Scrap-Material Extension Cord Holder

Extension cords are useful, but they can be annoying to store. They can become tangled, take up space, and be difficult to move around.

For the Trash to Treasure challenge, we decided to turn scrap materials donated to our school into a useful extension cord holder.

Our design has a wooden base, a PVC frame for holding the cord, and four wheels so the entire holder can be moved easily.

We used:

1. 2 feet of 2×4 lumber
2. 4 feet of ¾-inch PVC pipe
3. 2 × ¾-inch PVC caps
4. 2 × ¾-inch PVC elbows
5. 1 scrap wooden platform
6. 4 wheels
7. An extension cord for testing

All of the main materials came from scraps donated to our school.

Tools

The tools we used included:

1. Saw
2. Drill
3. Measuring tape
4. Pencil
5. Screws or other fasteners

We started with the scrap wooden platform that would become the base of the extension cord holder.

Before building the rest of the holder, we attached four wheels to the bottom of the platform.

Adding the wheels first allowed the finished holder to be moved easily once the rest of the structure was assembled.

Next, we prepared the wooden parts of the project.

We used 2 feet of 2×4 lumber along with a scrap wooden platform. The platform would become the base of the holder and support the rest of the structure.

We measured and cut the wood to fit our design.

After preparing the wood, we attached the 2×4 wooden beams to the scrap wooden platform.

The beams provide the main structure for the extension cord holder and give us a place to attach the PVC later.

We made sure the beams were securely attached to the platform before moving on to the PVC.

We started with 4 feet of ¾-inch PVC pipe. We cut the PVC into 6-inch sections that would be used to make the frame of the extension cord holder.

We measured each section before cutting so the pieces would be the same length.

After the wooden beams were attached, we assembled the PVC pieces.

We used the two ¾-inch PVC elbows to connect the PVC sections and the two ¾-inch PVC caps on the ends.

The PVC was then attached to the wooden structure. This creates the part of the holder that the extension cord wraps around.

After assembling the project, we tested it with an extension cord.

We wrapped the extension cord around the PVC frame to see how well it held the cord. We also moved the holder around using the four wheels to make sure it was easy to move.