I built a wooden phone stand to hold my phone up on my desk.
No glue, no joinery — this is one of the easier DIY builds out there.
Put bluntly, it’s a board with two 5/16″ (8 mm) holes in it and a pair of dowels pushed through.
Even so, just having the texture of real wood changes how the desk feels.
I used three offcuts I already had and built three stands in different colors at the same time. Even if you buy the material, a small board at the home center runs a few hundred yen (a couple of dollars), and the dowel was ¥206 (about $1.30) for a 36″ (900 mm) length — so the material cost comes to under ¥1,000 (about $6) per stand.
This post covers the actual numbers — board size, hole positions, dowel length — plus cutting, drilling, sanding and finishing, with photos at each step. I’ve also left in the mistake I only found after using it: you can’t plug in a charging cable. Read that part before you build.
Finished size and how the stands turned out
Here they are finished — three stands from three different offcuts.
The body of each stand is 2-3/4″ (70 mm) wide × 5-1/2″–6″ (140–150 mm) tall × 5/16″–5/8″ (8–15 mm) thick. The offcuts were all different thicknesses, so no two stands came out exactly the same.
Here’s what it looks like with a phone on it. The angle is set by where the dowels sit and how long they are.
Landscape works for watching video; portrait is fine for checking notifications or video calls.
Material cost and tools used
Materials
| Material | Size / spec | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Board (offcuts, in my case) | 5/16″–5/8″ (8–15 mm) thick × 2-3/4″ (70 mm) wide × 5-1/2″–6″ (140–150 mm) long | ¥0 (a few hundred yen / a couple of dollars if you buy it) |
| Wooden dowel (ramin or similar) | 5/16″ (8 mm) dia. × 36″ (900 mm) long | ¥206 (about $1.30) |
| Sandpaper | 120 grit / 400 grit | A few hundred yen (I used what I had left over) |
| Wax (optional) | Watco Wax, Natural | Optional (I only waxed one of the three) |
The dowel comes in a 36″ (900 mm) length, and one stand uses two pieces totaling roughly 5-1/2″ (140 mm). That works out to about six stands from a single dowel.
I used offcuts for the boards, but if you’re buying, something like laminated pine panel from the home center is cheap and easy to work with.
Tools I used
- Cordless drill/driver (with wood bits from 5/64″ to 5/16″ / 2–8 mm)
- Handsaw (for cutting the dowels)
- Circular saw (for the boards — a handsaw works just as well)
- File (for knocking down the edges)
- Sandpaper (120 and 400 grit)
As for power tools, you don’t need a circular saw, but a cordless drill/driver for the holes is worth having.
If you’re still putting a tool kit together, this post might help.
The offcuts and the dowel
Boards (three offcuts)
These are the offcuts I started from — three different boards left over from past projects.
Board ① in the photo is laminated pine and ③ is rosewood. I’ve lost track of what ② is, but it’s an orange-toned hardwood.
The plan was to cut all three to roughly 2-3/4″ (70 mm) wide and 5-1/2″–6″ (140–150 mm) tall.
The dowel
I picked up the dowel at the home center.
5/16″ (8 mm) dia. × 36″ (900 mm) long — ¥206 (about $1.30)
I went with 5/16″ (8 mm) because I wanted the phone held reasonably securely.
It also happened to be a bit size I already owned.
Cut the board to size
First, square up the width and length of the offcuts. Here’s what I cut them to.
All three came out 2-3/4″ (70 mm) wide. For height I just kept the original length of each offcut: 5-1/2″, 6″ and 5-1/2″ (140, 150 and 140 mm).
I made the width slightly narrower than the phone itself — it’s easier to grab the phone that way, and it looks cleaner.
I cut mine with a circular saw, but for three small stands a handsaw is plenty.
If you do have a circular saw, building a crosscut sled makes square cuts on small stock like this far easier. I wrote up how to build one here.
