Vintage Minnow Bucket Charging Station

It took Husband and I only an hour to turn the vintage minnow bucket I inherited from my father into a unique charging station.

Step 1 Go Shopping!

Necessaries List: Two 3/8" rubber grommets, one 34" rubber grommet, one power squid, one replacement plug (to replace the one you'll cut off the power squid), power drill, metal cutting drill bit and mandrel, WD40, Band-Aids (just in case). Vintage minnow buckets are available on EBay, for about $15. (Have you seen the new soul-less plastic ones? I guess they're useful...)

Comments

[octochan]

aha! I knew I salvaged that minnow bucket from my neighbour's bin for a reason! Although I think I'll be looking for something a little cheaper than a powersquid to cut up, I think there are power bars that will fit in a minnow bucket.

[girrr geek]

We looked for a power bar that would fit, and didn't find anything, which is why we settled on the power squid. You don't really cut it up, only remove the plug that goes into the wall, so it will fit through the hole you make in the bucket, and then replaced it with a replacement plug.

There's one thing that I wish I'd done differently. I wish I'd left the flip up lid in tact. The small hole I made in the flip up lid proved difficult to get some charger jacks through. If I could do over, I'd just drop the jacks into the bucket, and then fish (pun not intended) the one I needed for each device. Hindsight and all that.

Good luck! 

[blaahhaa]

cool idea.

[isacco]

Congratulations!
This Instructable is very well illustrated and the idea of using a bin/bucket shape is design oriented. In fact, Rotaliana, an Italian firm specialized in lighting design, produces a very similar object since 2005. It is called Multipot and costs 150 €!
http://www.multipot.it (the company web site, sometimes out of service)
http://www.globoweb.net/prodotti/lampade/lampade_dettaglio_multipot.php (a furniture vendor)
http://www.tecnocino.it/articolo/multipot-il-vaso-trasformista/89/ (an user's review)
This object has recently won "Compasso d'oro", an italian award for industrial design. You are on the good way!

[girrr geek]

Thank you. Actually, I think I was inspired by the Multipot. I saw it at Design Within Reach some years ago, but was stunned by the price tag. I'd had my eye out for a likely "multipotalternative" ever since. I only wish my "minnowpot" would illuminate like it's illustrious "forepot"! :-D

[cdunne]

Very nice. As to space if you made some simple baskets out of some heavy gauge wire you could hang several devices around the edge.

[gmjhowe]

nice job, good idea, and good use of recycling, only thing is. an entire bucket, that only charge 3 gadgets? great if u have lots of space!!! (i dont) +1

[girrr geek]

Well, there's only the two of us, we don't have that many gadgets, and they're not all charging at once. But the squid is a five-plugger, so there's room for two more. We're wired at this house, but not to an extreme. ;-)

[gmjhowe]

Well, it would seem it fits your needs perfectly! that gets you extra points!