Week 1 - Trying Something New: Ikea Charger Hack

I’ve always been inspired by people who modify Ikea furniture.

People that have the creative capacity to envision a new style or see a different product than what exists in real life - the ability to see the framework and are able to make a new reality.

Same goes for the YouTube rabbit hole of flipping houses, renovation shows, modifying airstreams or camper vans. All of it scratches the tinker itch that I have.

But I could never really justify buying something with the risk of screwing it up worse, nor having the random amount of money set aside to invest into such an endeavour.

Modifying a small Ikea product is helpful for multiple reasons.

1. It’s a cheap investment cause I’m buying something small

2. It’s an excuse to grow my comfort with wood working and home improvement equipment

3. It fits my weekly goal of trying something new for growth

So here’s the plan.

I’ve always wanted a charger hub of sorts.

The problem primarily being the price. The steep steep price.

Enter NORDMÄRKE Wireless charging stand. $14.99

So here’s what I’m thinking.

Buy the original and create a space of the apple watch charger in the back.

Make space for the charging cable to hide neatly in the back

Plan:

1. Drill multiple tiny holes to remove as much wood material as possible

2. Use a hand chisel to smooth it out as able

Execution:

Although I was about to drill out multiple tiny holes this was problematic for 2 reasons:

1. I didn’t have a way to reliably/consistently drill to the same depth every time I drilled a hole. Sure I had green tape as a ballpark measure but that was not accurate enough , particularly because I was free-hand drilling with a power drill. This meant the angle of the drill wasn’t always 90 degrees

I ended up getting lots of tiny holes of inconsistent depth and the pre-existing holes made it difficult to drill adjacent new holes because the drill would slip into a pre-existing hole instead.

2. Because the drilled space was enclosed, there was no way I could lay my chisel flat. This meant that there would always be at an angle of sorts.

Solution:

Forstner bits. By using a Forstner bit, I was able to drill the necessary hole.

And here’s the result.

Yeah, I know. The cut isn’t super crisp because I originally used a drill with the intention to drill a bunch of holes until I got the Forsner bit.

But, either way, I’m happy to have a small charging hub for my phone and watch. And happy to have tried something new. It’s not the prettiest, but it suits my needs, has made me feel more comfortable with DIY (even if it’s nothing extreme or challenging) and it was $15.

And I’m a beginner!