How YOU Can Make Your Own iPhone!

Since I made my first video on how I made my own iPhone from parts I bought here in Shenzhen markets, I've been getting tons of emails and comments from you guys saying, "I want to do that too, can you help me?" I've decided to put together a couple of videos to tell you a little about what I've learned in the process of making this. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the first video I made going over all the parts of an iPhone 7 which will give you some important context and help you find all the parts you need.

This video is really about the assembly process. Once you have all the pieces, how do you assemble them? The first thing I will tell you is the reference that I used, which is the website ifixit.com, they have been kind enough to sponsor this video, but I have been using their guides and information for a long time before starting with strange parts, in fact, I used

your

guides as my main reference when I built my own iPhone from parts I bought here at the Shenzhen market and have used them in every iPhone project I've made with strange parts.

Now their main purpose is to provide references for repair, but they are also very useful if you want to take a bunch of random parts and assemble them into a new device, they are all disassembly guides, which means they are like a step by step for disassembly. the device, but if you follow them and reverse them. As for the excellent assembly guides, one of the biggest challenges when assembling an iPhone is that there are a ton of different screws, of different sizes, head types, and diameters, and they do a very good job of telling you which screws you need to use and where in. the length and therefore to use them you really need a pair of tweezers, these are not very expensive.

I mean I played like 10 bucks for them here in China, no doubt if you buy them somewhere else you'll have to pay more, but it's not much, I don't know, maybe 30 bucks for a decent pair. ER in the West and they just allow you to measure the width and the length very accurately so you can do external widths in here wit here there are a lot of different things you can do with them um but I just use them to measure screw lengths to match what I fix. It has on their website and then you just need some very basic tools, so you need some screwdrivers.

I have a couple different types. I have many screwdrivers. In fact, I've accumulated quite a few over the time I've been here in Shenzhen, so I only have a few generic screwdrivers that I bought at the markets. I also have the Schwann ho white label ones that my friends gave me to the tool brothers. Their white label brand are pretty good and then I have some really fancy ones from Zark at Tool. Also if you want to spend some money and get a couple of really awesome screwdrivers these are pretty awesome, they're not cheap so anyway .

I'll use a combination of these. I have many more than I need. You probably only need three or four. You need the tri-tip. You need a standard Phillips. You don't strictly need this, but this is it. like a cross from what they call them they look like a standoff to me honestly you can get by with them with just a flat screwdriver or an exact blade that's what I've done in the past and then you need a pentalobe to get in the case like were just the last two K screws and that should be enough, a pair of pliers helps when you lose screws and stuff, if you're taking something apart it's generally good to have like a plastic spudger which is like a plastic pry bar, it's harder damage things when prying with a plastic tool than with a metal tool, especially around the battery.

I'm not a professional cell phone repair technician, there are tons of videos you can go and watch by people who are this is just what I've learned in the process of assembling something from parts that come from a ton of different devices. My goal is not to teach people how to be professional repair technicians or even how to repair their own. phones is just to share what I've learned and some of this has probably been executed so yeah feel free to I guess criticize me in the comments if it's wrong this is just my two cents the other thing I I will point out is that I have this silicone repair mat that I was screwing on those silicone repair mats.

This thing is great because things don't bounce off easily like screws so they stay in place longer, it's a little sticky and then this one has pits. I have almost divided them into two, there are some that are more elegant that have all kinds of small compartments and then there are some that are just flat and are not very expensive. I would recommend buying one, not even if you're just making cell phones, but for anything with small parts, they're a total big family, so their girlfriend emailed me and said they wanted to buy them one as a birthday present.

I imagine that birthday has already passed. I can't find

your

message for the life of me, but there, if you're looking for cell phone repair, Matt, um, that's what you'll discover, fragment one in the link in the description below, so let's talk about measuring screws for a second, the screws for these screen clips that go on the case are actually not in the iFixit guide for reasons I don't understand, so I'm just using the tweezers here and these are one point six millimeters, but I think the type It has no diameters for reasons that perplex me, particularly since the screws have multiple diameters.

