Murtaza Lakdawala

Automata iPhone Dock

Inspiration

While surfing through the web I came across an awesome woodcraft known as Automata. Automata in simple terms is a self operating machine. Without going too much into theory, it is a fascinating combination of art, mechanics and craftmanship. A very interesting and exhaustive Automata blog has been created by Dug North.

Also I recently got this iPhone and wanted to make a unique dock for it. So here I had a beautiful craft to try and also came up with a very good reason to do so.

So lets get started with my first Automata creation........the Automata iPhone Dock.

Design

For an iPhone dock, I wanted it to be able to change from portrait to landscape mode. And here's where the Automata comes into the picture. I decided to create a mechanism which would enable me to change iPhone's orientation using arrangements of wooden gears.

And here's what I came up with.....

Materials

1. Millstead 1/4 In. x 6In. x 3Ft. and 1/2In. x 6In. x 2Ft. Poplar Board from Home Depot. (Nice texture, soft grained so easy to work with and beautiful light color)

2. 7/32'' and 11/32" Hole Maple Axles from Rockler, a woodworking and hardware store.

3. Woodworking Tools and Supplies: Saw, drill, files, woodglue, sandpaper, etc

4. iPhone USB Data Cable. www.ebay.com

Implementation

To design gears is not a simple task. You have to make sure that the coupling gears match each other. Also they should be simple enough so that I can craft them from wood. I scratched my head for a while trying to remember the theories that I studied but never implemented during my enginneering school. Google comes to the rescue. There is nifty Gear Template Generator created by another woodworker Matthias Wandel for generating paper templates for cutting low precision gears from wood with a band saw.

Taking iPhone's size as 120mm x 70mm, also left some room for iPhone cover, this is what the gear proportions would have to be like......