GramoPhone Smartphone Dock

Heyas I`m back again. This time I figured I wouldn`t put "Steampunk" in the title, although this project is probably as steampunk as I ever got...

Anyways I want to show you how I built a dock / acoustic amplifier for my new smartphone. I got a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro, but with a couple of changes in the design I`m sure you could make one that fits your phone.

I used copper sheet & pipe because its what was available at my local hardware store. For the horn part I`d like to have used the head of a copper watering can - or an old brass car horn - but in the end I had to settle for a plastic watering can. I`d have preferred to use brass but couldn`t find any. Other things you`ll need are a drill, a metal jigsaw or a rotary tool with cutting attachments,  a set of small files, different grits of sandpaper (220 - 1000), epoxy or some other strong glue and some kind of felt to line the inside so your phone won` t get scrached...

The reason I kind of rushed the completion of this instructable is that I wanted to be able to enter the new Epilog laser cutter challenge, so If you see the I`ble, check out if they`re still voting over on the contest site ;-)
As to what I would do with a laser cutter, I can`t even begin to count the possibilities... But my brother and me have been talking about setting up a makerspace in our town, and I guess the laser cutter would be the perfect tool to attract new people...

I got inspired to do this little project by the excellent Gramophone mp3 player as seen on http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3490.0 as well as the Bone Horn Stand for the iPhone http://www.ubergizmo.com/2010/10/gramophone-amplifier-for-your-iphone/

Step 1 Plans

First you have to measure the dimensions of your phone. This was tricky with my phone because the screen was the only really straight surface - so I had to eyeball a lot of the measurements. To make sure I got them right, I made a quick blueprint on a piece of paper, cut it out, folded it as planned and checked if the phone fit into it nicely. 

If this works out, you may proceed to transfer your plans to the sheet metal of your choice.
Once you cut out your basic shape use a file or some sandpaper to clean away the burrs left by the cutting.

After this, use extra care to measure and transfer the corner points of your phone`s screen and important buttons to the sheet. (You can also use a centerpunch to transfer them from your plans, if those are exact enough for your needs - it`s what I ended up doing). You can already drill some pilot holes in the corners at that point and use them to check the alignment with your screen.

Comments

[Kaptain Kool]

This is awesome! Great job.

[zazenergy]

Love it!

[Spaceman-Spliff]

Still adding pics & stuff - maybe I should have taken a little more time... anyways: I`ll update the Instructable as I go along. I hope this won`t interfere with the contest...