Going Ghetto: DIY iPhone Stands

Going Ghetto: Three DIY iPhone Stands

Three DIY iPhone Stands

While the first iPhone came with a cleaning cloth and dock, the next few iPhones did away with them. Users then had to buy one if they needed a proper dock to prop up their phone while doubling up as a syncing platform. Thankfully, there are alternatives to getting a dock/stand for your iPhone, but only if you’re willing to get your hands dirty for some good ol’ art and craft.

The Paperclip Stand

Building a stand from a paperclip might seem challenging, but it’s actually quite easy to do. All you need to have is a larger paperclip, a ruler and some patience to fold the clip correctly. Thankfully the self proclaimed nerd at Dean and Ying’s Blog have come up with a template for folding the clip into a stand.

Verdict: Definitely doable, and really easy. The only downside is that your iPhone will be lying on its side instead of being upright, but not a big deal, especially since this is really useful for watching videos.

Total cost: $0.01

The Binder Clips

Well having succeeded on the easier paperclip, we’ve decided to for something more challenging, designing our own dock made from binder clips as seen from this video. Now, we tried to avoid using the clips on the wire because we were worried about damaging its plastic sheath, but ultimately we found that to be impossible due to the weight of the iPhone. So if you really want to do this, clipping the cable is unavoidable.

Verdict: Doable, but avoid unless you don’t mind if your USB cable gets increased wear and tear due to the clips.

Total cost: Dependent on how much office supplies you can borrow (or if you've a stingy company, it's just a dollar or two to get them yourselves).

The Paper Dock

While the above two methods are workable with some effort and stationary, here’s one that you can do with paper and a printer. So hopefully your origami skills are good to go and ready to rumble, because this does require a little bit of folding. There’s a template you can download from this site that’s in PDF format. Best done with stiff cardboard paper, as we soon found out when we tried with normal recycled paper.

Verdict: Definitely doable, but you might want to use thicker paper because normal A4 paper feels quite flimsy.

Total cost: $1.00 (depending on the thickness of your paper)