My Quick n' Dirty DIY iPhone 5 Charging Dock - Done!

Got my iPhone 5 on Wednesday, and I love it.
Flawless and such a nice bump up from the iPhone 4.

I fully expected to use a bumper on it, but the iPhone 5 is so elegantly designed for the first time ever, I'm using the phone NAKED.

But that means instead of sliding it on my table, I'm going to need a dock. Since Apple has no plans as of yet to make an iPhone 5 dock, I just converted the USB lightening cable into a charging dock with some crap wood, screws, sandpaper, and paint:









I purposely made it a bit taller/deeper than most for stability, and I admit, it's kind of ugly, but hey, it does the job until a real dock is made available.

I suck at woodworking, and it took about an hour and a half. I snapped some pics during the process is anyone is interested.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it until someone better comes along!

Elevon said:

Good job you did there and very well put together!

My iPhone 5's just lying on the table atm haha

Click to expand...

Thanks!

haha I know, I was going to just leave mine on the table too, but going naked with no case/bumper, it just didn't feel right.

mr lee said:

Very nicely done!!

I'm assuming you really don't need the functionality of the home button on the dock correct?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't need the home button in the dock.
I can always just drill out that area if I do, but I really don't.

Sure, no problem.

Here are some construction pics. Again, I really don't know wood working at all.

At first I just grabbed a piece of scrap and then measured the width of the phone. Drilled a hole at each end of the scrap using a 19/64" drill bit:



Then just kept drilling along the line connecting the two holes.
Then filed it down a bit with a slight bevel on one side so it leaned back.



On the bottom I just filed a groove for the cord:


Took two more pieces of scrap wood and taped them together.
Drilled a hole through each of them with a 5/16" drill bit for the lightening connector, and stuck it in place by filling the entire hole with a glue gun:



Screwed all the pieces together in the corners and then cut off the trim:

Sanded and painted it. Then after the Saints/Chargers game tonight, thanks to the idea from this thread, just in case I used a Dremel to notch out a smooth groove for the home button just in case I want to use the phone which is locked in the dock:



Again, it's kind of ugly, but it fits like a glove and really locks into place.
Should hold me over for quite a few months until a better option is available.

If anyone wants to make a similar one and has scrap wood lying around, it's a nice cheap option. Works great!

Thanks!