Can't get Windows Phone accessories? Print them in 3D!

It’s no secret that Windows Phone accessories aren’t exactly flooding the market at the moment. And while there are great places like the WPCentral store, here in South Africa our choices are more limited.

You see, many local stores don’t stock anything, and shipping items from the states just isn’t worth it most of the time. I even went to an official Nokia store here to get a cyan cover for my Lumia 800, and not only did they not have any colors besides black, their black ones were 3rd party products. Yep, the Nokia store did not sell Nokia covers.

Recently I have been wanting a dock or stand for my Lumia 900 to prop it up on my desk, but of course, I couldn’t find one. Rather than waiting to get one shipped, I thought I would make my own.

Enter: 3D Printers.

3D printers really are amazing little machines – and every time I use my MakerBot Thing-O-Matic I am reminded of that. There are many variations and kits that you can buy, or build yourself, and prices are dropping drastically as they become more widespread.

So I fired up Google Sketchup (which is actually pretty terrible, but hey, it's free), which is a free basic 3D CAD program, and threw together a quick model of the stand I wanted. With the 900 being the “Batman Phone” I thought I better use the logo everywhere I could.

A few hours later and I had my final product! The only material used to make it was ABS plastic (and some black spray-paint) which is rather expensive per KG, but goes a long way. The stand cost just under a dollar to print, or R6 in South Africa. The finish isn't perfect, but there's nothing that some Acetone, sandpaper and a Dremel can't fix.

I've uploaded the source files to Thingiverse - so if you have a 3D printer, go ahead and try it out: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:31078! Next up is a dashboard mount for using Nokia Drive safely in my car.