Foldable Travel Phone Stand

Foldable Travel Phone Stand

Osama Samman – Spring 2026

Project Overview

This project involves designing and 3D printing a foldable travel phone stand using FDM with PLA filament. The goal is a compact stand that holds a smartphone in portrait or landscape orientation, allows charging while in use, and folds flat to about 14 mm for easy transport.

Parts

 

Base plate — circular hole pattern reduces weight by ~30%. Rubber feet recesses on the underside prevent sliding on smooth surfaces.

Back support plate — split lip with a 20 mm central gap for charging cable access. The two blocks also act as side guides for landscape orientation.

Locking rod — 2 mm diameter rod that slides into the 2.5 mm bore of the pipe hinge to lock the stand at a set angle.

Design Iterations

Version 1 had a solid base plate, a continuous lip that blocked the charging port, and a plain pin with no angle locking.

Version 2 fixed all of these: hole pattern, split lip with cable cutout, rubber feet recesses, and a pipe hinge with a planned detent snap mechanism for angle retention.

Current Status

All three parts are fully modeled in SolidWorks. Next step is finalizing the detent geometry on the locking rod and pipe bore, then printing at the UW Grainger Makerspace on the Bambu X1C.