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Laser-cut phone stand

Design Project 1 lesson Small build

A one-lesson project. Model a two-piece slot-together stand in Fusion and cut it from 3 mm plywood so the slots hold without glue.

A two-piece laser-cut plywood phone stand holding a phone on a workshop bench.

Overview

Students design and cut a phone stand made from two flat pieces that slot together at right angles. The whole thing has to come out of a single 200 × 150 mm offcut, hold a phone at a usable angle for watching a video, and stay together without glue. It is a small project, but it forces the two ideas that matter most on the laser: drawing a sound slot joint, and compensating for kerf.

Skills needed

Assessment

Assessed in the lesson, by looking at the finished stand:

  • Fit. The slots hold with friction. No glue, no wobble, no forcing with a mallet.
  • Function. A phone sits in it at a sensible angle without tipping.
  • File hygiene. The DXF has closed profiles, correct 1:1 scale, and nothing outside the sheet size.

There is no rubric for this one. It either works or you fix it and cut again.

Deliverables

  • DXF export of both parts, named with your initials
  • A photo of the assembled stand holding a phone

Materials

  • 3 mm plywood, 200 × 150 mm per student
  • 220-grit sandpaper
  • Calipers (shared)

Steps

  1. Measure the phone. Width, thickness, and the angle you want it to sit at. Sketch the side profile on paper first.
  2. In Fusion, create user parameters for thickness (3 mm) and kerf (measured on our machine, see the kerf post), then sketch the side piece and the cross piece on the XY plane using those parameters for every slot.
  3. Extrude both profiles by thickness and lay them out flat in one sketch, at least 3 mm apart, inside a 200 × 150 mm rectangle.
  4. Export the sketch as DXF. Check the scale by measuring one known dimension in the laser software.
  5. Cut. Test the fit. If it is loose, narrow the slot by 0.05 mm, if tight, sand the tab lightly. Cut again if you need to.
  6. Assemble, sand the edges, take the photo, and hand in.