Print-in-place folding phone/tablet stand with 2 positions

I made this to watch movies on my phone during air travel. I needed something that folds flat in my carry-on baggage.

This phone stand / tablet stand is printed in place as a single fully-assembled part.

It includes a snap-lock mechanism for two opening positions, depending on whether the device is mounted in portrait or landscape orientations. It's intended for landscape however. On an airplane, especially during turbulence, it is stable in landscape position, but not so stable in portrait position.

This stand does the job for me, although I am not particularly satisfied with the snap-lock mechanism. It works, but it feels way to "soft" even though the spring is quite stiff.

The included "generic_phone_stand.stl" should fit most smartphones. The file "thick_phone_stand.stl" is for big heavy smartphones like my Ulefone Armor 11T.

Just three parameters are needed to adjust for your device: length, width, and thickness. You can also adjust the tilt angle and the two opening angles.

Parameters can be adjusted from OpenSCAD. Set the "display" setting to "assembly" to view the device in both portrait and landscape orientations. You may need to adjust the narrow opening angle for best fit, depending on the width of your device, but the defaults should work fine in most cases.

To speed up preview in OpenSCAD, set the "rmink" parameter in the "Advanced" section to zero, which removes all the bevels. Otherwise set it to 1 for printing.

Print Settings

Printer: Prusa I3 MK3S

Supports: No

Resolution: 0.20 mm layers

Infill: 20% cubic

Filament: Any non-flexible

Notes:

You can print this with no top and bottom surfaces to speed up print time although the spring latch will lose some lateral stiffness.

Post-Printing

When you remove it from the build plate, grasp the part near each hinge and gently bend them one at a time to loosen them. They may be a bit sticky at first.

How I Designed This

Another phone stand by Qrome inspired me to adapt my concept for a decorative plate stand in the sense of using a model of the device to cut out the holder shape from the part. Otherwise this was written from scratch in OpenSCAD.

Category: Mobile Phone