Building a cell phone holder for my motorcycle

Okay, project today - cell phone holder. Constraints - low cost, simple, effective, and do not damage phone.

First step to keeping cost low: Use something old. This is a piece of sheet metal I found in the trash at a construction site.  I measured and marked it for the length of my cell phone. You can see I was lucky in that there was no bending on the part that I needed to use.

After cutting it off using a Kawasaki Dremel Tool with a Dremel wheel attachment (more on this below), I had this:

Next step was to trim the height of the end piece - it just stops the phone from sliding any more once the sides are in place. It is marked here:

This is what we have so far. So far, so good.

Next, I bent one lip over that will hold the phone. These two pictures show I did it in stages:

Next, I trimmed the opposite side off - didn't need that material.

Now to bend that side up, and then over in order to form the other lip. I did this in two separate bends with Vice Grips, and did small bends down the length of the bend. 

Once that is done, we are starting to look pretty reasonable:

Next, I cut out an insert for where the camera lens is on the phone. It protrudes out of the phone a millimeter or two and I did not want it to get scratched:

And here is the camera fit. Truth in advertising, I had to make this cut twice in order to get sufficient depth on the insert. 

Next I put some Gorilla Tape on the sides to keep them from scratching my phone, and then drilled two holes for the Ram Ball mount. This was cannibalized from a GPS mount holder that came with my motorcycle. So why a zip tie? Well the zip tie actually has a pretty  low profile, probably less that a screw head, and most importantly the zip tie is on the surface the phone rides on - don't want any fasteners on that surface. I trimmed the end off after the picture.

And here is the finished product, taken from the perspective of the rider. It does not block any movement of the handlebars, and does not block view of the tachometer or speedometer.

And works in either vertical or horizontal orientation. If you look carefully, you'll see the power cord going in on the bottom (vertical) or right side (horizontal). I had to cut a slot out of the end piece for that, but that also gives me a place to push the phone up and out of the holder.

All in all, a very successful project. The Kawasaki rotary tool works better than my original Dremel tool, but the attachments for the Dremel are better. I used a metal cutting wheel with a cam locking shaft to attach it to the rotary tool. It worked very well. A quick picture of the tool that made it easy:

Always use eye and ear protection. You can also see my old holder there as well.