Quick & Dirty Tripod Mount for a Galaxy S4 in an Otterbox Defender Case

I am a bit rough on my phones and I hate most of the "Universal Fit Holders" for cars or any other device so when I got my Galaxy S4 I got an Otterbox Defender protective case for it....at some point I figured out I could buy extra belt holsters and modify them for various things. I've modified one to hold my phone right next to my radio in my Jeep and this one I've modified to be useful as a mount on a tripod while still retaining some protection if I decide to carry it on my person. In this Instructable I'll give you the basic idea of how I did it.

I made this at TechShop -- http://techshop.ws/

Step 1: Gather Your Parts....

I had an old tripod and an extra belt holster. The holsters can be ordered from Otterbox or from other sources but in general they seem to run about $10-$15... The tripods can be found about anywhere. I've seen this same one on Amazon for pretty cheap but I think this one came from Best Buy. I'll probably replace it with a new one because this one has a few cracks and I salvaged the normal pivoting part off of it for another project a long time ago. I hope the threads and bolt size are similar on it's replacement.

Step 2: And Make Some Holes for the Camera.

I used a 1" Forstner bit and a drill to make a hole big enough for the camera and flash. I just kind of eyeballed the location but there are indentations in the plastic that give you an idea of where. Use your best judgement in locating this and make sure you get it in the right place to allow the camera and the flash to be exposed. I also used a 1/2" bit to make a hole where the speaker is....not necessary but something I wanted to do.

Step 3: Drill and Tap a Hole for the Tripod

My tripod had a 1/4" bolt so I used a 3/16" drill bit and drilled a hole in the middle of the clip part of the belt holster. I did it fairly close to the "meat" of the clip in hopes that it would keep it from possibly breaking in the future. Depending on your plastic you might be able to thread the hole just using the bolt but since TechShop has a nice Tap & Die set I just used a 1/4" tap and a drill to slowly thread the hole.

Step 4: And Voila'!

Thread the tripod on the base and you are done. This was a quick little project I did while I was waiting for paint to dry in the metal fab shop at TechShop.

Since the Samsung Galaxy S4 will respond to voice commands to take a picture something like this is great when you want everyone in the pic. If you don't mind the lower quality pics you can even switch to the front facing camera, see yourself on the screen, and give it a voice command to take the pic.

Have fun!