My side table is a mess. It kind of always has been, but now I have a small one crawling around and yanking on every cable he finds. I can see a job as an electrician in his future. He loves wires! Here is the horror.
I can’t even bare to show the top side, it is not safe for the internet. In order to cleanup and keep my little guy safe from random power cords I started moving things to the underside of the table. The first step would be to anchor the power strip. Everything else would revolve around that. I measured the mounting hole spacing and made a drill template on the 3D printer.
Now I could start putting down wire anchors. Some of these are closed loops you can use with zip ties or velcro, others are open, and you can slip loops of wire into them. I designed my own, but lots of printed options are available online. I made a set of brackets to strap down my USB power brick. I will leave it under the table, and run the needed free lines around to the top.
As I was going, I realized I didn’t have anything for my laptop’s power brick. I found that velcro straps can make a quick flexible hold down if need be. Much faster and cheaper than printing something custom.
With the underside of the table taken care of I moved on to the top. General cleanup was in order. I wanted to consolidate as many things as possible into a single unit. This block will hold my weather station screen, has space for pens, roku remote, fan remote and echo dot. I printed it with 5% gyroid infill, filled everything with sand, and capped it with epoxy. Hot glue makes for thin grippy feet. Just squirt on the hot glue once it has gotten fully up to temp, smash the block down on a silicone glue mat. After a few when it is all cold the glue mat should peel off easily.
To help with all the speaker cables I made a box that slides around the backside of the sub-woofer. I screwed the speakers to the sides so they couldn’t be pulled out. The rear left and right speakers sit on the far side of our couches. Their wires are getting covers to keep them safe from small hands.
I screwed down some wire cover to the legs of the table. This gave me a place to run up and down the various power and connection cables I needed. The only free thing now is the audio cable between the echo dot and the speaker controller. I might either get a longer cable, or mount that to the underside of the table at some point in the future. The top looks pretty good now, and I have managed to keep it tidy for the last month. On to the next baby-proofing project!
Kilted Craft Works 