It looks like a two millimeter 0.89 point there, so yeah, there are definitely multiple dangling elements. Let's build a phone. Well, first of all, to start with, obviously the case is like a normal iPhone case. I'm currently working on wireless charging. video that you've probably seen already so I'm going to install it in that case and it looks a little strange it has a hole in it so it's not your standard iPhone 7 case and it has the back glass like an iPhone. 8 or 10 because the wireless has to go through the back, so everything else will be the same anyway except the different back and the charging cable, so ignore those parts if you just want to build a standard iPhone, but I thought I would talk. through this process and convert it into a separate video while I set up the others phone for the wireless program.

The first thing is probably to install the glass back into the case. I'm going to postpone that for now because, like you guys already I know I have another last comeback coming up and it's not a custom comeback and it's not that good, for the sake of this video you know what happened, but for the sake of the tragic wireless video, you don't know yet, so let's just run. With this now it's also easier to debug what's going on with this wireless charger because I'm still not quite sure how to do it, so I think the first step is to install the screen clips, which are just these little metal brackets that they go inside.

The side of the case usually the cases are pretty empty, there's still a good amount left to put in them, they often come with this little bag of parts, so I'm going to put all these parts in, there's just a few things missing here and I'm going to need a some super glue, now go as far as we can without that, see what else I forgot, okay, that's for the little accessories, in case there's at least one little screen here that I'm missing. that covers a microphone I think it's strictly necessary but it keeps debris out of the microphone hole.

I think I'm going to do the top and bottom cable assemblies that go here and here I'm going to start with the bottom cable assembly, this is where the Lightning connector comes in and everything, so the Lightning Jack pair microphone connector for the motor tactile just sits here and has an adhesive that somehow holds it on this one has already been lifted so the adhesives are not perfect and then there are a bunch of screws that go in there, they are supposed to be stickers that go on those screws. I don't think it matters much. I'm not going to put them there, it's probably to avoid a short circuit, but yeah, who needs them? a grounding bracket in the top right corner that goes here is this little zigzag the swamp here okay let's do button covers this is something that I normally have on our timeless I think I think the button covers are the most difficult to fit a phone together, so here are all the parts that we don't need at the moment, we don't need the SIM card tray and we can put them aside for the moment, the first step is these little x' oring that go in the legs. so I put it in two clips like this and then I slid it over the leg, then I took out the clips and it goes to the second slot to bleed there so this one already has them, I can see them there.

I'll do them on this one too and then those go here okay the next thing you want to do is put these little clips on so one end opens to the side and the other end opens down and you put the end where it slides from the side stand. first and then you move everything down and it just hooks onto the other leg. There's something important to note about this here, there's a little wedge that's right there and I'm not sure what the purpose of this is. It's, um, what really ruined it for me the first time I did one of these when building an iPhone was that I didn't know I needed the shim.

I think it is there to control tolerances in manufacturing so that the button clicks. exactly right, the important point in all this is that you may have to be ashamed of yourself, they come as little stickers on a sheet of plastic, but they are essential if you want your buttons to click, otherwise, yes, the buttons just They do not do it. I feel fine without it, yeah, now that they're on, we put these little wire bars on the button so they go on the legs of the button covers, okay, and then they swing down like this easily, the most Frustrating about this whole process are these buttons. covers yes, then the next part is to put the button on, the top flex cable, it has the actual buttons, the actual switches for the volume buttons, the lock button, it has the flash for a microphone, it's a lot of things, it's like this octopus, it should be the Lions inside the case that are laser etched to line everything up, so this just sits here like this, there's a little pin here and the mic to mic cable part goes over the top, so there's a bunch of stuff to line up here the flash sits in notches there and then this cable you just want to line it up carefully with all the lines there should be an adhesive on this one this one is probably dead from being on the other phone so this part of the wire assembly for the buttons goes this way and then there will be some screws that go that way, the next thing you want to do is put the cover on, the button cover for the silent switch, there is a color indicator on this a shell on particular is white here and that indicates that it's in silent mode that goes up and then it sits and it's clipped into this assembly so there's a clip here and there's a clip here and it's clipped underneath so you can put a leg underneath and then I guess which you just have to slide it up down here okay that's it so let's look at the flash holder next okay this is the holder that holds the flash hence the name flash holder the flash sits like this , there is a plastic. cover underneath here that I glued on and it has two little legs that sit on either side of that, now there's this cover on top and this just keeps it from moving, yeah, it just sits there like that, probably two screws that go in.

