Comments on: Aluminum iPhone dock

By: Burr grinders

Burr grinders — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:55:08 +0000

I’ve used glass beads, I find the finish somewhat abrasive, and I don’t want to scratch my phone.

By: Anthony909

Anthony909 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:45:17 +0000

Looks awesome. I think this comes in really handy because it allows you to dock your iphone with a case on it. I find it very annoying to have to take off my case every time I want to dock my first generation iPhone. I was thinking of somehow trying to break apart the original dock that came with it and modifying it to fit with a hard case around my phone…..any ideas??? Below is a picture of the dock I am talking about. Any help would greatly appreciated!

http://www.geardiary.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/iphone-dock.jpg

By: Denton divorce lawyer/attorney

Denton divorce lawyer/attorney — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:30:11 +0000

I like the simple look to it.

By: Jozerworx

Jozerworx — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:22:47 +0000

@stinkymonkey

The dock was polished with a grinder, sandpaper, steel wool, and finally brillo pads, so it is quite smooth and has a nice brushed visual texture. As I was saying, the camera flash highlights the microscopic flaws and fingerprints on the finish.

By: stinkymonkey

stinkymonkey — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:51:51 +0000

@Jozerworx

steel wool can really polish aluminum with a brushed look, possibly brasso if your looking to omit any imperfections,

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:41:33 +0000

@medix: -or a jitterbug even

By: Tomasito

Tomasito — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:39:17 +0000

@Jozerworx:

I mean.. you could at least used a piece of aluminum bolted with two screws two the aluminum sheet to hold on the cable connector.
Maybe you could made someting that actually holds the iphone (other than the connector). A sheet of aluminum in “C” shape might work.

I don’t know.. I do not want to be pessimist, just this design didn’t conviced me.

By: Jozerworx

Jozerworx — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:23:52 +0000

Re: Medix

I’ve used glass beads, I find the finish somewhat abrasive, and I don’t want to scratch my phone.

By: medix

medix — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:09:01 +0000

Shot blast with glass beads for a nice sheen finish. Any good machine shop has a glass bead cabinet..

By: Jozerworx

Jozerworx — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:35:07 +0000

strider_mt2k,

Tsk tsk, it is clear packing tape, not scotch tape. They are COMPLETELY different. ;)

By: Wwhat

Wwhat — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:58:06 +0000

Get something brass to fancy it up, that would be better than LED or/and acrylic, mixing metals has a nice effect.

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:29:17 +0000

Scotch tape.

It also exposes scotch tape.

;)

By: Jozerworx

Jozerworx — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:00:23 +0000

Re: Jack and Tomasito

I agree that using aluminum is not an automatic 10 on the attractiveness scale. I didn’t set out to create the most beautiful or functional iPhone accessory known to man kind, I just had 15 minutes and a sheet of aluminum, and wanted something to sit my iPhone on so I could see the screen while it was plugged in.

Keep in mind that the camera flash exposes every flaw, fingerprint, and dirt particle on the dock. When seen in real life, the dock looks quite a bit better; it matches the brushed aluminum trim on my dell monitor very nicely.

By: Tomasito

Tomasito — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:39:42 +0000

This is a case where you can say “just because it uses aluminum doesn’t make it pretty”, and it isn’t pretty at all (for me at least).

It is just a aluminum sheet blended with an ipod usb cable hot glued in the bottom.

If I had to choose between the pacman one and this one, i would go for the pacman.

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:43:10 +0000

That looks like an excellent start.

Maybe a tad rough around the edges, but sheet metal is a great medium for getting a job done while lending itself to some creative flair as well.

Time after time we see stories on the net about incredibly resourceful folks using scrap metal and some surprisingly basic tools to achieve some useful and unique devices that verge on art.

I also like lego as a medium for device docks.

Excelsior!