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Comment by MisterTea | Hacker News Reader

"cheap and simple" - It's 3D printed.

If you're going for cheap and simple then the tools and materials should be available to almost anyone. This mean nothing beyond a trip to the hardware or variety store. I'm sure if someone were determined enough this could be made with things like cardboard, junk plastic strips, scrap metal, duck tape, wire ties and a little ingenuity. Sure it might not be as nice but it WILL be cheap and simple.

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Free and even simpler way to mount a smartphone directly above a laptop display

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

  - no 3D printer
  - no resin
  - no velcro
  - no cable ties
  - no suction cups
  - no adhesive film

BOM

  - 2 or 3 paperback books
  - 2 large-ish rubber bands

Instructions

  - stick your phone an inch down into a not-too-thick/not- 
  too-thin paperback book
  - squeeze it tight-ish with a rubber band
  - prop it up behind your monitor on a couple other paperback books
  - hold it in place with a rubber band

You might want to check around, 3D printers might be more available than you think. Before COVID, our library was doing 3D prints priced by the weight of the object. You'd send them a model and a week or three later you could go pick up the part.

You might also have friends who have a 3D printer and are happy to print something out for you. A good 3D printer can be had for $200 now, so they're pretty accessible.

I got my son one for his birthday last year, and now I don't know how we "lived without one". :-)

What do you do with it? I have a hard time coming up with common usages for one. Even for my theater hobby, where I dreamed of being able to print props, I haven't had a time where printing one would be easier than buying one or using conventional means to make it.

So glad you're enjoying yours. What do you do with it?

A lot of it is printing things I've found on Thingiverse that other people have created. More recently I've gotten more abilities to use TinkerCAD to build more complex models.

Things I've downloaded and printed: Headphones holder for my new desk, cable hangers for running cat5, Microphone "shock mount", a centrifuge for the kids science project, drywall passthrough grommets, painters pyramids because I forgot to pick some up when I was at the store, Christmas ornaments for us an our family, heart drink coaster for my anniversary.

Things I've designed: Hold-downs for my shop vac, hose adapters for my dust collector, hose adapters for a variety of my tools (many of these hard to just go out and buy), repair parts for my christmas lights to replace broken holders, a tool for more quickly raising/lowering the feet on my workbenches, a customized lathe tool holder for a friend.

The first time I shopped for something on Amazon (the headphone holders), and realized I could print on for a fraction of the cost in 4 hours, I was hooked!

I am very impressed. The centrifuge in particular is a nice touch. I looked it up on Thingiverse, and that led me down some interesting rabbit holes. Thank you.

And happy anniversary!

Came up with another part to design, that I'm printing a test of right now. This weekend I was again grumbling about my coffee grinder not quite holding a full 12oz bag of beans in the hopper. I realized I could print an extension to hold just a little bit more...

After reading the title I was expecting a phone duct taped to the lid.

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