Cell Phone Case

[azrider]

At our last Guild meeting, we had a presentation on how to make moulded cases. I recently got a new cell phone, and have been accidentally dialing people while I had it in my pocket, so it seemed like a good time to make me a case. I plan on re-doing this one and making one with tooled designs, and hopefully a little cleaner construction. (First picture is the "mould" I used. I will be cleaning that up some when I make my next one as well.) Any suggestions would be welcome.

[hivemind]

Did you consider making it with a belt clip instead of belt loops so you don't have to thread it through every time you change your pants?

[TexasJack]

I recently made a similar case for myself and my son liked it and had me make one for him. One suggestion: If you put a hole the diameter of a finger (or so) in the bottom (and a bit in front), it makes it easier to pop the phone out of the case.

Also, using screws to hold down the leather had to be tough! Stohlman's book (No.1) on making cases suggests using small nails or wire brads. They're hard to drive close to the case, but I found a tool made by Noxxon (http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2021063/24102/Noxxon-Combination-132-and-232-Nail-Set.aspx) that allows you to drive wire brads easily without risking a hammer blow to the leather.

Edited December 30, 2009 by TexasJack

[azrider]

Thanks for the comments. I actually have some of the belt clips, but intentionally used the slots so there was no chance of losing the phone. I did figure out since I made this, that there is very little chance of me actually getting the phone out of the case before it stops ringing if I have a coat on. I like that brad setter. I was actually trying to avoid going to the store, so just used what I had around. Next time I will have some brads. I have been using it for a week now, and see a few things to change on the next attempt.

[Hilly]

I find it easy to just hold the brad in a small needle nose pliers, and tap it in with an upholstery tack hammer. This hammer has a head that is just under 1/2" in diameter. Works great, and it's easy to not strike the leather.

[azrider]

Any other feedback on the construction or design? I made the top flap the exact width of the top of the case, and am wondering if most people make that a little larger or not?

[jdwintx]

I would just be careful on the placement of the snap and the amount of pressure it may exert on the LCD display. I recently made a case for myself and within a few days the LCD crystal had cracked due to the snap placement and pressure that was put on the crystal when closing the snap. This little mistake cost me a $100 to replace the phone and not something I want to repeat. Also don't know what type of phone you will be putting in the case but you might want to consider a hole that allows for recharging while in the case and also a magnet for phone standby if the phone supports that (mostly PDA's, Blackberries and Iphones)

[azrider]

Thanks for the feedback. This phone is not a PDA type, and I actually made the case large enough to include the hard plastic protective case it has on it. I was very careful on getting the snap measured on where it would hit the phone. If I have the screen side of the phone facing the snap, it just calls the first person programed when it hits the two button short cut. My wife then tells me my phone is in the case backwards...

Any suggestions on how one would go about tooling a case like this? The flap would not be difficult, but the portion that is wet molded, would I just need to get the sides wet and avoid the tooled areas, or how do other people do this?

[jana]

I have done some carving on wet molded cases by having a piece of wood the size of the thing the case is being for, only a little taller so the case was not dragging on the marble. I then just wet the area I was interested in tooling so not to lose the molding that was done. I have thought about looking for smaller pieces of marble or granite to fit inside.