Repurpose first generation AppleTV into a Headphone stand

I don't know about you guys, but I have a few first generation AppleTv's lying around. I've used one in the past to make a shelf above my desk. Mainly to keep things like a mouse and SD cards off my desk. Today I decided to repurpose yet another one into a headphone stand.  I've done a DIY headphone stand in the past and was not crazy about the final verdict of the base I made so I will be reusing the Ikea parts of that and this AppleTv as the base.

Leave us a comment down below, Tell us about your repurposed DIY projects.

1. Gut your AppleTv (This will require a few Torx drivers)

Peal back the rubber bottom to reveal the screws. You only need to remove the four corner torx screws to remove the bottom. You then can go ahead and gut everything from the inside. Keep in mind were going to want to make use of the jacks on board later. So place the board and screws on the side 

2. Tape everything up

Tape up your AppleTv and Ikea Shelf braket with masking tape. This will prevent any scratches, especially the plastic top.

3. Mark your holes

Go ahead and place the Ikea Shelf bracket on top of the ApplceTv and mark the mounting holes. I placed mine all the way back flush with the edge. 
On the very bottom of the Ikea Shelf bracket between the mounting holes, we will need another hole marked. This will be where we feed the USB cable to charge our headphones. 
We will also need to mark a hole where the cable will come out of on our left side close to the bottom of the Ikea Shelf Bracket. This will be where the mini USB side of the cable will come out.
This size of these holes all depends on the hardware you are going to use based on your mini USB size. What I did and would suggest to you is grab the mini USB cable you plan to use and compare it to one of your drill bits then drill a hole in a piece of wood to double check it's a good fit.

4. Drill mount holes

Now that we have everything taped up good. We can go ahead and clamp it down to a drill press and drill the AppleTV mounting holes. Then you can go ahead and drill the holes in the Ikea Shelf Bracket

Drill Ikea Shelf Bracket holes
After you're done with those holes go ahead and drill the whole a the bottom of the Ikea Shelf Bracket

5. Test the mounting fit

Go ahead and place the Ikea Shelf bracket back on top and place some screws through the holes.

6. Mark feed hole

While you have the Ikea Shelf bracket placed onto of the AppleTv with screws. Let's go ahead and mark the feed hole. Grab a pencil and through the back of the Ikea Shelf Bracket draw through the feed hole we drilled before. 
We want this exact which is the reason why we didn't drill the whole before. Measure twice drill once is the old saying..

7. Drill feed hole

Go head and clamp the AppleTv back in and drill that final whole home. Again take your time let the bit do all the work.

8. Hand file hole edges

Since we will be feeding some wire through these holes, it's a good idea to break out a hand file and take off the edges to prevent it from cutting into your wire.

9. Apply rubber to bottom of the Ikea Shelf Bracket

I don't think this is really necessary but figured it couldn't hurt. I had some rubber lying around so I went ahead and used some to the bottom of the Ikea Shelf Bracket. My thinking here is since we are putting metal to thin plastic it might help if from cracking under pressure.

10. Mount Ikea Shelf Bracket to AppleTv

Ok go ahead and mount the Ikea Shelf Bracket to the AppleTv with some screws and nuts.
After you have it tightened down good. Were going to want and cut off the extra screw protruding from the nuts. I used a dermal with a cutting wheel. 
The reason for this is the jacks will be right over where the screws are so the shorter the better.

11. Board and jacks 

I did come across an issue here since I wanted the Ikea Shelf bracket flush to the back. The feed whole falls right where two of the jacks are. 
First things first I went ahead with my trusty dremel cutting wheel again and cut down the board keeping the two mounting holes. 
With the board cut I went ahead and cut the jack tips of the two jacks that were in the way. My thinking here is I will just glue them into the place later.
With them cut off, I then proceeded to make two more cuts into the board to remove two jack bodies that were in the way of the feed hole.At this stage, I wanted to point out we are keeping the left and right parts of the board and the two jack tips that were cut off. 
We can then go ahead and screw in the two boards pieces then place a drop of glue on the two jack tips and push them in the plastic. Let them dry and take a brake.

12. Feed USB cable

Ok so feed the min side of the USB cable though where the Power Jack used to be then up through the middle hole and out the side of the Ikea Shelf Bracket

13. Close up AppleTv

Ok now just screw shut the bottom and put the rubber back on. 
I marked the screw holes and made small holes in the rubber. This way if I need to get in there again I don't need to peel the rubber back again.

14. Curling cable

I saw this cool tip online and thought it would be cool. But honestly it did not really work out all that well for me. Could of just been the type of cable it was. Nevertheless, ultimately you wrap the cable around something. In my case, I used a dry erase marker. I also wrapped in aluminum foil. I thought it would be a good precaution since the next step is heating it up with a hair blower. Nevertheless, instead of a hair blower I used a butane heat gun that I normally use for shrink wire. Again the idea is to heat it up and allow it cools.

At first, this looked like it worked well for me but after I took everything apart and pulled on the wire a few times it lost a lot of its curl.

15. Done 

Final Product