Keyboard Cable Coil

A life hack that winds up your way too long keyboard USB-cable in a rather nice looking coil. Because no one wants cable clutter, not even on a messy desk...

Caution: I would not advise to do this with some very expensive equipment (or cables for hard drives etc...), as the winding of the cable might maybe put too much stress on it. A more expensive keyboard, on the other hand, should already have some anti-cable-clutter(I googled it and of course landed back at instructables ;))-gadget.

• Keyboard with too long USB cable,

• a metal spring (e.g., from an old architect desk lamp, I found that these are not too hard to strech),

• some tool to help you strech the spring (I used cable ties),

• pliers to remove parts of the spring that are not used.

First: Strech the spring above its elasticity so that you can wind the cable into it. The distance of the individual spring coils should be slightly smaller than the width of the USB cable. I used the cable ties and hooked them into the small loop at the beginning to strech the spring, so that the whole spring is evenly streched.

Second: Start winding up the cable into the spring. I left some 5 to 6cm in the beginning of the cable and ~12cm at the end. Be careful to do this evenly. You can press the cable a little bit into the spring with your fingers. Note that you can approximate the numbers of windings you need for the length of cable you want to wind up. The estimation would be:

Length of cable to wind up / [(spring diameter - cable diameter) x pi].

Don't worry if you are not happy at the first time. I actually needed three attempts, until I thought it looked good. Unwinding it from the coil also didn't harm the cable in my case.

Third: Remove the rest of the spring. Use the pliers for that. I also removed the little loop at the one end of the spring, but I guess one could also leave it and use it as some kind of entrance point for the cable...

There is a small drawback when pinching off the spring, because it makes some sharp ends. In my case I dont really come in contact with these, but its better to have this in mind.

And finish! Connect your USB cable to the port and have fun with your DIY cable coil. I was a bit nervous whether the cable would be harmed by the winding, but all seems fine.