I absolutely love Kaizen foam for toolbox shadowing!

[BreeStephany]

I recently picked up about $200 worth of Kaizen foam to shadow my entire toolbox and just got around to getting my entire toolbox organized.

View media item 67814I am going into the aviation field where tool inventory is paramount and where many shops, if not most, requiring toolboxes to be shadowed to allow for quick inventory of toolboxes and to insure that tools do not go missing.

I used Kaizen foam to shadow all of my drawers. It was a very easy product to work with and I shadowed the entire box in less than a day.


View media item 67815Socket drawer.

I still have to get a few sockets here and there to fill in the gaps before I start working in the field, but I am pretty happy with how it looks so far.


View media item 67816Ratchets, breaker bars, torque wrenches and nut drivers.


View media item 67817Wrench drawer.

Again, I still have to fill in my metric organizer but its still a work in progress.


View media item 67818Screwdriver drawer.


View media item 67819Plier drawer.


View media item 67820Layout & measuring tool drawer.


View media item 67821File drawer.


View media item 67822Allen key drawer.


View media item 67823Wrench drawer.

I am waiting for scholarship funds to come through and then I am hoping to add a set of Knipex pliers to this drawer.


View media item 67824Bit driver drawer.


View media item 67825Drill bit drawer.


View media item 67826Hammer drawer.


View media item 67827'Junk' drawer. This is my catch all drawer but I wanted to make sure that everything had its place and had extra foam so I decided to shadow this drawer.


View media item 67828Pick, punch and scraper drawer.


View media item 67829Labeler, toner, test probe and extra labels.

I know electrical tape is not approved for use in aviation, however, I like having a few rolls in my drawer for patching up battle scars and the red tape I use for labeling larger parts when I take them off.


View media item 67830Homemade powerbank with all of my power tools.


View media item 67831And here's the box at the end of the day, every day, for the foreseeable future.

 

[Carquest]

Very well done, certainly looks good when someone takes the time to do a box like that. Congratulations

 

[Group B]

That looks awesome. Where did you get the foam from? $200 to do a whole toolbox doesn't seem bad. Did you just cut it with a razor knife, even for the half circles? Powerbank is slick too

 

[66354dream]

Very nice!!! Really digging it

 

[BreeStephany]

That looks awesome. Where did you get the foam from? $200 to do a whole toolbox doesn't seem bad. Did you just cut it with a razor knife, even for the half circles? Powerbank is slick too

I purchased the Kaizen foam directly from Fastcap.

I bought their razor knife, long nose sharpie and hot knife kit, all of which were part of the $200 cost to shadow the box. I HIGHLY recommend getting the razor knife, which is a really thin bodied razor and their long nose sharpie which makes outlining tools a breeze. The hot knife kit is just a wood burning kit so I'm pretty sure you can source one for cheaper on Amazon.

I used the hot knife to burn in all of the finger grips and also to smooth out the bottom of cutouts. When using the hot knife, I recommend intermittently wiping the tip off with a rag to remove the excess melted plastic.

The foam just peels out with your finger once you cut the outline to the depth you want.

If you are considering doing this, I highly recommend you check out a few of the MANY youtube videos out there on how to shadow your toolbox using Kaizen foam.

The foam is about $15 for a 2'x4' 1-1/8" sheet and $22 for a 2'x4' 2-1/4" sheet, which is pretty cheap when it comes to toolbox foam.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Sure looks nice, thanks for sharing, I only have one of my drawers shadowed.

 

[nine4gmc]

Looks good!

 

[M6erfan]

Looks great!

 

[zktk01]

You did an awesome job laying everything out. My little box is just crammed full wish I had the room to organize.

 

[4xdog]

Not my style, where high organization at the box and drawer level is mixed with chaos inside the drawer, but I gotta say that looks awfully nice.

Well done.

 

[pcmeiners]

Nice setup, it appears your attempting NOT to waste space between tools, that is unusual. Seems most shadow setups waste a great deal. A lot of work, you have patience.

 

[Tom.C]

How did you make the powerbank?

 

[WWheeler]

How did you make the powerbank?

Bree has a thread in the fab & techniques section:

Fabricating a Snap-On KRL1099PBO 'like' toolbox out of the shell of a Harbor Freight
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=346953

 

[LXCam]

Nice job, darn shame you'll be needing a bigger box soon .

 

[mikegt4]

Nicely done.

That being said I have an intense hatred for shadowing a tool box. It does have it's place such as aerospace work where you need to account for every tool at the end of the job. Once you create the "shadow" you are locked into that set of tools unless you redo that drawer, a tool junkie's nightmare. A tool box should be an ever expanding thing.

At the last place that I worked the company supplied the tools but several people worked out of each box. When we had a size change over on the machine there was only one of each tool so we ended up with one guy with a 13mm wrench and 2 guys waiting to use it.
Pardon me rant.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Looks Great, Shadowing my toolbox is on my list of things to do. Maybe next year, too many projects on the fire right now

 

[L.Cheapo]

Nice job! I've flown for four companies, and no A&Ps at any of them had their boxes shadowed. I've also been to two large MROs to pick aircraft up from MX, and saw many boxes, none of them shadowed. Perhaps its an airline/military thing.

 

[STANIMAL]

Awesome job . Certainly a great organizational material and cheaper than the alternative of paying a company to do that for you .

 

[BreeStephany]

Nicely done.

