Computer Cord Management Solution

As I mentioned previously in my post about building a keyboard riser, I rearranged our family computer to make the space to add a second monitor. With such a spread out array of peripherals, there were cords everywhere. There are many ways to handle this type of clutter, but I wanted something that would also be easy to reconfigure. The best solution I’ve found is open slot wire duct, but I didn’t want to pay a premium and have to wait for it to arrive. What I wanted to do was make or modify something I either had or could buy locally on the cheap.

A while back, I had purchased some J-channel from Office Depot for around $10, but I found that while it helped keep long runs of cord straight, it was lousy at keeping cords that entered and exited in place. Then inspiration hit me, drill regular holes along the edge of the J-channel and cut a slot from the hole through the short side of the J to insert and remove cords.

So here’s what I did, I marked a hole location every 4″ on the bottom of the J along the whole 4 foot section of J-channel. Then I drilled a hole through each one of the marks with a 1/2″ Forstner bit; I did try using a twist drill bit at first, but it left a really ugly hole. Then with a hand saw I cut all the way through the short side of the J intersecting with the top of each hole.

What this modification allows me to do is have wires enter the inside of the J-channel no more that 2″ away from going straight back. To insert a wire I just pull back and twist the lip of the J-channel to widen the slot and slip the wire into the hole. Wires exiting the back side to get to the CPU aren’t quite as neat, but it still looks a whole lot better than a mess of wires hangin over the back of the desk.