Funny “Red Green” Style Laptop Computer Cooler using Duct Tape and Coffee Cans

Red Green is the quintessential Canadian fishing afficianado, mechanically talented, auto grease monkey, outdoorsy handyman.

This loveable character burst upon the world via Canadian TV and American PBS on the weekly Red Green Show. He and his cast of friends and fellow Possum Lodge members delighted television viewers from 1991 through 2006. The comedy series followed the misadventures of Red and his bumbling nephew, Harold, and even produced a full-length movie Duct Tape Forever (2002) which includes many notable Canadian actors and rock group members in cameo roles.

Red is a man who knows the value of duct tape. Such is his genius that there is no equipment problem which he CANNOT fix with duct tape.

In the Handyman Corner segment of his shows, he often refers to it as “the handyman’s secret weapon,” although this is anything but a secret. Red combines the duct tape and ordinary objects in creative and usually visually repugnant ways. Furthermore, he often destroys perfectly good objects to create some sort of Rube Goldberg contraption to do the work of another gadget which already exists.

In this spirit, I lightheartedly offer my Red Green style laptop computer cooler.

Let’s review the problem.

Laptops often have air intake and hot air exhaust vents on the bottom. Many laptop users started experiencing computer shutdowns because the machine overheated when sitting on its bottom, so to speak. If the computer rests on a person’s lap or on a tabletop, then air exchange is blocked. That is why manufacturers began producing fancy cooling platforms with fans.

But, you don’t need to waste your money on those. You can easily build one yourself from items you have lying around the house.

Almost everyone has some cans at home.

Even if you eat out all the time, you still may have those plastic containers from the deli with the cole slaw or the processed nitrate-loaded lunch meat, eh?

Or, maybe you have coffee cans.

Whatever it is that hangs around your house before recycling day, you’ll need three of them,

something to cut them with

and the handyman’s secret weapon.

Cut the cans or containers so that they are the same height, more or less, and have side windows for air flow.

Attach with duct tape being careful not to block any USB ports, card slots, keyboard keys, or anything that looks important.

There you end up with a strong, portable, lightweight cooling system for your laptop computer at little or no cost to you, eh?

As Red would say: “If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”

Love ya, Red!

Please do not try this at home. It is for humorous purposes and real Canadians only.

Text copyright 2011 Maren E. Morgan; all photos except the portrait of Red Green copyright 2011 Maren E. Morgan; invention trademark 2011 by Maren E. Morgan.