Okay these are 7 pieces of nicely finished pressed card. The center is a vertex with two ends supporting it; nothing front and back. The two sides are just one board and one end (each) is slightly longer so they rest on the middle "U". That's all. You can easily rotate the side panels as they are not attached to anything; they rest on the middle part. As long as they overlap enough to support the monitor's weight, you're fine. After that has been said. I chose this because I wanted to elevate two external monitors high enough to use my laptop in front of them without blocking screen real estate. While this device seems quite expensive for what it is, the fact that it holds both monitors makes it cheaper than other alternatives I've found. It works great and even looks good on the table. The round base of my two 27" Lenovo monitors is about 9-1/2" and fits these platforms perfectly. It seems strong.