Ash Tray Clip to Mount Phone

[Jason Banks]

I saw a thread on here a month or two ago. Someone had mounted a rail to an ash tray and put a Ram Mount Ball, arm and X-Grip on their ashtray to mount their phone. I wanted to see if I could come up with a way to do it using a 3D Printed Part to clip on the ash tray instead of drilling into an ash tray. So, I drew a part up and had it printed. Here's the final product.


Before I got the part. I discovered these cheap "Magnetic Phone Holders" that were alot cheaper than a Ram Mount Ball, an arm, and thier X-Grip. So I ordered one for $5 and took it apart. I discovered inside under the rubber outer cover there are 4 magnets on a steel plate. So, I just welded a couple nuts to the back of the steel plate and screwed the bolt into the back.



The cheapie phone mount comes with a thin piece of metal that you put inside your phone case for the magnets to stick to.



Magnets



Here are some pictures of the part



I ordered one in white and one in black.



The recess in the back is designed to hold the head of a 1/4-20 Bolt Perfectly.



You might have noticed higher up that my phone looked like it was tilted down. I'm going to try a longer bolt that is bent to try to correct the tilt.



You can see in this picture, the white plastic looks pretty rough. I took a file to the inside of the part to try to smooth it out, so It wouldn't scratch my ash tray. The black one was a little smoother, but I'm going to file it too.





Here's a link to where you can buy the part. Full disclosure: I make about $2 if anyone buys one. Shapeways is the name of the place. It's a pretty neat website. I ordered the part in 'White Strong and Flexible' and 'Black Strong and Flexible'. I added the 'Polished White Strong and Flexible' for sale. They apparently don't offer the Black in Polished.
https://www.shapeways.com/product/JD3SB7AC9/ash-tray-clip-phone-mount-for-67-72-chevy-truck?optionId=57888193
It's really an amazing material. When they say Strong and Flexible, they mean it. By flexible they mean it will flex some and doesn't seem the least bit brittle. It's just really stiff I can see any way it would ever come off the ash tray with only a phone on it. I might do some weight tests, but it seems like it's as strong as the ashtray will allow.