Lazy Susan/Turntable Phone Mount

Phone holders are great when you're standing in one place. But sometimes you need to get up to grab something. Maybe you're in the kitchen and you need something out of the pantry. Maybe you're in your workshop and you need to get a wrench from your toolbox. Regardless of what it is, inevitably you know what will happen: you'll take three steps from your phone and suddenly hear something interesting happen on the video you were watching. You instantly turn around, but the only thing you see is the backside of the phone holder.

Let's fix that!

Here we have a phone mounting system on top of a Lazy Susan (turntable). Now whenever you need to step away you can easily turn the phone mount to face where you're heading so you'll never miss a thing.

Better yet, this system was designed for customizability, so you have a lot of opportunity to make improvements if you want more out of it:

• The Lazy Susan works with or without bearings (though see the print section below). If you want to design more bearing addons for it, the download package contains a readme file which includes relevant dimensions to get you started.
• While it comes with a sample foot mount, you could just as easily add sticky pads to the bottom if you don't want to use printed feet. But what if you want really fancy feet instead? Well the feet face features a very simple 2-bolt mounting pattern and, to make things even easier for you, a step file is provided in the package download to get your design started.
• The mount for the phone holder is the same, straightforward 2-bolt pattern and a step file is also available for that. That means that you can quickly design and print an adaptor to use other phone mounts with the Lazy Suan.
• And finally, the step file for the bottom half the stock phone holder is also provided in case you want to redesign how attaches to the turntable!

Here's the project video which gives a full overview of the phone holder, print recommendations, and demonstrates how to assemble it.

Also, if you're interested in a more in-depth look at how I went about designing this and my thought process along the way, I livestreamed the whole thing and the links are available in the video's description.

Minimum cost to print (no feet or bearings): ~$1.27

Minimum time to print (no feet or bearings): ~5h48m

Printing

This is a very forgiving print: it was design to be straightforward and therefore all prints have a flat face to print on and overhangs are minimal (so no supports are recommended). No layer height or nozzle size are specifically required.

I recommend printing in a “glossy” material (e.g. - PETG) so that the phone holder slides more easily and there is less friction in the Lazy Susan. That second part is especially important if you opt not to put bearings inside the turntable.

Post processing:

You probably will not need to modify anything after printing, but if you do it will be the thru hole on the Lazy Susan. If the bolt is generating too much friction you may need to clean up the hole with a drill bit and possibly the countersink with an xacto knife.

Assembly

Minimum Required Hardware (no feet or bearings):

• 3x M3 Nuts for the following M3 Bolts
• 1x M3x10 Bolt for Lazy Susan thru hole (this bolt size will be longer if including feet and/or bearings)
• 2x M3x8 Bolts to mount the phone holder
• 1x M5x30 Bolt for the Phone Mount Hinge (a 25mm long bolt may work, but I could not test it)
• 1x M5 Nut for the Phone Mount Hinge
• 1x Rubber band to apply tension to the Phone Holder

Assembly Steps:

1. Press all nuts into their appropriate capture locations
2. If mounting feet, assemble and attach them to bottom shell as necessary
3. If using bearings, assemble them as required and mount them inside bottom shell
4. Attach top shell of Lazy Susan to bottom shell using appropriate-length thru bolt
5. If using stock phone mount and holder, attach phone mount to top shell using specified bolts, then attach bottom half of phone holder
6. If using stock phone holder or a derivative, slide dovetails of top half of Phone Holder into bottom. Add rubber band to back side to create tension
7. Otherwise, assemble and attach alternative phone mounts as specified by their designer