Drill the two dowel holes
Hole positions
Next, drill the holes the dowels pass through. Here’s where I put them.
3/4″ (20 mm) up from the bottom edge, and 5/8″ (15 mm) in from each side.
I left the dowel length to be sorted out later, by test-fitting.
Step up from a small bit
If you go straight in with the 5/16″ (8 mm) bit, it skates across the surface and the hole ends up off the mark. Start with a small pilot hole.
Put a sacrificial board underneath. Without one, the back face blows out as the bit breaks through and you get a lot of tear-out.
Once the pilot hole is in, step up through progressively larger bits and finish at 5/16″ (8 mm).
Both holes drilled.
Same process for the other two boards.
Break the edges and sand
The boards are cut, but the edges are sharp and unpleasant to handle, so I knocked them down with a file.
Just a light round-over here — nothing dramatic.
All three boards got the same treatment.
Fit the dowels and dial in the angle
Push the dowels into the holes.
Stood up as-is, it leaned forward too far.
The lean angle is controlled by how much dowel sticks out the back. More dowel behind the board and it stands up straighter; less and it tips forward. This is a test-fit-and-adjust job.
Trim the dowels down with a handsaw a bit at a time.
I ended up here.
3/8″ (10 mm) proud at the front of the board, 1-3/4″ (45 mm) at the back. That makes each dowel about the board thickness plus 2-1/8″ (55 mm).
Final sanding
Last step is cleaning up the surfaces with sandpaper.
I went 120 grit → 400 grit. The 120 levels out scratches and tool marks; the 400 is about how it feels in the hand.
Put the dowels back in and that’s it, more or less.
Bonus: waxing one of the three
Bare wood is fine, but since I had three, I waxed one of them to see the difference.
I used Watco Wax in Natural.
Load some wax onto a rag you don’t mind ruining and work it in along the grain, then buff it off with a dry cloth. No brush, almost no drying time — wax is about as low-effort as finishes get.
Compared to before, the color has more depth and the grain reads more clearly. It’s a piece you handle constantly, so a finish is worth it just for keeping the dirt off.
I’ve covered the oil finish from the same Watco line in more detail here.
Done
Finished. Time to actually use them on the desk.
And with a phone on it.
Near-black rosewood, pale laminated pine, and the orange one in between — three stands, three completely different looks. Hopefully this is useful.
Another option is to build it from laminated pine (far right in the photo) and paint it whatever color you want.
Heads-up: with the dowels here, you can’t plug in a charging cable
I built this without checking, and only noticed once I started using it.
With the dowels where I put them — 3/4″ (20 mm) up from the bottom edge — there’s no room to plug a charging cable in while the phone is on the stand. The lower dowel sits too close to the bottom of the phone, so there’s no gap left for the connector. (It’ll depend on the cable, but still.)
If you want to charge while the phone is docked, move the holes up. Measure your own cable’s connector first and set the hole position from that.
Summary
A quick recap of the build.
- Size: 2-3/4″ (70 mm) wide × 5-1/2″–6″ (140–150 mm) tall × 5/16″–5/8″ (8–15 mm) thick. Anything 5/16″ (8 mm) or thicker stands up on its own
- Cost: ¥206 (about $1.30) for the dowel — 36″ (900 mm), enough for about six stands — plus the board. Use offcuts and it’s basically free
- Drilling: don’t start at 5/16″ (8 mm). Work up from a small bit, and put a sacrificial board underneath to stop tear-out
- Angle: set by how much dowel sticks out the back. I landed on 3/8″ (10 mm) front, 1-3/4″ (45 mm) back
- Finish: 120 then 400 grit. Wax adds depth to the color
- What I’d change: this hole position blocks the charging cable. If you charge on the stand, measure your cable and move the holes up
No glue, no joinery — two holes and two dowels.
A cordless drill/driver is the only real tool requirement, which makes this a solid candidate for a first woodworking project.
