speed build power cord spinner

  Once in a while I need something to solve a issue but don't have a lot of interest in building it.  This is one of those cases.  I needed something to keep my power cord in order but didn't care a lot about how it looked.  I took a few minutes during a file transfer and drew up a plan.  From there I didn't really measure I just took a pile of scrap wood and started building.   It's not pretty but it was free and works.

  This is the final product with the cord wound up.

On the right you can see the handle which spins the center.  The piece sticking out on the bottom is for my foot to hold it up.  I might add some feet now that I know it works.   The small section of cord on the right is the plug that goes into the wall.  I used zip ties to secure it to the piece which you can see better here:

   I gave my self about ten feet of cord to get to the wall.  Then I just spun the handle and wound the cord up in the center.  I did use two pieces to make the center wider.  I didn't want the cord being wound too tight and damaging it.

Now that you get an idea how it works here is it without the cord.

  It's not perfect but like I said it was a speed build that I just wanted done.  I built it out of mostly 1" thick pieces.  The center shaft is a old broken shovel.  The shovel was tapered so it caused the center  be off a little.  If you used a real dowel it would probably look better.   I had a old dowel around so the side pieces to hold the 10' of cord for the wall are made with the dowel and a 1" square.  I used a hole saw to drill through the pieces for the dowel.  I used glue and small screws I had around to hold it all together.

  One feature that I did think about while I built it, was I wanted to be as flat as possible.  If you look at the picture above the entire unit lays flat.  Mostly I just had to make sure to put the handle on right. 

  Just thought I would post a few pictures, maybe it will interest someone.  At least it shows that I was in my shop :) 

  You can get things like this that look nice at a hardware store.  The issue I had with them was mostly cost.  I didn't really want so spend anything and I already had a nice cord.  Also the units at the store tend to shorter or thinner gauge then what I wanted and had.