Here is a quick and easy DIY iPad dock or iPhone stand which can really be used for any cell phone or tablet.  If you have a piece of wood, all you need to do is drill one hole and make one cut.  It’s really easy if you have the right tools (a drill press and a table saw), but even without them you can make this DIY iPad dock with some simple hand tools.

Materials Required:

• a single piece of wood, approximately 3″ x 5″ x 1″ thick.

Tools:

• Drill press or handheld drill, preferably with a 1/2″ fortsner bit
• Table saw or circular saw

Instructions:

The instructions for this DIY iPad dock really only include two simple steps.

Step 1: Drill the hole

Preferably using a 1/2″ forstner bit so your “hole” winds up with a flat bottom (which will be hidden later anyway), place the center of your bit on in .75″ in from the front edge, and 1.5″ in from the sides (assuming your wood is 3″ in width).  If you can, tilt your drill at 8.7 degrees so that the bottom of the hole is closer to the back than the front.   This slight slope will mean the bottom of the hole should align perfectly with the bottom edge of the cut you’ll make in step 2.   If you don’t have an easy way to set your angle to 8.7 degrees, drilling straight down is fine.

In either case, drill down just under 5/8″.

Step 2: Cut the slot

For the slot to hold your iPad, iPhone, or other tablet or cell phone, it’s much easier if you have a dado blade on your table saw that you can angle at 15 degree.  My diagram shows to make the cut 1/2″ wide – but you can vary this depending on your tablet or phone’s actual thickness.  We use 1/2″ to accommodate phone cases.  If you are making this for an iPhone without a case, you really only need to make the width of the cut 5/16″ wide.

Set your table saw fence so that the edge of the cut closest to the front of the stand is 3/4″ (0.75″) in from the front – right in the center of the hole you just drilled.  Then make certain the LOW side of your dado bit, after setting it to the 15 degree angle, is set at 5/8″ high.   Then just make a single pass over the table saw and you are basically done. All that needs to be done now is any sanding and staining you want to do!

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