I’ve been working on some video tests with the iPhone and I needed to mount it on tripod for some steadier shots. Some folks in the office had good things to say about the Glif from Studio Neat, but the only one we had lying around didn’t fit my phone and sat kinda goofy on our tripod plate. So, I did something I wouldn’t have imagined possible a few years ago. I printed a new one.

We got a 3D printer in the office a few months ago. So far it’s been used to make little statues, paperclips, even some chain mail. So I went about designing a new baseplate for our tripod.

The phone cradle came from an existing design on the wonderful Thingiverse. The base plate itself was just measured from our tripod plate and the whole thing was created with Google SketchUp.

It took a bit of tweaking to get the sizes right and there were a few failed prints where the machine decided to spray plastic filament all over. The final plate, however, is a dream; The phone fits snuggly and the plate stays in the tripod at any angle. You can turn the tripod upside-down and the phone stays secure.

So, if you’re looking for an iPhone 5 mount for a Davis & Sanford FM18 head, go ahead and print one out! You can download the Creative Commons licensed model here.