Not My Father's Charging Station

When my dad passed last year, my sister and I were left to deal with all the household goods. Besides the stuff that Dad hadn't touched since Mom passed, and other family mementos, there was a garage chock full of junk. Now my sister and I both have garages of family things that we can't bring ourselves to toss. Every time I walk by the pile of boxes I feel a little bit guilty that more of them haven't been deemed worthy of coming into the house.

There's Dad's  "Old Pal" minnow bucket, (with it's perforated liner.) I don't think Dad had fished since the 1970s, but he'd kept it all this time. I don't fish at all, but I couldn't resist those cheery red minnows swimming across galvanized metal. Pretty charming.

Until today, it was just yet another useless object that I couldn't part with, and a bit of a bone of contention with Randy.

And then inspiration struck. I've wanted a charging station for the cell phones, mp3 devices, and digital camera.

What we needed for the transformation:
A five-plug power squid
1" rubber grommets
3/8" rubber grommets
Two drill bit thingies.
Not shown: replacement plug
a band-aid (!)

Fortunately my darling husband, Randy, was here to help me, because - as you can probably tell - I wouldn't have known exactly what to buy.

Not counting those drill things (which will be used for other projects, and therefore Do Not Count) we spent about $35.00. I looked on line, and charging stations cost anything upwards of $20. They are also b'tugly.

We drilled holes in both the outer bucket, and the inner liner, and inserted a rubber grommet in both, to prevent the electrical cord from coming into contact with sharp metal edges.

Randy was awfully nervous about getting a clean cut in the lid with all those perforations...But I helped keep the drill gadget flush with the top of the lid, and...

...a perfect hole!

We found that a bit of WD40 helped to get the cord through the rather tight rubber grommets.

Another thing that Randy was good for: replacing the plug we had to cut off, so as not to have big holes in the bucket!

The power "squid." How appropriate!

...and some "worms"...

With the power squid, four "bricks" (the technical term for all those boxy recharger jobbies) and what seemed like miles of cord, there was not much room left.

Wouldn't you know that my white Zen Micro recharger is the one I got paint on?

And there all of our devices are charging! Except for the camera, which was busy. And look! My Zen even matches!

I looked on Ebay, and you can get vintage bait buckets for about $15. I think a vintage bait bucket charging station might make a pretty cool Father's Day gift, especially if your dad is a fisherman!

Happy luck,
pamela

Comments

[Ciaran]

Hey,

this is really cool!
Great idea. How long did it take you to make this?

Ciaran

[pamela]

It didn't take long at all. Maybe an hour or so, not including the trip to the hardware store. :)