I’ve had my Glowforge for a couple months, and outside of making boxes and a few other trinkets that others have had I haven’t pushed anything. With the release of the iPhone X and wireless charging, that changed!
I wanted a wireless charging station that I could slot my phone in, and have my watch visible on the front. I designed this out through a lot of trial and error, and after 3 iterations came up with this and I’m pretty happy with it.
I sanded it down, and going to paint it, but wanted to share first if other people had any comments or suggestions to further improve.
The center pieces are held together just by friction, but it’s pretty snug and doesn’t slip at all and feels fairly solid. I did a draft with gluing, but I had problems with alignment and getting into the nooks and crannies with sanding.
I’m going to cut another version, using a cherry wood backplate and side supports – the one key was having the center tabs go into the side supports, and then putting horizontal support/guidance rods through the bits that hold the watch. I’d still like to get it finished in a way that looks a little better, but with some paint it’ll be fine. I’d love a better wood finish over painted wood though.
Would love to see other angles of this, but overall I’d say this is a win! I assume you’re allowing the magnetic aspect of the watch to hold it to its charging station, as I can’t see any other way that you’re doing it (there’s magic, I guess, I hadn’t thought of that ). Very cool and interesting design!
Another cool idea to add, is that because I’m assuming you’re using prefabricated chargers (unless you’re a hardware engineer and have completely wired this up) there is bound to be empty space within your design. I think it would be really cool if you had directional channels so that you could also double this as an amplifier for music while it’s charging. And with the watch being on the front, you can control the music from there rather than having to mess with the phone. Just a thought
Yup, the magnet works great. I just learned that my wife’s band is stiffer than mine, so it doesn’t actually work on her watch. I may have to resort to magic for hers!
This is the Samsung Qi charger, which works relatively well and fits snug. There is some empty space, but I have the bottom curved that holds the phone at a good angle up against the Qi charger so I can essentially just drop my phone down and gravity orients it against the charger. I’ll think about how to amplify sound next.
Will do! I am printing a cherry wood version right now to see if that looks a little better unfinished, since now I’m inspired to keep a natural wood style.
). Very cool and interesting design!
