PLATE 06

Phone Stand Designs

A personal CAD and 3D printing project — iterating a phone stand design from a rough first pass into a fast, manufacturable final version, made as Christmas gifts for family.

TypePersonal Project

ToolsCAD / 3D Printing

Iterations8 design revisions

Produced~40 units, still in use

CAD render of the final phone stand design

The Task

This project was self-directed, with two goals in mind: to get more practice with CAD and to learn the fundamentals of 3D printing — with the finished pieces intended as Christmas presents for family.

Process

The design started rough — a first-pass object simple enough to just hold a phone — then went through repeated iteration, drawing inspiration from existing phone stand designs along the way. Each revision was refined with two goals in mind: making it easier to manufacture via 3D printing, and reducing mechanical complexity as much as possible.

Across 8 iterations, that focus on manufacturability paid off directly in print time — the initial design took 48 hours to print, and the final version was down to just 4 hours, a 12x improvement achieved purely through better design decisions rather than printer settings.

Multiple 3D-printed phone stand iterations in different colours laid out on a workbench — FIG. 07 — Printed iterations from across the 8 design revisions

Result

The final design was simple, quick to print, and mechanically minimal. It went on to become the basis for around 40 stands, printed and given as gifts to family and friends — and they're still in daily use today. Beyond the finished product, the project built hands-on experience in CAD iteration and design-for-manufacture thinking specific to 3D printing.