5 Year Anniversary Pallet Wood Phone Holder

Not much money? No ideas for your spouse after 5 years? Limited access to power tool? A spouse who can never find his/her phone? Her you go!

If you've made it to 5 years of marriage, good for you! The traditional gifts for a 5 year anniversary are wood and silverware. I wont ask what the couple has been eating with the previous 4 years of matrimony but wood is good. Some suggestions are planting a tree, going for a walk in the woods, or if you are actually a visitor to this site you might have picked up on DIY idea. So knowing that my wife needs something to display her phone while it is charging and actually putting it someplace in order to find it in the morning I made a phone holder out of pallet wood.

If you don't already have some pallet wood get some since you'll need about 1.5 feet. First measure your phone. My suggestion is give it an extra inch and 1/2 to give you some pace. Since I don't have much in the way of power tools I made most of the phone holder by hand and thus the miter saw. So cut the first piece, and this will be your back. Next measure the width of the pallet wood and then cut a piece the length of the width and this will be your base. Now for the angle piece. This angle piece needs to have some pace under it and as you can see in the picture I cut the angle so there is a 90° angle the length of the thickness of the pallet before starting the 45° cut. Then cutting the angle piece off with the same 90° angle end with the thickness of the pallet. You could measure, but I'm not using a laser guided precision cutting device I am using a Stanly miter saw that I've used the same number of times as I have toes (10). The last pieces are nubs that hold up the phone so measure 1 inch from the end of your pallet wood and cut, then find the middle of that and cut, and then find the middle of that and cut. You will have two small little nubs and that's it for wood pieces.

This is a little harder than it sounds, but I'll try to make it easy on you. Start by sanding everything so everything is nice and smooth. Next put the nubs on the back piece near the bottom. I set them a little in from the sides to make it look better, and find the center of the nubs. Now make sure the nubs are level and then drill through the nubs into the back with a drill bit that is slightly smaller than your nails. HINT: if you need a pilot hole tap the nail just slightly into the wood and then remove the nail before drilling. When this is finished tap your nails into the numbs, but not into the back, yet. When the nails make it through the nubs add some glue to the back of the nubs and then drive the nails home into the back. This serves to make sure the nubs are correctly aligned and any adjustment to the level of the nubs has to be done at this point. Next find the middle of the back and make a line, then use the angle piece to see where you can drill the holes into the back. You don't want to make holes in the back higher than the angle piece. Make your holes and then tap nails so they are slightly extending through the back. Place the back onto the angle piece and press hard to make an imprint of where the nails are into the angle piece. HINT: look down the length of the angle piece between the angle piece and the back before making the nail imprints to make sure the nails are in the middle. Remove the back and drill into the angle piece where the nails will go. Next find the middle of the base and make some holes and again tap the nails through the base until they extend just a little and then press them into the angle piece like with the back. I found labeling this side as B helped, and drill the nail imprints. Make sure you add some glue to where the pieces will go together and nail everything.

So your phone holder is put together. Is it crooked? Yes, and now would be a good time to remind your spouse you are human and not a machine, and that it will work even if it is not perfectly square. I painted mine since I like this blue color and it covers up the pencil marks well. Not pictured is where I used foam stickers as footpads to give the holder a little cushion and grip. Still it has an opening for the charging cord, it is a nice display, and it cost me about 45 minutes of my life.