My brother recently went off to college and while moving him into his dorm we realized that he needed some space to store his phone, water bottle, and books near his bed. Since his bed was in a loft configuration, a traditional bedside table would not work. In response, I decided to design a bedside table that he could use in his dorm room at college so he would be able to easily store his books, charge his phone and reliably have his water near his bed for when he sleeps.

Supplies

For this project, I did my preliminary sketches on paper, but I made my final design on Fusion 360.

You can use any material you trust to hold what you want next to your bed, whether it be wood, metal, or plastic. I personally would recommend wood because it is the cheapest and easiest material to work with. Wood also would hold the weight of all of the stuff my brother decides to store on the table. You probably would also want some power tools to help cut and assemble the table.

Step 1: Preliminary Sketches and Design Restraints

There were a few design specifications I gave myself that needed to meet to make sure this project would be successful.

It must have space to hold:
Phone/s
Charging cables/ chargers
Books (school or reading)
Glasses
Other Personal Items
It must also be adjustable. Meaning it must adjust to different sideboard widths on different beds.
It must hold a large weight.
Must be easy to clean, in case anything is spilled or in case it gets dirty cause of use.
It must not be an eyesore to the owner and occupant/s of the room.

Cup Holder

To hold the water I decided on an inset cup holder that can hold a maximum diameter bottle of 4 inches, it also has a smaller lower portion to hold smaller bottles with a diameter of 3 inches. It also has a small hole at the bottom to let the liquid drain out so it doesn't pool up.

Charging

I had a few options when it came to how to allow for charging for phones, computers, or tablets. I could use an outlet, but that might not have enough places to plug cords into. I could also just make a slot for cords to fit through which would be simple, light, and efficient because you can fit more cords through the hole than the outlet. Another option is to have the cables just go over the side of the table which would not look good but would be cheap and work. I settled on cutting a slit into the side of the table.

Adjustability

To make this project work well for different bed frames the part that attaches to the sideboard of the bed must adjust to different widths. There were many different options for how to make the part adjust, but I decided on a piece that holds a bolt with threads that are connected to a plate. The plate and bolts slide through the holder. When you find the right place for the plate to be, there will be 2 nuts on either side of the holder that you will tighten that will make sure the plate and bolts do not move.

Step 2: Designing the Main Body

Now for the fun part, getting into Fusion 360 and actually making the final design. The main body is 3 feet wide and 1 ft deep. The wall height is 6 inches. The front face is 12 inches tall and the holder is 3 inches high on the bottom of the body.

The thought process behind the design of the main table body is that there are high walls to protect things from falling off the side of it or being knocked off. It also serves the purpose of making it large and easy to see so you don't bump your head on it if it is up high.

Step 3: Designing the Cup Holder

The cup has an internal diameter of 4 inches at the larger end of the cup. The smaller end of the cup has an internal diameter of 3 inches so smaller cups can be stable. The cup holder has an overhanging piece that you attach to the main body, the outside diameter of this piece is 4.75 inches and an internal diameter of 4 inches. The diameter of the small drainage hole at the bottom is .1 inches.

The reasoning behind designing the cup holder the way I did was that I knew there are many different sizes of water bottles that people could own, so the cup holder must accommodate ad many bottle sizes as possible. I did some tests with my large 1500 mL water bottle. I designed the larger portion around the large 1500 mL water bottle, I made sure that it fit inside the cup holder, so anything smaller should be perfect for it. The small portion of the cup holder was designed around a standard plastic Ice Mountain water bottle.

The drainage hole was put in so if needed liquids could drain out of it and not pool up and become disgusting. I made the cup holder removable to allow it to be easily cleaned. It is also useful for transport, so when you transport the body you make the shape more normal and easier to transport.

Step 4: Designing the Holding Plate

The main face of the holding plate is 3 feet wide, to allow for the most surface area possible to be touching the baseboard, allowing for greater stability. The baseboard is also 3 inches high, and 1 inch deep. The screws that connect the holding plate to the main body are positioned 1.5 inches down from the top of the holding plate. The screw closest to the sides is 3.5 inches from the sides and the 3 screws are 15.20 inches away from each other.

The screws are 8 inches long with a diameter of .75 inches. The thread for the screws is 3/4 - 10 UNC in the 3A class. The nuts are fairly standard being, 2 inches in diameter and have a hole diameter of .75 inches. The nuts also have the 3/4 - 10 UNC in the 3A class threading for their holes.

Step 5: Conclusion

This project was very useful for me for multiple reasons. I was able to learn about the processes of designing products and objects. That is something that will help me in my future career as an engineer or designer. I was also able to learn new design software, previously I only was well versed in Inventor, now I am able to design things in both software which is useful because I will be able to switch between them in different scenarios. I also was able to sharpen my problem-solving skills because there were problems that I encountered that required me to think outside of the box and find new solutions to problems that I encounter along the way. Now I have a design that I can build and test in the real world to make the design even better, and eventually, give it to my brother for him to use in college.