Okay , there is a small circuit board here on a flux wire. I don't think it's the actual antenna, but I think it connects something and does something else related to antennas, so it goes on top of that bracket and then you put another screw in. Yes, next I'm going to install the speaker, the bottom speaker, put it here. Long, you go this way, now the touch motor comes in here and this thing is super magnetic, so it picks up all the screws all the time, so sometimes I like it. put the connector in here first before you sit on the tactical motor, yeah, I think it's a bit of a difficult connector to get into, so now three screws in there, okay, now three screws on the tactical motor, so we're done. with this bottom part of the phone every once in a while it's time to put some things that go up here, so next is the camera, the rear camera, so that it clips onto the metal clip that we started before, so to Next we finally put the logic. go up to the brain of the phone,

make

sure all the cables are out of the way and now we can connect the cables for this antenna here, so the camera antenna, this is the cable for the buttons and the meat.

I'm going to

make

this little bracket here. This is kind of like a grounding bracket, so this bracket goes up here. Now I'm going to install this little bracket. I think I read somewhere that it's a Wi-Fi antenna. I may be wrong about that, so it goes there. We're almost done,There are a couple of things left, obviously the battery because I'm doing this as part of the wireless charging video. I'm going to put the wireless charger in now. Sorry, I'll do one more thing first. Put these little antennas on the line patch cables, one goes down and they both go to the same place, but now I'm doing the longest one first, where I'll be doing some charging, so this connector is on, obviously, that's going to be a lot .

It's easier if you don't try to do it with the wireless device as well and then the battery screws under the wireless device, obviously it just goes right in if you don't have the wireless device. I'll add it and I'll leave it unplugged for the moment, but I'll leave it there, like this I need to reassemble the screen. I already made the Touch ID and now I need to make the top part. This thing is like an octopus. it's a little difficult to work with it has a lot of creases there are some plastic accessories here there is a plastic accessory here there is one here there is a thing here and there is a stand here those may or may not appear on your screen you can need to add them yourself so I often have to add this piece and that piece in there and I think this one too so you may need those little pieces exactly what they are called this is to hold the camera this is to hold the light sensor and this is to the speaker, so they're probably called something, oh, and we need to put the shield on this metal shield, so you need this set of cables and this bracket, it goes in there, okay, so this goes in. here but this part here folds this that folds down there's a couple of folds here you can see that and then the other piece you need is your speaker piece I guess you start with this here it goes fitted underneath and then this It's over like this , it's like fighting an octopus, you just have to hold everything down and then there are two more screws that go in here and here, so this is just through our protector, we have to take out a few others for the Touch ID. down, yeah, these here are in the area, they come out, I have to do now just the screws around the outside here, so we have the screen, we have everything put on the screen.

I download this on the white screen and now I move to the black screen, so if you saw me put the camera and the Touch ID button on a white screen, it's the same thing, only it's black because I needed it for wireless video because the Red looks much better with black, you have to admit. so I'm going to put this on now so first I put this top connector on and this is the hard one and you just bend it like this and push it in with your finger and then I put this on these three screws here and put like a box or something against whatever can rest on so I don't break these wires and then I focus on getting two more connectors, yes I break anything and make sure I don't press down until you have everything really lined up because you can damage the connectors or damage the board around the connectors and then lastly we put on a bunch of covers so let's plug in the battery now to get the battery and then we'll put the cover over this and I'm the cover over this connector on that connector so now normally I would test to see if the phone turns on because I'm doing this with a wireless charger so these three covers left or just to hold the connectors all these connectors here and here just hold them down you don't strictly need them but with the wireless allen you really need the cover here to push this connector down a little bit and provide a little bit of extra pressure to maintain that connection. really solid, so there's a little bit of extra foam that's supposed to go on top of this piece here, which is the connector for the Lightning motor and it's where the piece for wireless charging plugs in, so I'm going to put that on now more or less. the top of the first one to go up and then this cover continues well so continue here the long screw goes here the short ones to put these two brackets on this one goes here this bracket goes over the camera connector and the camera cable top screen so that's it for installing and iPhone 7.

