Smart phone tripod mount | The Small Workshop

I have an interest in photography, I use a Canon 600D for my main photo shoots but I also use my HTC one X smart phone regularly, and get some great results from it. Most of the photos on these pages are from the HTC one X.

I recently fancied doing some time lapse photography, I had a choice of using the Canon but decided to buy the Lapse-it pro app for Android for under £2 (if you have an iPhone 6 it has time lapse built in!). To do time lapse, a tripod and mount is required. So here it is, made from black Acetal rod, milled out to shape with a clamp nut also made from Acetal it works a treat.

IMAG2048 — Basic shape milled out with the radius clamp area machined on both ends, The square block is from the tripod and has the 1/4″ Whitworth threaded screw.

IMAG2046 — Machining the radius with a 10mm radius cutter. The set up worked well, although it looks a bit haphazard, I was only 8 thou out of true. Now It’s time to split this main body into two pieces, one short and one long. Then drill and tap the mounting holes.

IMAG2049 — Tapping the threads 6mm this will be for the clamp nut. A 1/4″W thread will be used for the tripod mount (this is a standard mount thread)

IMAG2051 — With the top clamp nut machined out of Acetal and tapped 6mm, a 6mm stud was fixed into the main body to accept the sleeved nut. This photo shows a iPhone 5 with case held firmly.

OK so far so good! now to do some time lapse!

If you are wondering about the 1/4″ x 20tpi Whitworth thread, this is the world standard for camera mounts, it has the necessary depth of thread with a good coarse pitch, and is ideal for use with plastics, whereas coarse metric threads do not have the same rough pitch or depth.

Update 17th January 2016: I have recently made version two of this mount for a friend. Made out of a flat piece of black Acetal block, it is similar in operation but is slimmer and more compact.

Machining the clamping grooves with a 10mm dia radius cutter

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