The WoodWhisperer is sponsored
by Powermatic and Titebond
Ever since I got my gaming rig set up,
I've been putting my headphones
and my controller on the desktop
like some kind of peasant.
So we're going to change
that today.
Can't stand for that.
I'm actually going to make
a small wall hanging rack
that I could put both
of these items on.
Should be a pretty cool
and very fast build.
Let's head to the shop.
So the first step
in designing this thing,
is to think about the gear
that's going to hang off of it.
Most headphones are pretty similar.
This is just a Audio-Technica set,
but we were looking at is the band
and how far down they hang.
We have to keep that in mind.
But again,
most headphones would be fine.
If it's corded,
of course you want to consider
how you're going to store the cord.
For controllers,
even though I mostly game
with an Xbox controller at my PC,
I want to make sure
that this thing works
for any controller, really.
So I got my PS5, I even have a
Nintendo Switch Pro controller.
Now the good thing is,
they're all pretty similar
on the underside,
and this is what we're looking at
is the space under here,
which is going to be
supported by the rack.
So I took a piece of paper.
I kind of cut a little "L" shape
with an angle in it,
and I use that
to kind of just test
and see "how much of this
can we support?",
"will the shape work?"
"will it work for all of these?"
and it does seem
that most of them
will work just fine
with something like this.
So this was just
kind of a starting point,
getting this angle right,
I took this to a larger piece of paper
and drew the rest of it out.
And this is what I came up with.
So I took the initial shape from
that first piece of paper
and kind of used
that as a starting point,
extended it back a little bit
so that the controllers
can kind of rest almost horizontal
but they have this lip preventing
them from falling off.
Under here is where
we have the headphones.
Now I thought it was
a lot more sensible
to put the controller on top
and then headphones below
because then the headphones
can just kinda hang
as far down as they need to hang.
If you put the headphones on top
and the controller underneath,
then you have to make sure
you have enough room
for the cups of the headphones
so they don't interfere
with the controller.
So I think this orientation
is probably best.
And really once I have
this shape down,
and then I have a nice flat area
for the top band
of the headphones,
everything else just comes
down to like
"what do I think looks cool?"
Alright, so I just kind of
drew a nice little curve
to connect that.
This guy goes down this way
and this actually will be one of two arms.
The two arms will jut out
a certain distance apart
and I've drawn that over here.
If you were looking at it head on,
the arms would be pushing out toward you
and the distance apart
is really dictated
by the space between
the handles on the controller.
I just want to be well within
the area where it's kind of flat.
And that should provide
enough support for
any of these controllers.
And now back to this drawing.
We can actually
cut this out
and make a template
out of it.
That's good enough.
So to make the template,
I've just got a piece of hardboard here,
I'm just going to make
this side flush with the straight end
and then glue it on like
that using my EXTREME glue stick.
So now we'll just do
a little bit of cleanup
and smoothing on these rough edges
using a rasp,
I even have a stick here
with some sandpaper on it.
That'll work nicely.
So you're probably wondering
"why are we coming through the trouble
of making a template?"
Well first of all,
I need to have a bit of a
proof of concept.
I want to make sure
that these things work the way
that I expect them to.
The other thing is
I need to make two of these
for each hanger
that I make,
so I wanna make sure
they're exactly the same.
And this is the kind of project
where chances are
someone in the family
is going to see this
or a friend will see it
and say
"hey can you make me one of those?"
So it's nice to have
this on hand.
I'll just save this forever
until I lose it or break it.
And then I could
batch these things out
whenever I need to.
So let's see how it does
up against the backer.
What I really want
to look at is
"will the controller
sit on there nice
and even and stable
if there were two of them?"
Yeah, it would.
That looks pretty good.
And then the headphones,
I want to make sure
that those hang nicely
and cleanly
and that looks pretty good too.
And there's enough room there
so depending on
the size of the headband
at the top
you have plenty a room
with this design.
So now next thing
we need to do
is prep the material
for this whole rack.
We're going to have
1/2" stock all throughout,
so we need two pieces
for the, I don't even know
what you would call this thing,
but the hooks
whatever they are,
so two pieces for that,
one piece for the back panel.
The glue up here,
pretty much is a no brainer.
Slip these guys into the grooves
The squeeze out is it
gonna be a little bit tricky
to clean up on something like this
at least on the inside here,
so I'm going to be pretty careful here.
