Phone Charging Station

by Albert Borland

76K68219

Intro: Phone Charging Station

The aim for this project was to reuse some scrap wood and an unused charging cable. I despise tangled wires, regardless if they are from my headphones, chargers or other technical devices. Therefore I wanted to create a little, neat looking charging station, which i can put on my desk.

The whole project is cheap and easy to make. Furthermore can it be completed within an afternoon.

STEP 1: Gather Your Materials and Tools!

Materials:

  • Scrap wood
  • Charging cable
  • Velvet tape (optional)

Tools:

  • Saw (some kind of saw, I used a chopsaw)
  • Sandpaper
  • Sand Paper
  • Drill
  • Adequate safety gear

STEP 2: Make a Plan

If you want to make your station perfectly suitable for your own smartphone, you have to measure the dimensions of your phone. So you start off making some measurements. At this point your project is completely up to you. Be creative, you can make whatever shape you want. I wanted mine to have a simple and minimalist design.

STEP 3: Rough Cut and Gluing

I wanted mine to be about 4,5 cm in height, however my scraps are just about 1.5 cm high, therefore I cut out three pieces, which are roughly the desired size, to glue them together and achieve the right height. To glue them I used some wood glue and some clamps.

STEP 4: Final Shape

As soon as the glue has dried, I cut the block into my favoured size using a chopsaw. After that I had a nice little wood block with 6 neat surfaces.

STEP 5: Cutting the Slot

To give the phone a good support, I marked a slot onto the wood, where I could later on stick the phone into. To cut it out, you can either use some machinery, like a chopsaw or a mill for instance. Nevertheless you can do it the old fashined way, by using a hacksaw, as well.

STEP 6: The Conduit

Now comes the more tricky part, however it is not too bad. If you want to hide your cable inside the block, you have to drill a canal, which lets you insert the cable and is just big enough to fit the port, but is not visible from the outside. This step requires some patience, if you want to make it perfectly. If you drill the hole a little bit too big, so that the port does not hold by itself, you can fix it by using some super glue. Do not forget to try if the phone fits, before you fix it permanently.

STEP 7: Footing (optional)

To cover the base I used some spare velvet tape. Simply cut it to size and stick it on. This lets it look even more valuable.

I hope you have enjoyed my little instructable, and maybe try it out yourself.

18 Comments

soybillc 8 years ago

Whats an NFC tag? Building mine in two part like JayS9 sugguestrd

langalls 7 years ago

near field communication (NFC) technologyand the smart tags that work with NFC.

NFC isn't a fundamentally groundbreaking technology. Like Bluetooth and WiFi, it's a wireless radio communications standard. In the wireless world, NFC's closest relative is actually RFID (radio frequency identification).

MarianoM3 8 years ago

Did you cut the cable? or how do you put it into the block?

Albert Borland 8 years ago

No I did not do anything to alter the cable. I just drilled the hole in the bottom to be big enough to insert it with a little bit of gentle force.

Ismegordo 8 years ago

What a FANTASTIC Idea.

I an thinking that I use this idea and convert it to suit my iPad.

It really is a Great Idea

Thanks for Sharing

P.s. I will Post some pics, after I have Completed

SteveB36 8 years ago

I made this for my old phone a few months ago

JayS9 8 years ago

Nice job! I've got a few pieces of mahogany sitting around that I might do something similar with! My only change may be to groove out the conduit cable into the middle section of wood beforehand to keep the bottom clean and flat. Then still in from your phone groove into the pre-made channel. Thanks for the ible!

Carleyy 8 years ago

Simple and looks great!

rafununu 8 years ago

Simple and "design" !

NFC is a very good idea as well.

ewagstaff 8 years ago

nfc tag on top would be. a nice little add-on. making it so as that nfc turns your phone on silent, sets alarms, etc.

christopherius 8 years ago

I'll probably include an nfc tag when I build one

jmoemoe 8 years ago

What benefit would adding the NFC tag provide?

Jaii 8 years ago

...can elegantly be made as a personal gift with receiver (individual or/and org's) name engraved...

dsexton8 8 years ago

Very cool. So many possibilities