Phone Dock

We all have cell phones that need charging, so lets turn that mundane action into something that is aesthetically pleasing. This tree-bark charging phone dock is not only ruggedly beautiful but very pragmatic as well. The juxtaposition of your phone's smooth lines with the grainy texture of tree-bark combine to create a gorgeous table-top accessory.

You may never forget to charge your phone again

You will need:

1 awesome piece of tree bark, the grittier the better
Table Saw
Plunge Router
(I made this dock to be compatible with my Iphone 5C, so I used a 1/2 inch drill bit, and also a 5/8" router bit)
Acrylic paint, color of your choice
Small paintbrush

I found this left over fire wood with exposed bark. I love the change in color from the lighter wood tone to the near-black. This was a perfect candidate for a phone dock because the back of it was completely flat. This means I didn't need to sand or cut the bottom in any way. Score! Also, the width of the wood was perfect, about 9 inches all the way through.

Depending on how wide you want your dock to be, cut your desired wood. I cut slices of 7 inches on a table saw. Thus, my end product was 9x7 inches.

Never having used a plunge router can be intimidating, but oh so rewarding!

The reason I used a plunge router was because my wood material did not have a straight edge, it was curved quite a bit, and in order to get an even, straight cut, I would have to cut-in from the top.

In order to do this, I made a quick jig that would sit on top of stilts flanking my wood bark. I measured out where I wanted the cuts to be centered on my material.

Securing everything to my work table, I got started plunge routing. I used a 5/8 inch bit, which would more than allow for my phone (+ cover) to fit snuggly inside. I drilled in just about an inch. The length of the cut depends entirely on you. Since the width of the cut will be what holds the phone up, the length can either be just slightly bigger than your phone, or the whole length of your material. I cut my length just over 3 inches.

I wanted to have the phone cavity pop, so using a green acrylic paint, I carefully hand painted the crevice.

So in order to make this dock functional as well as beautiful, there has to be a way to incorporate the phone's charger

I measured the largest point of my Iphone's charger, and got a corresponding drill bit. For me, that equated to about a 1/2 drill bit.

I measured the center point of my recently-made green cavity, and drilled all the way through to the bottom. This way the charger wire can be brought out from under the wood bark and its head can poke out through the newly made hole.

{Not Photographed}
Next, I got four small adhesive-back rubber feet that I hot-glued under each corner of the bottom of my wood bark. This raised the entire bark about a 1/4 inch off the table's surface, which would allow for the charger's wire to live happily underneath. I did this rather than drilling a router cut through the length of the bark because aesthetically, I wanted the bark to appear as untouched and natural as possible (minus bright green slit!)

And now sit back and marvel at your awesome phone charger dock!