We’ve all been there. You buy a cheap, articulated phone stand, hoping it’ll be the versatile tool you need for online classes, video calls, or filming your projects. It looks decent online, but when it arrives, you’re stuck with a fatal flaw: a clunky, ugly, and impractical phone holder.
That's the story of how my two-part epic mod began. I bought the cheapest stand I could find, and while the articulated arm was surprisingly good, the holder was just awful. But as a tinkerer, I saw an opportunity.
This is the saga of how I transformed a $5 piece of junk into a rock-solid piece of pro-level gear capable of holding not just a phone, but a mirrorless camera.
Part 1: The Easy Fix - Upgrading the Awful Holder
The stock holder was a disaster. It was a cheap plastic clamp that was not only ugly but also got in the way when trying to film, its "claws" often creeping into the frame. The tightening mechanism was clumsy and interfered with the clamp itself.
My solution was simple and cheap. I decided to replace the entire clamp assembly with two standard camera components: a mini ball head and a minimal phone holder. The only problem was connecting them to the stand's arm, which didn't have a standard camera screw.
My secret weapon? A stainless steel anchor bolt with a 1/4"-20 thread—the universal standard for camera mounts.
The mod itself was laughably simple.
Here's a video of the process:
The new holder was a massive improvement and made the stand far more usable. However, it also highlighted just how poorly designed the base was. Frankly, the base was flimsy and inconvenient even with the original plastic clamp. Now that I had a professional-grade holder on top, the wobbly, lightweight base was simply no longer acceptable. It was time to fix the stand's other half.
Part 2: The Epic Fix - The Quest for Stability
The problem was the base. It had always been pathetically light. Just extending the arm was enough to upset its delicate balance, causing the whole thing to tip over in a pose of dramatic defeat—a perfect "OTL," as we used to say on the internet.
The cause was obvious: the base was pathetically light, weighing only 800g. As a technician, I know you can't defy physics. To solve this, I had two choices: defy gravity or add more weight.
As Michael Jackson proved with his patented anti-gravity lean in "Smooth Criminal," defying gravity requires special equipment. I opted for the simpler method: add weight to the base.
My investigation began. I opened the plastic base cover and was horrified by what I found inside. It wasn't a solid piece of metal as I'd expected. It was filled with a yellowish, cement-like, unidentified substance. Disgusting.
My solution was to create a custom weight. I found a scrap piece of stainless steel, perfectly sized and weighing about 1.6kg. Using my drill press, I drilled and countersunk the holes to match the original base.
I then sandwiched the new steel plate between the original base and its bottom cover, using longer screws to hold it all together. The final combined weight was now over 2.4kg. The "OTL" days were over.
Here's the full video of the base modification:
The Final Result: From a Wobbly Toy to a Rock-Solid Tool
The transformation was complete. The stand was now incredibly stable. So stable, in fact, that it could easily hold my mirrorless camera for overhead shots without even breaking a sweat.
What started as a cheap phone stand had been reborn as a versatile piece of studio equipment, perfect for filming my YouTube videos.
Final Thoughts: Was It Worth It?
It was a lot of work for a simple stand, but the satisfaction of turning a cheap piece of junk into a genuinely useful, professional-grade tool is something any tinkerer can understand. Plus, my daughter uses it for her online classes and loves the new look. And that's all that matters.
