Mac Pro-style stand holds MacBook, iPad, iPhone, Pencil and Airpods [Setups]

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Is it the stand to end all stands?
Is it the stand to end all stands?
Photo: valtorance@Reddit.com

Sometimes we go looking for a cool computer setup to write about and end up wowed by a mere accessory. In this case, it’s a 3D-printed stand for five Apple products, styled to look sort of like a cross between a Mac Pro and a Pro Display XDR.

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The robust, cheese-grater-looking stand holds your MacBook, iPad, iPhone, Pencil and Airpods in vertical positions. The only trouble? You can’t just buy it, you have to 3D-print it.

Redditor valtorance titled their post, “I designed and 3D-printed a space-saving macbook/ipad/iPhone/AirPod dock in the style of the Mac Pro and XDR display.” They published the plans for it on Wednesday.

Technically, though, it appears to be a stand, not a dock, because nothing appears to plug into anything on it. But even so, it’s cool.

Mac Pro-style stand: description and printing settings

Valtorance describes the project, published in the STL 3D file format, this way:

3D MODEL DESCRIPTION
A laptop/tablet/iphone/airpod/pencil dock, designed in the style of the latest Mac Pro and XDR display. The holes allow for airflow, along with maintaining structural integrity. The feed a simple threaded feet. The phone slot fits any size phone, and the airpod hole works for both pro and basic models.

The laptop space is 17.5mm (2019 Macbook pro model), and the tablet space is 8mm (ipad 12.9″ model)

3D PRINTING SETTINGS
0.2mm layer height, 5 walls, 20% infill, no supports. Should take about 40 hours. Threads have already been offset appropriately.

Requests to buy the Mac Pro-style stand

Amid a flurry of requests to purchase the printed item, valtorance revealed they will only sell the design so that people can print it.

“I’m only selling the design sorry.. takes ~40hrs to print lol, nor do I want Apple up my ass with a lawsuit,” they said in a reply to a purchase request. The design is for sale at Cults3d.com for $7.95.

Plenty of questions

One Redditor asked, how stable is it?

“Way more stable than other docks that I’ve bought on Amazon,” valtorance replied. “I’m not a structural engineer, but it’s got more than enough lateral-moment/inertial support for both the macbook and the iPad to be stored vertically lol (which I wouldn’t do).”

“Looks like it could use some kind of soft layer between the screens and the plastic. May not even scratch this way but man does it make me nervous,” another observer wrote.

“Good idea – pla is really soft anyways … I left space for a screen protector on the iPad slot,” valtorance replied.

Another person wanted to know how difficult it would be to modify the design to fit just a MacBook. “I’d buy the crap out of that,” they said.

“Good question,” said valtorance. “I don’t know how I’d guarantee the stability with a thinner design. Would have to modify the feet.”

Yet another person enthused, “Wow this is incredible!! Will the iPad fit with a case on?”

“Not yet, but I may just make the fusion 360 file parametric and you can define your own widths,” said valtorance.

Praise and jokes, too

A few choice comments from Redditors about valtorance’s project:

If you ever sold this you would have to design some wheels for it as a $400 add-on.

I was scared I thought you cut a Mac Pro to make this.

Make this out of aluminium and you could have a nice little side business.

Looks great. Add a watch holder and it would be the cats pajamas.

I bet you could sell this on Etsy for $80 all day.

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