lines, it is very steady.
Click to expand...
 
circatee said:
Clearly I have quite a few options to choose from, including some witty ones...
Click to expand...
What I do in such situations is build something. In your case I would make a base large enough to serve as a single solid base for both the iMac and for the external display (probably 3/4" plywood, but many different woods will work). Then the iMac and the display can each be attached to the new base using many different methods; BotchQue had a good suggestion above.

That should all be massive enough not to easily move around when raising and lowering the desk. Just put some of that rubberized shelf liner stuff between the new base and the desk to keep it from sliding.

Another choice is to do what I did on my stand-up workstation, which was to install VESA mounts for the displays. Good quality heavy-duty VESA mounts could ride up and down with the desk.
 
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circatee said:
Honestly, I sometimes think I overthink things.
I placed an old unused mouse pad under the iMac. It hasn't moved an inch, since...!
Click to expand...
Douglas Adams: "I am rarely happier than when spending an entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand"
 
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