Laser Cut Phone Stand
This week, I took on the challenge of designing and building a phone stand made of laser cut chipboard. This was a challenge mainly due to the thinness of the chipboard, which is about .022 inches thick. This is somewhere between the thickness of construction paper and thin cardboard, so it was a struggle to design and create something that could hold up the weight of a phone and remain stable if it is shifted or being used. Through several iterations and designs, I made a very sturdy phone stand that could be used by several different phones which could be placed in either a portrait or landscape orientation.
Planning
The main requirement of this challenge was to make a phone stand that could be used to hold up a phone that could shoot videotape things happening in front of/below it. When thinking of design requirements, I wanted to be sure that the stand could hold the phone in both orientations, landscape and portrait, so that it could videotape different angles more effectively. I started by drawing out ideas and taking measurements based on my phone’s dimensions, which are very small compared to other phones (I have an iPhone SE, which is the same size as old iPhone 5's).
Test Iterations
I wanted to ensure that my stand design could actually hold up a phone properly before doing any complicated laser cutting. I tested my designs using cardboard cutouts, which worked reasonably well. However, I wanted to use something that would imitate the thin chipboard, so I made a version using a few layers of construction paper to substitute for the chipboard. Though it barely held together, it did still manage to hold up my phone.
Before I started doing any laser cutting, I got some advice from someone who was more familiar with laser cutting. He said that using interlocking joints would make better use of the chipboard and make it much sturdier than just using slots. This led me to adjust my design away from using a base and have multiple upright pieces to hold the angled pieces in place.
First Cuts
I used Adobe Illustrator to create the designs I wanted to cut and then imported the file to Rhino to add the correct coloring and have a proper filetype for the laser cutter to interpret and print out my work. My first cut actually worked exactly as planned, it was able to hold my phone up in both orientations. However, it was not especially sturdy and could not hold anyone else's phone up without falling over. Though it worked for me, I decided I wanted to make it work for anyone phone and to be sturdier.
I reiterated by scaling up the sizing of the pieces and adding a third holding piece. This cut worked well for larger phones that needed the third hold to fit properly on the stand, but it actually became too large for my old phone to fit on comfortable in portrait mode. The three holds could not comfortably fit my phone, so I decided to combine the designs of my first two cuts in my final iteration.
Final Cut
My final cut used 4 holding pieces, with the two on the inside being measured to fit my phone and the two on the outside being available to support larger phones. I also added more structure plates on the top and front of the holding pieces, which kept them from shift while the phone is being used on the stand and made the overall stability stronger. I tested this phone with multiple people and ensured that it was usable by many different phone shapes and sizes and could not be knocked down during use, even if the table under it was shaken violently.
Critiques and Feedback
I got a lot of good supportive and constructive feedback on my design. I had several people mention its stability and versatility, which are the two main ways I think this design shines. One piece of feedback asked in the pegs on the back would block the camera, which seems very possible at first glance. However, I actually tested it beforehand with my phone, which is very short, and the camera was not blocked in either orientation at multiple placements on the stand. Another critique asked if I chose to use sharp edges on purpose as a part of the design. And honestly, that is something I did not think about at all when creating it. If I were to reiterate on this project, I would soften up the sharp corners, because they do not serve any purpose and could potentially poke someone during use.
Overall, I was pretty proud of my work and happy to learn how to laser cut. I plan to laser cut actual wood and make some more artistic things using it, like coasters or topographical maps.