Tablet mounts

Holds a screen at a fixed working height and angle and keeps it powered, so a consumer device can survive a commercial bar.

A mount solves three problems and is usually bought as if it solved one. The first is the interface to the device: a clamp, a cradle or a case, and whichever it is decides whether the charge port and the speaker stay usable. The second is the interface to the building: a counter clamp, a bolt-through base, an adhesive foot or a weighted stand, each transferring force differently. The force that matters is not the device's weight, which is trivial — it is the repeated push of a fingertip at the top of the screen, hundreds of times a shift, at the worst possible leverage. A mount that flexes on every tap trains the operator to steady it with the other hand, which is a hand that should have been doing something else. The third problem is the cable, and it is the one specified last and regretted first: a mount that cannot route power permanently produces a device that is charging on the counter during the peak it was bought for.

• Specify the mount with the counter, not after the terminal arrives. A bolt-through base needs a hole and a cable route, and both are joinery decisions taken weeks before anyone thinks about the mount. Retrofitting a permanent mount into a finished worktop is a decision to either drill it in service or accept a clamp you did not want.
• Choose rigidity by how the screen is used, not by what it weighs. A screen that is only read can hang off anything. A screen that is tapped all shift must not move at all, because a mount with any give in it silently converts a one-handed task into a two-handed one on every order.
• Angle it for the person who uses it most, and be honest about who that is. A screen tilted for the guest's signature is a screen the operator squints at for the rest of the shift; on a bar, the operator uses it many times for every once the guest does, and neck strain across a shift is a real cost.
• Solve the cable before you choose the bracket. A permanently mounted device needs a permanent power route, and a mount whose only virtue is that it holds the device will produce a flat battery at the worst hour of the week. This is the most common regret in this category and the cheapest one to avoid.
• Assume the device will be replaced sooner than the bar will be refitted. A mount that fits one device's exact dimensions is a mount you replace when the device changes; a mount with an adjustable grip or a standard plate pattern outlives several devices.
• Judge the shape as a cleaning problem. The mount sits in a splash zone and either sheds milk and syrup or traps them — any upward-facing lip or seam in that position becomes a permanent cleaning task that nobody owns and everybody notices.
• Check the swept path against the drawer and the pass. An articulating arm that can swing into the cash drawer's opening arc, or across the pass where finished drinks are set down, is a collision that has been designed in rather than one that happens.