Parametric Phone Stand
A phone stand modeled with parameters for phone thickness and viewing angle, so I can regenerate it for a different phone without redrawing anything.
Links
Components
- PETG filament (chosen for better heat resistance near a window)
What I was trying to make
A simple phone stand, but one I could actually reuse. Every stand I'd modeled before was hardcoded to whatever phone I had at the time, so when I got a new phone with a thicker case the old model was useless without redoing the whole sketch from scratch.
Design process
Built entirely with parameters in Fusion 360: phone thickness, phone width, viewing angle, and base depth are all user parameters that drive every sketch dimension downstream. Changing "phone thickness" from 8mm to 12mm regenerates the whole model with the slot resized and the support geometry adjusted so it still balances correctly.
The trickiest part was making the base depth automatically scale with viewing angle, since a steeper angle needs a deeper base to keep the whole thing from tipping backward. I ended up writing that relationship as an actual equation in the parameter list rather than adjusting it by hand each time, which took some trial and error with the geometry to get the tipping point math roughly right.
Electronics and components
None, this one's just plastic.
Build process
Printed in PETG instead of PLA since this sits near a window that gets warm in the afternoon, and I'd already had a PLA phone stand slightly warp in direct sun once. No supports needed if you orient it with the base flat on the bed, the overhang angle on the slot stays under 45 degrees for any reasonable viewing angle parameter.
Problems and failed attempts
First version had the phone slot exactly the width of my phone case, which meant it only fit that one case, tight friction fit, no wiggle room. I widened the parametric slot tolerance to add 1.5mm of clearance beyond the phone thickness parameter so it holds firmly without needing the exact case dimensions.
What changed between versions
- v1: slot sized to exact phone thickness, too tight, hard to reprint for different phones
- v2 (current): added a clearance parameter so the slot is always slightly larger than the phone thickness value
Final result
Works well, and more importantly, actually gets reused: when a friend asked for one sized to their phone, I just changed two numbers and hit regenerate instead of remodeling anything. That was the whole point of doing it parametrically in the first place.