Desk Organizer with Charging Station
Wyatt will be leaving for college next month, so I thought it would be a great time to build a desk organizer he can keep on the desk in his dorm room. This is also a chance for me to revisit my device charging station from a couple years ago and incorporate a USB hub into this design.
There are lots of cubbies and drawers to keep small items in. The little dividers on the top can be customized any way you like.
I started by cutting out four equal sized boards that will become the curved vertical dividers and sides. These are the only 1/2″ (12mm) boards in the project. The other pieces are 1/4″ (6mm) plywood and 1/8″ (3mm) ply for the drawer bottoms.
Routing out grooves in these pieces will help enormously in assembly and help keep all the shelves and sides square. I used a straight bit in my router to cut this series of grooves.
There are a lot of grooves and they all require exact placement. Follow the cutting guide carefully and take your time. (I still managed to screw up a couple times!)
Once they were all done, I taped the four boards together, glued on the paper cutting template, and cut out the curves using my band saw.
The two dividers in the middle need to be cut shorter. To do this, I lined them up with the shelves and marked them.
Once cut, I began gluing everything together, starting with the bottom shelf. It’s super important that this one is square so that the drawers and shelves will line up properly. Those two blocks increased the clamping area and help keep the sides square.
Then I worked my way up:
The drawers were simple. I glued and tacked together thin strips and attached a thin plywood bottom.
I used some small hole plugs for drawer pulls.
The I attached the rear support. The notch is for the power cord to run through.
This decorative trim molding makes the organizer feel more “grounded”.
I glued on the USB hub using epoxy and then attached the front trim molding. This one has a little cut-out for accessing the hub.
I glued on a small block in the rear to stop the drawer from sliding in too deep. The other two drawers stop perfectly against the back of the organizer. (I got lucky!)
Finally, I cut small strips to create little compartments for the top shelf. Wyatt requested on specifically sized to hold a Companion Cube he 3D printed.
I plugged the power adapter into the USB hub. Finally, I waxed the bottom of the drawers and slid them in place.
August 14, 2015 @ 12:19 pm
What model of USB hub is that?
August 14, 2015 @ 5:20 pm
I’m not sure. It was a generic one I picked up at Staples.
August 14, 2015 @ 12:37 pm
Excellent as usual Steve, and luck didn’t have acting todo with it, after so many projects your mind knows what it’s doing.
Besides, sometimes its better to be lucky than good!
August 15, 2015 @ 6:09 am
Probably a silly question but I don’t have a router or router table, any suggestions on a different way to make the grooves? Maybe on my table saw…..
January 28, 2016 @ 9:31 am
I can´t download plans for desk organizer
February 29, 2016 @ 10:46 am
Where do you download the plans
May 13, 2016 @ 2:04 pm
Hi I am a wood working teacher and I just wanted to say the kids love making this project. 95% of my class choose it as their beginning project every year. I do have one question though can this be made with a secret compartment on the bottom? one of my students asked me this and I told him id ask.
May 21, 2016 @ 8:47 am
Can u make me one
September 24, 2016 @ 4:19 am
Steve would you be able to make my brother one of these for his birthday if u can plz thanks ❤️❤️
November 29, 2016 @ 5:28 am
Do you need to use plywood?
November 29, 2016 @ 5:29 am
Would it be possible to use 3/4 inch pine.
February 14, 2017 @ 9:10 am
Just a thought, most usb hubs will simply provide the standard 500mA current from the original usb standard, which will provide a fairly low charge rate for modern devices. I would recommend using a modern multi-port charger with intelligent ports that can tell if you have a android device that can take up to 1.5 amps vs. various apple devices that may take up to 2.4 A for the newer tablets.