Hold my phone! Hold my watch!

Intention

For this project I really aimed to make a product that was visually pleasing and functional in nature so that I could charge and hold my Apple Watch and my iPhone at the same time in one combined station. I wanted to make sure that this product was going to be just the size I needed--nothing more and nothing less.

Context

My ideas came from thinking about the types of products I use regularly and how I could improve them. I use technology regularly, as most individuals do nowadays, but I have always been frustrated at the disorganization that comes with charging my products. When I was thinking about parts of my day that frustrate me, this is what came up. My charger would be used next to my bed.

A lot of my inspiration had curvature and various smooth points, but I really liked something that was sharp and clean cut.

Process + Procedure

I used Autodesk Fusion 360 to model my project. I did my sketching by hand ompletely digitally and began by modeling a raised phone stand that fit the specifications of my phone and charger (I hand measured the dimensions) and estimated how much wire I was willing to bend in my design. I then modeled the watch portion and tried to match the general aesthetic of the phone portion.

I tried to minimize the amount of material, which is why I made the design hollow and with thin supports. Keeping in mind that PLA was going to be generally light, I made a support on the back of the phone portion.

I used an NVBot 3D printer to print my product and used PLA as a material. After printing, I realized that the hole for the wire was a little too small, so I tried to sand it to make it a little bigger, but that proved to be really difficult. I then used a heated exacto knife to try and cut it bigger, which worked, but I accidentally melted other parts of the material (without compromising functionality). Since I had used a lot of material to begin with, I didn't want to reprint and use even more. Honestly, since functionality was of primary importance to me, I didn't mind a cosmetic flaw.

Product

The final product is a a functional iPhone/Apple Watch charging station. It successfully holds and charges both products at the same time, and has room for the wires to seamlessly move to the outlets. It is a nice color gray and printed generally very nicely.

See below for a time-lapse of the print and photos of the final product.

Reflection

Reflecting back, I would provide more than the 0.4 mm margin that was recommended. I would consider what needs to fit very closely together and what can be afforded some wiggle room. I think it would be a lot of fun to consider different designs! At the time of printing, I really loved this design, but as of writing this, I feel like I could have made the entire product shorter to save material, perhaps made the two elements closer. I just didn't want the watch band to not be able to fit next to the phone.

Collaboration or Attribution

Thank you to E. Louise Larson for teaching Digitools this semester and for being a great instructor, teaching me all about fabrication, additive manufacturing, and design thinking!

Thank you to Noah Alexandroff for helping me come up with the idea to make a combination phone/watch holder.

STL file available upon email request!