These are really awkward
shapes here and I'm not too worried
about getting it perfectly clamped.
This is a very fast drying glue
here from Titebond,
it's their SpeedSet
and as long as I'm flush
at the top and the bottom,
I'm gonna put some pressure down,
squeeze the air out of the joint,
and then just let it be.
In about 15 minutes,
I'll be comfortable
moving this stuff around.
Alright, that's looking pretty good.
So next thing we need to do
is apply the finish.
Normally I do like
an oil finish on my furniture
but on small pieces
often times
just spray can rattle can lacquer
gives you a nice look
and it's very easy to apply.
Right, so I think ideally
I'm gonna find a stud here
I know the last one is here
so probably about 16" out
we should find another one.
I don't know
if you guys probably
have the same problem I do,
is when you're using the stud finder,
there's just so much interference
when there's a huge stud nearby.
[Ba-dum-tss]
I think right about there
is probably good.
Should go higher? Lower?
Higher? Lower?
I think that looks pretty good.
I just got some panhead screws here.
And I just realized
I need an extension.
That should do the trick.
Just check for plum.
And can put
the second screw in.
So my initial thought was
to put a peg in here
for the cord,
but I don't really think we need to,
because if you shove the cord in there,
in between these two verticals
it just kind of find it's home,
and sits in there,
so I don't think a peg
would've really helped
us at all.
That's pretty decent.
And then we can
drop in the controller.
So I gotta tell ya,
this is one of the things
that I absolutely love about woodworking.
The fact that I can
have a need for something,
kind of have an idea of
what I wanna do,
design it,
and build it,
and in this case,
it was all done in a half day
and now I have a nice, tidy home
for my headphones and my controller.
It's just super cool
and I could've purchased something.
There's stuff like this
that you could buy on Amazon
made of plastic and metal.
I could have probably
even 3D printed something
if I wanted to,
but this matches my desk,
it's a lot classier,
and no one has one like it.
At least not yet.
I'm gonna give
you guys the patterns,
if you wanna, you know,
sort of do this same design.
It will work for just about
any standard console
controller these days.
Now, if you don't have
the tools I have,
and you want to make this,
that's ok.
You don't need to make those grooves
that we made.
You could actually just screw in
from the back
and attach those verticals
with some small screws.
You don't have a bandsaw
to make those cuts?
Well jigsaws are fairly inexpensive.
You can use a jigsaw for that.
Heck, you could use a coping saw
and do it by hand
if you really wanted
to burn a few calories.
Alright, so thank you
for watching everyone.
You know, if you can,
we're going to ask
once in a while for this, to like
and subscribe on the channel.
It actually does help
because a lot of people
don't click like
or don't necessarily subscribe
because they just
don't think of it.
So we appreciate that.
That does help support us
as we move forward.
And just wanted to jump in here real quick
to let you know,
we are doing something
we have never done before
in the history of this show
and that is selling
the item we just made.
I'm not a manufacturer of products, right?
Normally I just teach people
how to build things but
so many people asked me as non-woodworkers,
if they could buy this thing,
and I didn't really
have any available.
So we decided
to fire up the CNC.
That helps speed up
the production of these pieces,
and everything else
is finished by hand.
So it still takes a lot of time,
but we do have
a very limited number of kits available.
So once you receive this,
you're going to have the back piece,
you're going to put some glue inside
those grooves,
drop these pieces in
and because I can't really control
the fit of this
once it ships around the country,
things may swell
or loosen up a little bit,
so I'm gonna provide four screws
that you can use
from the back into these holes
to hold everything in place
while that glue dries.
aAnd then of course,
two additional screws
to help you attach it
to the wall.
Alright, so very limited quantities.
I don't know what the future
of this thing is,
whether we're going to
sell more in the future,
but it is a great use
of small scrap
that I don't really have
any other use for,
it just kind of sits on the shelf
until a small project comes along
that I can use it.
This is a great way
to turn it into something useful
that other people can enjoy.
So, if you're interested,
head to tww.store.com
and if there are none left,
my apologies
but that might just be
a one time thing.
I don't know.
We'll see!
Anyway.
Go check it out.
Thanks for watching,
love ya
Now I have to go
get my a$$ kicked
by some 12 year olds.
I need some coffee.
[slurps]