iPad mini holder with extendable arm

thingiverse

This is a combination of an extendable and adjustable felxi-arm dismantled from Ikea's Tertial lamp and a printed holder of Apple iPad mini, 5th generation (2019). Great for larger kitchen (or so intended in our case) where the arm can follow you and position the iPad in a comfortable viewing angle based on your working spot. But it can be used pretty much anywhere where you'll appreciate holding your tablet in place while being able to move it around in rather generous space envelope. The arm has been dismantled from "classics design" lamp available all across Ikea world under the Tertial name. It sports couple of advantages: - it is rather cheap - despite of its low price works rather well - is available in few color versions (although varies depending on time or geography) - its original power cord may be replaced with USB cable with lightning connector so the charging cable for your tablet comes through hidden inside the arm (cool!) - the shade along with the original power cable may still be used for its original purpose (=casting light) if hanging in one spot (i.e. no waste) The Holder itself is printed in two parts - bottom base that is mounted to the arm and the top piece which is pulled down with two springs to keep the tablet in place. Currently the Holder is designed to hold 5th generation of Apple iPad mini (2019) however will easily support any other type or make as long as the tablet it not thicker than the intended one. The slot is designed tight on purpose - so that the jaws holding the tablet in place may be subtle in order not to disturb the look of it with the tablet installed in. It is the first version and as explained it is not - by intention - designed as universal tablet holder. I'm open to design improvements suggestions as well as possibly posting a version with bigger slot if there is strong interest (current slot is 6.6 mm deep, while the iPad mini is 6.1mm thick - fits in easy but tight). Besides of the flexible arm you'll need two springs and couple of threaded screws. The springs come from a set available at a local hobby store and are 30mm long and 7mm in diameter but any similar will fit I guess. They are fixed to the bottom part of the holder with its own stitch whereas screws (2.5mm) are used to fix the springs to the top part - this in order to keep the springs away from tablet body not to scratch it. The heads of the screws are fully submerged not to touch the iPad either. Also the original screws (3mm) the lamp's shade was fixed to the arm with are just on the edge and probably too short - I used a bit longer ones instead. The contact plate where the arm is fixed to the holder body is designed with the same diameter as the original lamp's shade so should couple nicely. This however is one of the three spots where supports are needed during print. The second place is the slot through which the top part is sliding into the bottom base and the third is supporting the jaw's lips. Supports from the slot are bit more difficult to remove but doable with minor effort (however depends on your slicer and support style). I intended both printed parts to be flat as much as possible but these two places require supports in order not to compromise functionality. The holder is fully functional as such. I plan to complement the design with replacement of the arm's foot which holds it on the wall or desktop. This with an intention to provide a shelf holding a speaker in place - JBL Flip 5 in my case (and again, will be proprietary for the shape of it). However that's got nothing to do with the holder itself - it can serve as is designed.