Kitchen drawer divider becomes iPhone 4 car clip

·May 15, 2011·11 Comments

Materials: 1 Rationell drawer divider set, 1 T’nB iPhone car kit, Warm glue, disc cutter, model kit paint (anthracite, black, …), 1 business card, strong rubber bands, small piece of black fabric or felt, an afternoon of time

Description: This hack started out as an attempt to create a minimalistic iPhone 4 clip for my car because I was tired of the ugly and fat T’nB holder.

Step 1: Keep only the 2 vent clips of the T’nB holder.

Step 2: Take the plastic clip sides of 2 of the small intersections of the Rationell set (this takes the most effort of the whole hack) and cut them in half, keeping the straight clip sides. Trim the inner bits as far back as possible.

Step 3: Put both clips on opposite side of the iPhone 4 protecting it with a business card. Use rubber bands to keep them in to place. Notice the space between the 2 pieces. This is important to keep the clip flexible!

Step 4: Fill the back of the pieces with hot glue from a glue gun until slightly overfilled. (The glue shrinks when cooling down, which is perfect for setting tension.)

Step 5: Allow to cool down on your iPhone until the glue is no longer transparent.

Step 6: Trim the round bits of the 2 T’nB vent clips to fit in between the 2 trimmed back internal pieces of the Rationell clips (try fitting them as on the images, it will not work. Trim as much necessary.)

Step 7: Use a soldering iron to soften the glue where the clips should fit and push them in. Use the soldering iron to smoothen the glue surface. Allow to cool down.

Step 8: Glue some fabric to the inside of the clip. I used 1mm thick felt and scraped/burned off half of the thickness because 1/2 mm is enough.

Step 9: Paint the clip with model kit paint to match the colour of your car dash. I used anthracite.

Done.

My iPhone clip fits my dashboard vent perfectly. The iPhone cannot fall trough because the tension of the shrunk glue and flexibility is perfect and is kept in by the volume buttons as an extra security.

I like mine.
Have fun!

I’ve added a link to a gallery with all images.

~ Steven Pauwels (aka @stenito), Belgium

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Jules Yap

Jules Yap started IKEAHackers.net in 2006 as a personal blog to showcase the most impressive IKEA hacks from all over the world. Since then, she has learned a lot more about power tools and DIY. Her site has helped thousands modify IKEA furniture with step-by-step tutorials, craft projects and home styling.

Jules is the author of IKEAHackers.net: 25 Biggest and Best Projects".