In my new Home Office/Workshop, I've been making space for my electronics hobby. My space has to be multi-functional and it has to be able to be tidy ... I'm not a very tidy person and my workspace can quickly become an homage to kipple (read Philip K. Dick for an explanation).

This instructable is about how I've approached the thorny issue of keeping my rolls of solid core copper wire somewhere that I can find, in a state that doesn't require untangling anything and easy to use.

At the end, I'll talk about some enhancements to the design that I've thought of, but haven't implemented.

Step 1: Make a Box

The shell of the wire organizer/caddy/dispenser is a simple plywood box. It has three sides and two ends ... nothing too fancy. I'm using a 6 mm thick plywood at a cost of $5.00 (AUD) from the hardware store, the sheet was much larger than I needed, so I have some spare for later projects..

The box is 400 x 80 x 80 mm.

Front and Back panels :- 400 mm x 75 mm (x 2)

Bottom panel :- 400 mm x 66 mm (x 1)

Side panels :- 66 mm x 66 mm (x 2)

Top panel :- 400 mm x 80 mm (x 1)

Inside the box is a 410 mm x 25 mm radius pine dowel (aka. broomstick) which I bought for @ $6.00 some time ago (to make perches for my chickens).

Make sure that your dowel goes through your wire reels, it's embarrassing to discover this late. Also, make sure that your box is big enough for your wire reels ... this can also be a bit annoying.

I cut the pieces from the plywood panel using a circular saw. To make sure that my cuts were the right size, I've made a simple circular saw sled for my saw, I clamp it to the work-piece at the cut line and I get a straight cut easily every time.

Next, I glued, clamped and nailed the front and back panels to the bottom panel. Then I clamped, glued and nailed the end panels. You can expect to get a bit of splitting if you use nails that are too big or if you don't predrill the nail holes ... I got some splitting. If your splitting isn't too serious, glue and clamp the split closed.

Step 2: Add the Dowel

When the glue had cured sufficiently, I then marked the center of both ends of the box. This is simply done by drawing a line between the diagonal corners, where the lines intersect is the middle.

I drilled a pilot hole with a 5 mm drill bit and then drilled the hole using a 25 mm spade bit.

After drilling, sand the hole inside and out and then offer the dowel to the hole ... it should be a reasonably loose fit (with about 1 mm to spare).

Step 3: Drill and Countersink Wire Holes

Using your wire reel as a guide, mark the position of the holes approximately in the center of where each reel will go. I did this free-hand and the hole spacing is a little avant-gard, but what the hey?

I used a countersink drill bit to ease the drill hole. This will reduce the amount of friction when pulling wire out of the hole and reduces the amount of wear on the wire sheathing.

Step 4: Load the Caddy Up

Insert the dowel into one side and slip the wire reel onto the dowel, thread the wire out of the dispenser hole for the wire and repeat.

When you are loading your caddy, it's best to make sure that all of the reels are loaded in the same orientation. This reduces the accidental roll-out of wires that you aren't dispensing.

Step 5: Lid ... or No Lid

You can put the lid on the caddy if you like, I'm planning to put a lid on the box to reduce places that I have to dust.

I've also bent the end of the wire over so that it "grips" the dispenser, this also reduces the amount of accidental roll-out.

I still need to put hinges on the box lid and I'll probably varnish the box.

Other Ideas

I plan to put a guide inside the box with a hinge and spring so that the wire doesn't get all tangled up inside the box.

Nylon spacers between the reels is good too ... less likely to drive other reels.

Anyway, the box is now made and ready to dispense wiry justice.

Step 6: Paint and Add Hardware

Well, I said that I was planning to add hinges to the cable tidy ... so I went to the hardware store and bought 3 brass hinges (at $1.70 each).

Because the plywood is only 6 mm thick and the smallest brass timber screws that I could get were 12 mm long, I had to cut the ends off the screws and then file them down to make the screws flush with the inside of the box. I screwed the hinges into the back panel of the box and then cut them down using some side-cutters, then with a flat fine file, I ground the screws down.

As the screws were going into the back of the lid, no adjustment of the screws were necessary. I used a 3/32 drill bit to pre-drill all of the holes so that the screws wouldn't split the plywood.

I also added another piece of plywood under the lid to make the lid more solid, the piece was cut 6 mm smaller all around (12 mm off the left side and 12 mm off the back). I glued and clamped and screwed the additional panel into the lid. This was also done because the lid panel was "cupping" that is, the plywood panel was bent, so laminating the lid made it possible to clamp the bend out of the piece.

I had some gloss red spray paint in the shed that was going to waste so ... surprise! It's now red ;)