Phone Holder for Teslas & Other Cars With Screens

I tried a bunch of other models to mount my phone on the screen in my car, but none of them were exactly what I wanted, so I designed my own.  After a lot of iterations, I ended up with something that has worked extremely well for me.  Since others may be looking for the same things, I decided it was worth polishing and posting the model.  Here were my main goals for the design: 

• Mount securely and stably without adhesives: I wanted the phone holder to mount securely to the screen in my car and not shake excessively when the car is moving.  (This was my main problem with many of the other models I tried.)  I also wanted it to mount without adhesives (tape, glue, etc.) so that it could easily be removed when not in use.  
• Minimal assembly and fully 3d-printed: A lot of the other phone holders I found had a complicated assembly process and required screws, rubber bands, or other extra hardware.  This model is print-in-place-ish.  The phone holder prints in place, and then you just have to screw a few things together to attach it to the mounting clamp.       
• Nice-looking and unobtrusive: I aimed to make the model look nice and not obstruct my vision or the screen. 
• Room for a charging cable: I wanted there to be space for a charging cable to pass through the base of the phone holder to allow charging the phone while it's mounted.
• Accommodate phones of different thicknesses: The “Medium” print profile should accommodate most phones and cases, but I included others for phones/cases that are particularly thick/thin.
• Customizable for most cars with screens: I initially designed this for the screen in a Tesla, but I saw quite a few requests in online forums for phone holders that mount on the screens of other cars.  I made the mounting clamp customizable to allow people to modify it for screens with different dimensions.

Printing Notes:

• The posted models use PETG, but other filaments work too.  The main reason to use PETG is that it tolerates heat a little bit better than PLA, and parked cars can get really hot.  If this isn't an issue for you, feel free to use PLA. (Other filaments, such as ABS, tolerate even higher heat, and they are worth considering if you are able to print them and your car gets super hot.)
• I recommend keeping my support settings.  I hand-painted custom supports for the main piece that holds the phone (the other parts don't need any supports) and carefully edited the support settings.  If you change them, make sure that you don't end up with extra supports in places you don't want them (like inside the gear mechanism), and turn off “Independent support layer height,” as keeping it on may weaken the model in some cases.
• Optional:  If you like, you can put some sort of non-slip silicone/rubber pad or tape on the clamp's plate and inside the front of the bracket to make it softer and less slippery.  You don't need this--the clamp stays securely in place without it--but it makes it even more secure.  If you want to do this, there is a print profile with a template that you can use to cut out pieces that are the right size.

Model Versions:

• I've posted three version of the model--"Medium," “Thick,” and “Thin.”  “Medium”  should work for most phones with cases, “Thick” is primarily for phones with thick cases (like ones that hold credit cards), and “Thin” is a possibility if you have a thin phone and don't use a case.  More precisely, the thickness of the spaces for the phone are: 

  • Thin: 11mm
  • Medium: 14mm
  • Thick: 19mm

  Note: You want the space to be a bit bigger than your phone so that you can easily slide it in and out.

• If these don't cover your use case, just let me know, and I can post other sizes.
• The only difference between the three versions is the height of the arms that hold the phone in place.  All of the pieces other than the part that holds the phone are identical and interchangeable, so you don't need to reprint them if you want to change from one version to another.

Customization for Cars Other Than Teslas:

The posted version of the clamp that attaches to the screen is for the center screen on a Tesla.  (I tested it on Model 3/Y, but I think it should work on other models too.)  For people with other cars/screens, I made a customizable version of the clamp that lets you change the dimensions if needed.  

• To customize the clamp, click on the “Customize” button when viewing the model page on the Makerworld website.  MakerWorld currently only supports customization for parametric models through its Makerworld.com website, and the option won't appear if you access the model on the Handy app or through Bambu Studio.
• To keep things simple, I only posted the customizable version of the piece that attaches to the screen and only exposed the parameters I thought people would need to change.  If you need to change other aspects of the model, just let me know.
• If you customize the bracket for another car/screen, it would be great if you could either post the customized version as a print profile or send me the dimensions so that other people can use it.

Assembly Instructions:

Assembly should be quick and easy.  You can find a video here:

There are also written instructions in the “Assembly Guide” section below.

Note that there is a gap in the threads on the tightening knob, as shown in the image below.  This is intentional, not a mistake with the model/printing.  The part below the gap is for tightening the clamp, and the part above the gap is what goes into the clamp plate.  The back of the screen in Teslas (and many other cars) is slanted, and the gap allows the plate to rotate so that it can sit flush with the back of the screen. 

If you have any questions or run into any issues, just let me know!