A 'Proper' Phone Stand

We have a 'hot desk' scenario at work, therefore a clean desk policy is in place. Nothing can be left out at the end of the day as you never know where you could be sitting next!

I needed a phone stand that is lightweight & compact - I carry enough as it is!

Although metal involved - no welding, soldering, gluing, riveting or bolting required.

ACM - aluminium composite material (see Step 2)

Saw - in my case a band saw, but a hacksaw will do

Flat file - large

Needle file - small

Drill

Dremel or similar (optional)

Emery cloth - fine (or sand paper) around 240 min to 400 grade

Rule, square - stuff to draw straight lines with

I'm lucky - I work with Autodesk Revit 3D software. Which means its relatively quick and easy for me to draw stuff up and use.

The initial idea was to have something credit card size (86 x 54mm) and I was coming up with designs that needed to hinge or swivel which would have been a little tricky due to the thickness. So I tried a slot together system instead. The aim is to have a prop stand that can be placed in different positions to create different angles when the phone is placed.

Limitations or issues:

Phone thicknesses, overall size, covers, rear attachments - all could effect placement angle, grip and balance

Also to aid anyone who wishes to potentially use this design I'll attach a pdf - this will be of the final design.

(sorry for those 3D printer users OBJ file downloads are not accepted).

ACM .....what?

Many are not aware of this material but its rather common in certain circles. Its used a lot in printing signs and shop fitting to exterior cladding and lightweight structural uses. Its basically thin aluminium sheets sandwiching a polyethylene plastic centre. Its lightweight, relatively stiff but easy to cut and machine. They're available in standard sheet sizes and are usually 3 or 4mm thick and are in a variety of colours and finishes.

I have several scrap sheet offcuts - mostly white, some black.

Now some people may wonder as they read through, why use this material? Why not acrylic or wood or metal?

Well...I love wood...but it'd have to be a a fine close grain to keep it stable but it would have to be 5mm thick.

Solid aluminium would work ....but that wouldn't be exactly cheap, it'd have to be thick enough to create the structure I need .... more weighty....and I don't have any!

Acrylic.....yes, this would also work, but I have concerns over the small tabs snapping off. Probably best to be 4mm thick minimum.

So ...ACM. 3mm thick, stiff, lightweight. Easy to cut, you could even use a stanley knife with persistence. No major metalworking tools required.

I needed to see if the initial design worked within the size parameters or fail by not supporting the phone. So, quickly marked up the outer measurements on a scrap piece of ACM and cut it out. It was rough but worked.

I made some modifications using the Dremel and sanding attachments and to clean up the edges. As you can see from the photos it creates 2 different prop angles if the 'X' is facing down or vertical. So long as the slot is precise then the fit is firm and the structure is rigid.

The second design was trying to have a true credit card sized unit, Still a slot together system but simplified, The design was marked out and cut, then the edges filed and sanded.

When flat, due to the nature of the material it slots together as a friction fit, which is good, so its like a credit card.

Once assembled its stable and works. The phone is supported in landscape and portrait positions.

But.... it only props the phone at a set angle (12.7 degrees), no secondary choice. Although the test phone is relatively large, the stand doesn't have the positive feel of reliability to prevent the phone slipping off compared to the first prototype. This could be delt with by adding a 'grip' surface but I have doubts.

So, in my opinion I'm dropping this design in favour of the first.

Using the info from making the prototypes I marked up and cut the final design out. Rounded out areas where the phone sits as well as a keyring hole. This required drilling out the holes first, then the rest. I cut the slots, tested and filed..... and tested and filed again, until they were a snug fit. A sloppy fit just wouldn't work.

Although my final design had sides that were a little more shaped this isn't essential to how it works. The holes drilled were done with a 15mm drill bit although if this isn't available try something else and adapt.

I have access to other phones all with different protective covers. Each phone was tested in the landscape and portrait orientations and with the prop stand in the 2 different positions.

The 'flowery' style has a pop out finger grip which could have been an issue with clearance. But the prop 'fingers' provided sufficient space.

The phone with no cover was no issue at all, but older and bigger (80x170mm) and it was more to test balance.

The other had a bulkier cover (15 to 18mm thick) with some built in prop stand (that doesn't work very well) and I needed to see if would still fit. Again no issue.

The prop stand is designed to have 2 positions. Generally the more upright position (17 deg) works best for the portrait orientation where its more likely to be used. The landscape orientation feels better in the more relaxed position, if for instance watching videos (31 deg).

As with most of my design work I consistently question it. Could it be better, lighter, stronger, different material, more adaptive etc.

Maybe.

But you have to stop somewhere.

I am already seeing if I could hinge the product making a 'butterfly' style keeping the rigidity still as well as looking at essential contact point only designs. But thats another day.

Is it the right material. Yes. The tight tolerance on the slot was essential to its structural stiffness. Also because of the make-up of the aluminium and plastic it allows a degree of deformity.

Its still light but strong enough to take a degree of abuse. Im not precious about it as its an aid and I can slide it apart and stuff into a back pocket.

So all in all, pretty pleased with it and it'll do the job.

Thanks for reading.