For quite a while now we have had a snaggle of cables lying on the kitchen counter for the purpose of charging phones, iPods, etc.  This was a sore point with my wife, so I made this charging station for her for Christmas.

The body of the case is a piece of old growth crotch black walnut with the base moulding and top were made from heavily eyed birds eye maple.  Granted, a little exotic for it’s intended use.  However, function was still my first priority.  My goal was to create a charging station where I could switch off the power when not being used thereby halting the wasteful phantom trickle of electricity.  I also wanted to know when the power was on so that I would not accidentally leave it turned on.  Lastly, it needed to be easy to access the charging cables and provide a practical platform for the devices to sit on while charging.  Once these conditions were met, the appearance and wood choices could be made.

Exclusive of the wood, which I already had remaining from other projects, the cost of the electrical components was about $10.  I chose to use a small scale colonial blanket chest as my model.  The sides were machine dovetailed and I used a heavily figured section of a black walnut crotch for the face and another section of the crotch board with a knot hole in it for the back.  This provided a nice place for some of the cabeling to exit the case.

The electrical components consisted of a simple black rocker switch, a green neon indicator light, and a compact four outlet power strip.  My wife was happy.

Thanks, Bill Goodwin

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