How to Make a Lego Brick iPod Dock or Cell Phone Charging Base

Lego Blocks lend themselves to extremely creative building projects, from the very simple to the ornate, detailed and involved. The only thing limiting the creativity of a Lego Block project, is the imagination of the individual builder. We decided to build something useful, and came up with our own interpretations of both an Ipod dock and a cell phone charging base.

My daughter wanted one of the expensive docks for her Ipod, but hadn't saved enough money yet to make that purchase and I needed a stand for my cell phone that could both hold it while it was charging, and keep it in an upright position so I could see who the incoming calls were from. That way I can screen them while I worked at my desk, without having to constantly pick up the phone to see who was calling. .

Inspired by one we saw in a DIGG article, we decided to try our hands at building one out of Lego Bricks ourselves. Now ours do not look as clean lined and professional as that example, but they suit us and that, after all, is the point of creating them ourselves, for ourselves, out of Lego Blocks.

This was a fun building and craft project for both my daughter and myself, to do together, and we are pleased with our finished projects. They work perfectly for what we needed.

Supplies Needed:

A small Lego Block base. (We used the 5" x 5" bases for ours.)

A variety of Lego Blocks to make your individual creation with. (The amount needed depends on how large or detailed a finished project you want.)

Your imagination

Look at what specific features you will need for your own cell phone charging stand. There are many types of cell phones. Mine is a one piece Nokia that does not fold and close.

The Cell phone charging base needed to be tall enough to allow clearance for the charging cord on the bottom of my cell phone, without stressing and bending it.

It also needed enough support behind and around it to keep it standing upright in it's base. So I could see the face of the phone without picking it up.

It needed an opening at the back, so the cord could go through the back of the base, and a spot to set the connection part of the cord when the cell was not charging. That way t it won't fall into the stand.

With those specifics in mind we began building.

I chose to make my Lego Block cell phone charging stand out of red and black bricks to match my upright desktop regular phone.

As my room is decorated in a family tartan, with a hanging sword and so forth, I decided to make mine look like a small castle.

I began by placing two parallel rows of Lego Blocks on the middle of the base spaced far enough apart and high enough to give the cell phone it's primary base support, and to make room for the hanging charging cord, that plugged in at the base of the phone.

Once that was in place we begin to build the little castle itself. We made sure to leave the opening at the back for the cord to come out of.

When it was built to the necessary height, I sealed in the top using flat Lego Blocks and made sure to give it a low back support to lean against. It also needed a hook area to hang the cord over from the inside, when the cell phone only needed a stand and was not charging.

Some of your own design may be trial and error, but puzzling the Lego Blocks together, the way you need and envision your creation is part of the fun. I had to add the hook rest in the back afterwards, because when I initially unplugged the cell phone from the charger, the cord fell inside and I had to take the top apart to retrieve it. The added hook kept it from falling inside the structure when the phone was unplugged from the cord.

For a personal little touch I added a little native Lego person seated on a horse, representing my warrior and one of my two most important and primary cell phone callers, my husband. You can add your own personal touches.

My daughter wanted to use all the Lego Block colours to make her Lego Block Ipod dock.

She mounted her base for the Ipod a little higher and did not enclose the front.

Then she made sure she gave it full support and left an opening at the back of the structure for the cord.

With the front of the base open, she could create a small room underneath it to put a Lego Block person scene in. It could be viewed like a doll house room.

Her theme was a computer lab. Inside the room she sat two Lego figures working at computer terminals and on the top platform where the Ipod sat, she put one more Lego person at the front of the Ipod looking like he is running the Ipod "computer". The Ipod is supposed to be the main computer running the whole computer lab. Very creative.

The beauty of this building craft project was that it was left totally up to our imaginations and we already had a good supply of Lego Blocks. Chances are if you have children or had Lego Blocks as a child, you still have them. They are fun to create with, whether you are a child or an adult.

So pick a theme and colours, then look at your individual cell phone and Ipod, and create whatever you feel inspired to. Make your own Ipod dock and cell phone charging stand.