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Project Information

Simple iPhone 5 dock made from some leftover Walnut and Maple.

Updated with some pictures from various angles, as well as the template I used and the off-cut piece for the main body.

I used the template shown above to cut a full-size recess in a block of walnut. Then I cut that in half since I only wanted to cover half the phone. It also leaves me a 2nd piece to make another dock from.

A piece of maple was used for the center piece which contains the channel for the connector. The top-view picture shows how that works.

A long strip of maple was cut that is used for both the sides and the bottom. Before gluing the bottom in place, it was run through the band saw to give it some curves all around.

For the bottom piece, I offset it back a little from the front of the dock when I glued it up, so I could route a channel all the way through for the cord, which meets up with the channel from the center block on the front. Then a thin strip of maple fills in the gap at the front.

I'll likely glue the connector in place once I'm really happy with the piece. Might need a couple more coats of finish (tung) first.

Gallery

Comments

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31 Posts
Nice design, I like it alot.
 

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248 Posts
looks great! is it curved or just the picture ?
 

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That is fantastic….can you include pictures as to how you handled the connector?
 

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37 Posts
Very cool! I'm going down to the garage now to make one for my phone.
 

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That's so cool… you've gotta get some more pictures of that beast on here! Great job!
 

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Thanks everybody!

Yep, there's a very slight curve to the front. I'll take some more pictures when I get home tonight.

For the connector, it's just the standard lightning cord/adapter that came with the phone. The piece of maple in the middle has a small channel routed in it, that's the exact width of the connector. The walnut has a larger channel routed out to hold the piece of maple. The connector slides up the channel, and I have a small shim that I slid up there to hold it in place. I considered gluing the connector in, but wanted to be able to easily remove the cord.

The thing about the connector that tripped me up was that is that you need about an inch of space before the cord is flexible enough to bend underneath the dock. That's why there's another piece of horizontal maple across the bottom, to give a little more clearance that I didn't figure in from the beginning. It worked out for the best though, since I needed something to provide a little more support so it doesn't tip over.
 

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181 Posts
Very nice. I just built a holder for my phone but it's not even worth posting it here. Thanks for sharing.
 

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Very nice design. Post some pics of the back/bottom please - I can truly steal this design until I see how it's all put together :)
 

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259 Posts
Wood and technology combination always fascinates me.
Exemplary workpiece!
 

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17 Posts
Very cool!
 

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Well done! One of my favorite projects…
 

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7,502 Posts
gr8 way to use up some cut-offs
 

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Very nice! I want to make one like this for my iPad. Thanks!
 
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