A Stand for the Server

A phone lying flat serves files just fine, but its cameras stare at the shelf and the ceiling. These 3D-printable stands hold the phone upright while it charges and set how far its camera looks down into the room.

How it holds the phone

The phone slides in upright and leans back against two rails. Its bottom edge rests on two ledges with a wide gap between them, so the charging plug hangs freely into an open well and the cable leaves through the back of the base. Lightning and USB-C both fit, and the phone can be lifted out without unplugging anything.

Nothing covers the buttons, the microphone, the speaker or either camera, and the home button stays visible through a window in the front lip. The sides are open frames rather than solid walls, so air moves around a device that is busy around the clock.

Which file to print

The recline decides where the rear camera looks when the back of the stand faces the room: 8° is close to level and suits an eye-height shelf, 15° is the safe middle, and 25° suits a high shelf watching the room below.

• Fitted to the iPhone 6s: 8°, 15°, 25°
• Any iPhone, from the SE up to the Max bodies, bare or in a thin skin: 8°, 15°, 25°

A 6s in the universal stand gets a few millimetres of play; the fitted one holds it without wiggle. Either way the phone leans on the same back face, so the angle stays true.

Printing

Print the file as it is oriented, flat side on the bed; no supports are needed. Three walls and 10 to 15 percent infill are plenty, which comes to between 75 and 100 grams of filament depending on the variant. PETG keeps its shape a little better than PLA against a phone that stays warm, but PLA works. For a two-colour print, add a filament change at the 6 mm mark: the base prints in one colour, the uprights and the embossed lettering in the other.

Changing the design

Tinkercad can import the files (choose millimetres when asked) to cut, extend or merge them like any other shape. They are generated by make_stand.py, a single Python file with no dependencies; the angles, slot sizes and embossed text are constants at the top, so a stand for a phone in a thick case is a one-line change.