3D Printed and Laser-Cut Acrylic Headphone Stand

Welcome! This is my first Instructable, so any criticism or helpful pointers for future guides would be greatly appreciated! I'm an 8th grader who loves design and programming, so guides on those types of things may be posted later on.

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As a kid who constantly loves listening to music, I've found it frustrating to take out my headphones and have no place to put them after I'm done with a little jam session. I'm a clean freak too, so I don't like stuff to be cluttered all over my desk. It has to be neat and in its right spot.

Why buy a headphone stand on a website like Amazon when you can build one yourself? Luckily, with the help of my STEM teacher and the 6 Step Engineering Design Process, I designed one that is simplistic and looks stylish and will wow other people who see it.

To build this stand, you will need:

- a laser engraver (I used a Universal Laser Systems VLS3. 50)

- a sheet of 0.25 thick acrylic, preferably transparent

- a 3D printer with one spool of filament (I used a Lulzbot Taz 6)

- hot glue gun

- about 5 hot glue sticks

It would be very much appreciated if you could vote for this in the First Time Author Contest !

Thanks and Happy Building!

Step 1: Designing the Base

Everything needs a foundation, the thing that keeps it steady in a certain place. In this case, it's the solid base that provides support for the rest of the headphone stand to stand up and not tip over with its weight.

Materials:

• Lulzbot Taz 6 3D Printer, or any other 3D printer that has a printing size of at least 4x4 inches

To make this base, I designed it in Onshape and started with a rectangle on the bottom plane. I then extruded it to make it 3D and then filleted the edges and corners to streamline the design of the base. Plain old boxes are boring, so why not spice it up?

From there, I took the width of each acrylic piece, which is 0.125 inches and made a divot so that the pieces could slide in and stay there. But since 3D filament shrinks a bit, I made it slightly larger by 0.0625 inches, or a sixteenth of an inch. This is just to ensure that the gaps aren't too small. From there, you can edit the .stl file and add text to customize the base. It's yours to make, so you can put any text on it like your initials or even your name!

Step 2: Designing in Gravit

I used Gravit Designer to make my boards that I would later glue together to make the tower.

I used a "dovetail" system, which allows the boards to align and form straight edges. Nobody wants uneven edges, as those will make the product look ugly :(

The pieces were as follows: Two 1.5*8.4-inch rectangles, and two 1.1389*8.4-inch rectangles, both of which have a dovetail pattern for alignment with the other pieces.

Each dovetail cut was created by dragging a 0.125 inch by 0.5-inch rectangle that would stand on the edge of the piece. I alternated with a pattern to ensure that each part would slide into the other.

NOTE: As a finishing touch, I put music notes on one of the pieces, but that is completely optional.*

So, once the pieces are cut out, they should look like the pictures above,

Step 3: The Headphone Hook

We now have a base and pieces for a tower that will be the stabilizing basis of our headphone stand. However, the last part before printing and cutting is the hook from which your headphones can rest on. I used Onshape again to design the hook. Throughout my designing, I had to keep in mind that the center part of the hook had to be able to fit inside of the rectangle that the laser cut acrylic formed.

To make this, I started with a rectangular base, then extruded it to form a 4 by 1.5 by 2.5 inches. then, I made the hook design by using lines to draw out the hook on one side, then I used the trim tool and the "remove" tool on the Extrude function to take out the rest of the unnecessary parts. And finally, to streamline the design of the hook, I used sketch fillets to curve the edges then I used fillets to curve the edges and corners of the hook.

Step 4: Cutting the Acrylic and Printing Out Parts

Looks like you're almost at the end! It's time now to print out parts and wrap up this road trip!

If you're a kid who has access to a 3D printer and laser cutter at your school, show these files to your teacher and make sure that it can get approved before.

On the other hand, if there is a makerspace near you then that is a great option for getting the parts. All you have to do for both options is just send the files to the person who is going to print out the parts, wait a couple days (or hours if you're lucky) and voila! you have all the parts you need to make the stand.

Step 5: Putting Everything Together

This is the final step, I promise. After this, the stand will be able to stand on its own and bear the weight of your headphones.

First, lay out the pieces and make sure that they are facing right side up. Then, push them together so that they interlock. Then, turn each piece so that they form a 90 degree angle at the corner. For extra support, you can glue the corners together so that the pieces don't fall apart.

Next, you'll want to slide the pieces into the slot in the base (making sure that they are going into the ones with the right length) until they are secure and do not fall out. You may want to hold the pieces together just in case.

Finally, slide the hook into the hole at the top and put a thin layer of hot glue around it so that the top of the pieces will adhere to the side of the hook. Just in case so that nothing falls apart!

Step 6: Conclusion

Well, after all this effort you should have this headphone stand completed! This was as much fun to make as it was to write this Instructable, so thank you for viewing this guide!

Once again, please vote for it in the First Time Author Contest and happy builiding!