On standby: making a phone stand

Words and photos: Raf Nathan

At mealtimes and other times, a good phone stand is a frequently used friend. There are three parts to this version – the face, base and phone ledge.

You can select wood for the face according to your preferences and framing it with a contrasting wood can also add to the look.

1. Glue on the edge strips and when dry flush them down.

The angle of the face is important. After experimenting with various angles, I settled on 37° as optimum for viewing a phone screen whilst seated. The base and ledge then have to support the weight of the phone and face piece.

2. You can add to the look with another edge strip at the top of the face. This frames the face piece and can highlight any special wood you use.

Face and base dimensions

On the stands shown, the face is 95mm wide overall and 140mm long finished, but I leave these initially a bit longer at say 170mm. The thickness can be 8–10mm thick. Prepare the face piece square and glue on the edge strips.

3. Flush down the edge strips with a block plane and follow up with sanding.

The edge strips can be 4 or 5mm thick. Flush these down when the glue is dry. The face is then sawn to final length. A hand or mitre saw can be used for this.

The base can be a simple block of wood or you can laminate it up with contrasting timber on the edges or faces. This is sawn at 37° both ends.

4. Glue the faces and bases together and secure with tape.

To cut these small lengths more safely, I made a quick jig to support the wood when sawing the angle. I also use a long push-stick to keep the sawn piece of wood stable.

5. The ledges are glued on next.

Assembling the stands

Sand and prepare the face and base and then glue them together. I use a quick-setting glue for this which has proven to be exceptionally strong. Given the angles you are gluing I found it best to use tape and gravity to clamp the pieces together. The phone ledge is 10mm x 10mm and is glued in place.

6. After the bases are glued on, edges were lightly chamfered the whole assembly sanded.

7. A batch of phone stands made from blackwood, Huon and celery top pine

Finishing off

All the edges need to be neatly chamfered and any glue run-out removed before polishing. I use my phone stand often and found them to be welcome gifts as well.

Raf Nathan @treeman777 is a Brisbane based woodworker and frequent contributor to Australian Wood Review.