Video Phone Stand: Laser Cutting
I decided to build a stand by laser cutting mat board that could hold my iPhone and allow me to video tape a prototype or phone underneath the stand. The project required that everything fit using 18" x 24" mat board, no other materials were used (tape, staples, etc.), and the stand could collapse and be disassembled in order to fit into someone’s backpack.
Design Process
I started by sketching some potential designs. I wanted the design to hold the phone parallel to the tabletop because I wanted the phone’s camera to be able to capture video footage at a flat angle. I also knew stability was going to be an issue because I wanted the stand to be high enough to capture a large amount of area but an increase in height results in a decrease in stability. Below are a few of my initial sketches of the tower design I was envisioning.
I tested out these sketches by building a prototype out of cardboard to see if the construction outlined in my sketches would actually stand up and potentially support a phone.
I designed the top board with the top half cut off in order to let the phone sit on top and fit a variety of phones. I also added the strips on the bottom in order to help stabilize the structure because I initially had tabs or feet but those didn’t provide enough stability. The cardboard prototype helped me realize that the height was about what I wanted in order to capture a good amount of area in the phone’s camera. However, I noticed that the sides blocked a significant amount of light and also limited what could be shown inside of the stand. Therefore, I looked into other designs online to see if I could find other inspiration.
The design I ended up laser cutting is very similar to the one on this website. I liked how open it was with the legs because, as the website shows, you can place papers, phones, and more underneath and capture all of it using a phone’s camera. Theirs was designed for a camera and so I decided to modify the top part of their design to better support a phone. Below are some pictures of my model in Rhino since that is how I designed my prototype and sent it to the laser cutter.
I had worked with SOLIDWORKS before in a previous UW course so I was familiar with the idea of working with a modeling program. However, I had to play around with Rhino for quite a bit in order to get familiar with the commands and tools. I tinkered with the dimensions, lengths, and shapes of the model and frequently drew out the model on paper to make sure I was thinking through it properly. I made slots at the top of the legs so that the platform for the phone could rest on top and so I had to make sure I put the correct slots on the correct legs and I drawing this out helped me think through what needed to go where. I had a hard time getting all the angles to match and it was hard to iterate on the model I had originally drawn in Rhino because I am not familiar enough with Rhino in order to make all of the modifications I needed to at various states of the model. Therefore, I had to redraw and try drawing in various layers as the iterations as opposed to simply modifying the same model. Once I had a model that I thought would work, I printed it out and cut it out of paper to test the alignment, as shown below.
Since the paper model seemed to connect in the way I thought it should, I decided to load it into the laser cutter and try cutting it on the mat board. Below shows the laser cutter cutting.
Below is a photo of my prototype including the pieces, the final constructed product, and a photo from my phone resting on the top of the stand. The pieces lie flat together and are easily put together and taken apart so they can easily fit in my bag and be transported wherever necessary.
Testing, Feedback, and Reflection
I tested my model by placing my phone on top and turing on the camera to video tape what I could capture underneath. I was able to capture what I wanted but the stand was a little wobbly and it shook quite a bit when the table moved.
In class, we presented our prototypes and I realized a lot of people decided to make a stand that held the phone at an angle as opposed to straight down. This angled approach allowed them to make a more stable design because you could capture a photot from the side and therefore didn’t have to worry about making a clear space directly below the stand. Mine was less stable because I built it so that my phone was parallel to the table but I knew that might be the case when designing and constructing it. The main point I got when receiving feedback about my design was how it could be beneficial to make it more stable. I agreed because I also thought stability should be the main focus for improvement if I were to continue to work on this design. It definitely wasn’t as sturdy as I would have liked and so I think potential adding some additional supports or transitioning into a tripod model could be interesting designs to try.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with this assignment. I wish I had spent more time working on the design with cardboard by making a variety of different designs so that I could take that design and simply measure it and quickly draw it up in Rhino. I think this would have sped up the process because modifying the design in Rhino ended up being more time consuming than I had anticipated.
