Nightstand with hidden wireless charging

Picked up this nightstand at goodwill for $12 and decided to embed a Qi wireless charger in the top so I could easily charge my phone at night. From the top the charger isn’t visible at all, but when I place my phone in just the right spot it begins to charge through the wooden top.

Used my roommates router to sloppily route out the spot where the charger sits. I took small passes slowly getting closer to my target depth. The last few passes were very shallow because I was worried about punching through. In retrospect I think I probably could have gone a bit deeper, but it works. The final depth was 17mm into a 20mm thick piece. This works well charging my phone, even with a case.

The charger is held in with some foam and some plastic strips. I think it’s important that the charger be held tightly to the inside surface to make the wireless charging as effective as possible.

A shot of the final routing job. I also routed a channel for the charging cable so it wouldn’t hang down into the top drawer.