About 7 years ago a customer sent me an RSA token to use when logging into their network.

For some 1,700 workdays I struggled to position the token at a “good” angle. If I stood it on edge I couldn’t read the numbers at all. If I laid it flat — same problem. For a while I was able to lean it up against one of my monitor stands, but it inevitably slipped and fell over.

A couple months ago I received a new “docking station” and had fairly good luck with taping the token to the front of it:

But you gotta admit — kinda tacky, right? (No tape-related humor intended.)

Finally, after all these years, it occurred to me that I could MAKE something in my basement shop to solve the problem. (Duh!) This is what I created from a scrap piece of alder:

After seeing a picture of it, a coworker said they would love to have a similar holder for their (identical) token. So I found a chunk of pecan wood in my scrap bin and made 3 more holders:

So far I’ve tried 2 different “edge treatments”:

If I make any more holders, I’ll experiment with additional “looks”. Meanwhile, I need to get Holder #2 in the mail….