I haven't done three things, two of them are adhesives, the battery strips that hold the battery down and the gasket that surrounds the screen and finally there are two pentalobe screws . that go in the bottom holes here uh, strictly speaking, you can get away without the adhesive. I'll leave them out for now and I tend to leave them out until I'm very sure the phone is fully functional. I'm happy with him. There are two caveats that the battery should serve to prevent it from sliding around, which will damage it over time, so if you're going to be carrying the phone around a lot, I'd suggest putting those in and then the screen gasket, um, just to help. with waterproofing and also helps keep the screen flush.

I think it's less important, but yeah, if you're going to use this phone every day, definitely put it in once you feel like everything is fully working. opening it to look at things and play with things leaving it often makes it very difficult to open things is the same reason I leave the battery strips out is that it's a pain to deal with if the thing is stuck you can't take the battery out , so you're going to leave them out for now, okay, so to put the screen together, once you have everything here, just press, start pushing here, just work your way up, you might get resistance here and it's because these the tabs here are too far forward, so you push them in with a small screwdriver, there we go, now we need some screws so that those screws hold the screen, put some clips up here, clips on the sides and finally, it's a stimulus and that just appears.

In fact, place this much earlier in the process. You should make sure to remove it if you ever want to remove the logic board. Is it inside the logic board and you don't want to damage the logic board trying to do it? lift up, there it is, here's a fully assembled iPhone 7, this is how I do it. I'm sure there is a professional phone repairman out there who knows some tricks that I don't, but that's what I've learned and in particular, I really wanted to focus in this video on the things that are different from taking apart and then reassembling. an iPhone 7 instead of assembling one from a bunch of different parts from a bunch of different phones.

If you haven't seen it yet, I made a video. Before this, about all the different parts, with that being said, I have an answer for you on where to get parts. I want to thank you fix it again for sponsoring this video and I want to talk a little more about them, they are my favorite reference for iPhone repair and disassembly guides and what parts go where and what parts you need. They also sell parts and tools. I'm very excited to partner with iFix on this video. I've been a big fan of yours for a long time and honestly, I'm not just saying that because I get paid or anything.

I've had their website open on my laptop, off camera, for every iPhone project I've ever done. with strange parts and honestly it would have been much harder to do what I did if I didn't have them, the most important part for me is the level of detail that their guides have, they have super high resolution photos that show each step of the disassembly process to That I can see that little detail that I'm not quite sure how it goes and then they give you important details like which screw goes where with lengths up to the 1 millimeter point it's that level of attention to detail that really means I can trust you.

The information has a canonical reference to how something is put together and what parts I need and where they go, but they don't just cover the iPhone, they have thousands of steps. Step-by-step teardown and repair guides and videos for all types of devices. They also sell spare parts and tools. In fact, I've used their repair guides to fix an Android phone I broke on a motorcycle trip to Thailand for several years. ago and I found it quite simple and this is before doing all these crazy adventures with the iPhone. I also have good news related to the fix.

Many of you have been asking me where I can get spare parts, specifically logic boards which apparently are quite hard to find for iPhones if you just want to like the logic board, good news, I've fixed it, they have logic boards in stock right now, They have iPhone 5 to 6s, they have a lot of different varieties in that range, they are working on iPhone 7 I guess they have had them in stock in the past and they don't have them now, but they will, so if you are looking for a logic board , if that's the only thing stopping you from building your own iPhone or if you have a device you want to repair, take a look.

I fix it. They have all kinds of different parts, including logic boards. I'm going to leave a bunch of links in the description below, specifically the iPhone 7 repair guide that I use to build an iPhone. I'll put it right at the top of the description, but then below the page, but they expand more. I'll put up a bunch of other links to fix repair guides where to buy tools, where to buy replacement parts, the last thing I'd like to say is a bunch of you have contacted me to say, Scotty, would you go to the markets and would you buy this or that piece for me and a group?

For different reasons, guys, I'm just not ready to do that. I'm too busy making videos and there are a lot of complications in doing something like this, particularly considering the number of people who ask me. I get like 10 messages a week. The next day you will probably ask me to go buy spare parts, so unfortunately if you ask me the answer will be no and often I just don't have time to answer everyone, so if you are looking for spare parts I will fix it whenever you want. I hope you enjoyed this video, if you want to see more like this, hit the subscribe button below and stay tuned for more adventures.

I'll be back with you soon.