Smart Phone Cradle II

It would be a shame - really - to throw away these hardwood scrap pieces. The challenge is always about coming up with small projects worthy of these material; marble wood is hard to come by. From a previous project there was left over walnut and bamboo joined together that I kept. And walnut left over from left over wood flooring cutoffs. It is a hodgepodge of material that I hope to turn into something worth keeping for a long time. It will have to be adjustable as you shall see so different sizes of phones will fit in the future.

I find often that as soon as I finish a project I realize often that there is another, and likely better, way to do it. This is the second version of a phone cradle  that this time was for my wife's phone; the first one works for me just fine but this is done a little differently.

I cut the walnut/bamboo piece and glued them together as shown. Joined together two strips of the marble wood to get to the proper width.

The $5 scraper scrounged from the flea market continues to serve well

Created the channel on the marble wood strip; cut into two to be glued to the walnut/bamboo piece

Tip: I was aware of the minor cracks on the marble wood piece. I spread some glue from one side and run a vacuum from the opposite side to suck the glue through the cracks.

A good amount of glue did get sucked in. Firm clamping followed (next photo)

From three strips of walnut is a center piece that will serve as a sliding mechanism, shown later.

Make note of the center piece marked by a green arrow. It will have a key role later

Next photos should be self-explanatory.

I made sure the base has the same width as the rectangular well between the front seats. The USB connection allows for charging the phone while traveling and for connecting it directly to the car audio/video systems

Let there be more LED Light

LED lights for the home are the way to go, I am convinced without reservation. Furthermore, manufacturers are giving us models and configurations to fit our needs.  More importantly, energy consumption are so much less for far greater lighting advantages. Just think about replacing three standard 4 ft. fluorescent tubes rated at 40 watts each and replacing them with three LED tubes, also 4 ft long, that consume a mere 18 watts per, yet giving off brighter lights.

The above ceiling light fixture over the kitchen island is 16 feet from the floor. I've replaced the tubes four times since 2005. It has come to  a point now that hoisting up the ladder on the island is not such a good idea anymore. Even if I hire an electrician, he will have to do the same thing. I decided to have 4 ft LED lamps placed over the cabinets as indirect lighting. It's a lot safer and I have no qualms going up  just few rungs on a ladder.


The LED tubes do not require capacitors and the wiring is ten fold simpler. In fact, only one end will have live power. It is called single ended for this particular installation but I have also used double ended ones when I replaced existing light fixtures in my workshop, walk-in closet and utility room. The difference is spectacularly brilliant.
The tubes that remain cool to the touch will not shatter or crack and if they do there will be no harmful vapor to escape.

It was going to be a woodworking project.

In a single ended installation only one end has live wiring. This end does not.

This is the powered end.

I ordered three light controllers with one remote. This allows for options to turn one, two or all lights remotely. 

The next two photos are where I used double ended tubes to replace the closet lights, the utility area and my workshop.

Replacing existing lamps is very easy - just follow the clear instructions on wiring connections

I removed the ballast first then connected the wires per the instruction, which is very straight forward.