Use for Offcuts

[Mike Henderson]

Like most woodworkers, I accumulate a lot of offcuts that I just can't throw away. Recently, I started making wooden stands for smartphones. Here's a bunch I made recently.
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And here's a side view with a smartphone on one of the stands. There's a hole under the smartphone so you can plug the smartphone in to charge it while it's on the stand.
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They look simple but there's quite a bit of work to produce one. I glue up small pieces and have to resaw many of them. Then cut to length, round over the edges, drill the hole, and then cut the two slots for them to connect. Finally, sand and apply finish.

My wife belongs to an organization and I donated quite a few to them for a fund raiser. They charged $10 each and had more people wanting to buy than I had stands. If I was doing it for a living, I'd make about $1/hr:) (well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.)

In this batch, I have some made from avocado wood from a tree I had to cut down a couple of years ago, a few walnut, one mahogany, and some of "wonder wood" (stuff that I don't know what it is, but I thought it looked interesting - people give me wood that I can't identify).

Mike

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Very clever and a nice job! Those will be great for zoom meeting's, talking on speaker, displaying a recipe...

[Patty Hann]

Very clever, indeed, very resourceful. An very kind that you donate them for fundraising.:)
("wonder wood" ....too funny :D)

[Frank Pratt]

You could also build them with a wireless charger built into the backrest.

[Mark Gibney]

Well done Mike, they look great.
Nice design and use of scraps.

[Ted Calver]

Nicely done, Mike. Good on you.

[Bob Cooper]

Nice. Could you post a picture of the two pieces before assembly?

[Mike Henderson]

Sure, I should have done that originally. Here are the two pieces. I have a Kapex miter saw and you can set it for dado cutting. I set it to go half way through the pieces. I use a backer board to support the pieces when cutting. Enlarge the cut towards the longer piece of the wood to limit breakage of the weaker short piece, especially the piece with the hole.

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I forget the size of the hole, but check the size of the charger plug and go from there. Some of the hole is covered by the other piece so go just a bit larger than the charging plug. The front part - that the phone sits on - has to be a bit longer than necessary or it will be too weak because of the hole.

The pieces are 7.5 inches for the long one and 5.5 inches for the short one. The slot on the larger piece starts about 1 5/8 inch from the bottom. That, and the length of the shorter piece, determines the slant of the stand.

It's actually pretty simple. Make one and then adjust things to your preference.

Mike

[Edit: Drill the hole before cutting the slot. Otherwise the piece tends to break off. The wood is about 3/16 inch thick and about 3 1/4 wide. Measure your phone and use that width.]