Lap Steel feature suggestions please

The legs will probably be the hardest part because they generally require four features: light in weight, strong, easily attached, and height adjustable. I cannot think of any inexpensive way to do this. Most of the ones I've seen on commercial laps are basically cut-down mic stands with the knurled barrel clutch that allows the leg to collapse for transport. But they are heavy. A cool approach would be to find a used camera tripod (telescoping legs) designed for larger cameras. Three legs, made to order. Pop it apart and make some adapters/sockets for the bottom of the guitar. Another option for this is collapsiblle hiking sticks. These are super light in weight, super sturdy (aluminum tube), and have twist-lock clutches on the telescoping sections to make it very secure. But you'd need three of 'em.

Yet another option is a folding stand, similar to that on a music stand or (heavier hardware) a snare drum stand.  The problem with this arrangement is the guitar is on a single stick and it will want to rotate as you manhandle it while playing.  You'd need a way to lock it.

You definitely have the ability to come up with interesting and innovative features; I've seen and played some of your wacky creations! So I'm brainstorming here... A humbucker that's splittable would give you more tonal options than a single pickup with volume and tone controls. A sweepable Q control (like a wah) would give you even more tonal options; you can do a passive version of this, modeled after Danny Gatton's Tele tone circuit. An easy way to change open string notes on the fly would be a sliding capo, similar to that available for the 5th string on a banjo. You could incorporate this on the low string, but keeping it out of the way of the slide may be problematic.

I'm interested in seeing your bender idea. As to the legs, a quick look-around only turned up over-priced angled leg-mount hardware, etc. sold by suppliers of lap/pedal steel stuff. Further searching found cheaper alternatives; do a search for "angled top plate" and you'll find inexpensive stuff for furniture legs. The legs themselves (I'm sure you know) should be easy enough to figure out.

I have an SX lap steel that came with the telescoping legs that attach to recessed, angled sockets. Sure doesn't look like anything fancy, the legs themselves are just beefier versions of the aforementioned tripod legs. Works fine and is plenty sturdy.

That Duesenberg capo is pretty cool looking. Looks like a rod that mates with a piece of square stock that's been concavely radiused to match the rod. Here's ANOTHER, more complicated but damn cool.

In Work Bender

  This is where I’m at tonight with the bender. You can seen that this has only one string bender on it but I will add one more. It’ll all polish up bright. The idea is that you can pick and chose which strings to put the bender on and how many benders you desire.
 The string loads from the top into the arm and will go down through the base. I have plans for a roller under the base basically using a string ball-end on a 1/16 shaft. The string tension keeps the lever up and you push down the lever to sharpen the pitch. The back stop screw sets the angle of the arm and the forward stop screw sets the limits of the pitch increase.
The hardware is all from McMasterCarr.
I received my adjustable walking sticks from Amazon today. $25 a pair. I think they’ll work really well.

There’d be no problem installing something like this on a cheap Squire Tele.