That being said I have an intense hatred for shadowing a tool box. It does have it's place such as aerospace work where you need to account for every tool at the end of the job.

No worries on the rant. I can definitely understand where shadowing would be impractical for a home box or boxes where tool inventory isn't a big deal, with that said, as an A&P student and likely future A&P mechanic, tool inventory, as you mentioned, it everything.

Loose a tool... have fun calling back EVERY plane you wrenched on since you last saw said tool and ripping them down until you find said lost tool.

 

[mikegt4]

I worked at GE Aircraft Engines near the test cells where they test run the engines. Every tool, nut bolt and washer had to be accounted for lest they run the risk of being ingested into a running engine. I often heard the story of someone leaving a step ladder in the test cell and it got sucked into a gazillion $ engine.

The test cells where inside the building, they were blast proof rooms about 30' wide and 60' long. Those along the building corridors had viewing windows so that we could watch the engines run. Afterburners were always fun but thrust vectoring was the best. Yes the building did shake at times.

Looking through the window you saw something like this about 15' away.

 

[zeke markham]

Nice job, I wouldn't put too much effort into the metric side of your box though. Very unlikely you'll ever see a metric fastener outside of a Honeywell box.

 

[beamrider]

I worked at GE Aircraft Engines near the test cells where they test run the engines. Every tool, nut bolt and washer had to be accounted for lest they run the risk of being ingested into a running engine. I often heard the story of someone leaving a step ladder in the test cell and it got sucked into a gazillion $ engine.

The test cells where inside the building, they were blast proof rooms about 30' wide and 60' long. Those along the building corridors had viewing windows so that we could watch the engines run. Afterburners were always fun but thrust vectoring was the best. Yes the building did shake at times.

Looking through the window you saw something like this about 15' away.

Mach diamonds are a beautiful thing.....

 

[Climatecreator]

Looks familiar.....

DIY Power Bank
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...2f12f9bd1d138808&share_fid=20318&share_type=b

DIY Power Bank

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[rharman]

Wow, what a great job. You must have the patience of a saint.

Best of luck in your studies and chosen profession. Your attitude shows in the quality of this job.

 

[Qualitytools]

Very Nice Indeed! Thanks for sharing and encouraging

 

[jhnlngn]

Great job! What thickness of foam did you go with?

 

[cgrutt]

Nice job, looks great! I can certainly understand why this is needed for aviation but my concern would be how do you handle adding new tools?

 

[JohnnyEgo]

So I am not as much of a fan as I had hoped to be. I found the foam to not peel very easily or controllably, the knife worked great for the first few cuts but dulled quickly, and the pattern marker dried up quick. I had a bunch of loose AR punches and tools just sort of jumbled in a box. And since they haven't changed much in a bunch of years, I figured this would be a good application for foam. I cut foam a bunch of years ago, but never had very satisfactory results. Didn't get them with the Kaizen, either. Peel to depth did not work very well, and once the knife dulled, it was useless. Things look fair to ok with the tools in place, but you can see how badly cut and fitted they are with the tools out.

I had much better luck when I reverted to my old approach of a soldering iron with a piece of #12 copper wire as a cutter. It's how I did my long punches and trigger guard tool:

I think the best thing Kaizen foam has going for it is that it is cheap. Both in price and quality of foam. In my sample size of 1, I found the associated tools and markers to be great for the very limited amount of time they worked. Once I use up the Kaizen foam, I will probably just go back to more conventional foam I can get at my local rubber supplier.

 

[tvtaurus]

Nice job, I wouldn't put too much effort into the metric side of your box though. Very unlikely you'll ever see a metric fastener outside of a Honeywell box.

Yea mostly British Helicopters such as Eurocopter from what I understand.

 

[faiee]

Anyone know where I can get some in the uk? There are one or two suppliers but dont make the sheets big enough to fill a drawer.

 

[BreeStephany]

Made a little more progress on getting my toolbox organized.

View media item 67994Dremel, Mac snap ring plier set, Greenlee hydraulic hole punch set and Mac tap & die set.

View media item 67995Power tool drawer

Milwaukee 28v sawzall, 1/2" impact and flashlight, 12v borescope, micrometer set and Weller variable temperature soldering iron.

 

[Carquest]

Looks nice. What is the Greenlee set used for?

 

[BreeStephany]

Punching holes in sheet metal. The kit as is can punch 1/2" through 2" trade size holes. I can also get square punches, etc. for the set.

View media item 67405
I have used it to punch some pretty thick steel. It makes a REALLY clean hole, unlike hole saws and is great for punching through finished surfaces.

 

[hedgehog]

looks great i can't wait to do mine

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

 

[hedgehog]

Looks nice. What is the Greenlee set used for?

electrical knock out set. it pops holes in sheet metal without drilling.
electricians like them beacuse they dont leave sworth in cabinets

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

 

[M-technik-3]

We had company supplied tools when I was working for Lear-Siegler in Germany. Tool inventory is just as important as inventory control.

Funny but my USAF side of the house part control on heavies is not as stressed. We find hardware throughout the jet. The engine side was different very strict, but that doesn't mean I have not seen enough TF-39 shutdowns over the years.

Nice job on the box, they might make a comment on the pliers and snips. Your tools will all need to be etched most likely as well, I'm sure your employer will give you an indoctrination of the does and don'ts.

 

[BreeStephany]

Nice job on the box, they might make a comment on the pliers and snips. Your tools will all need to be etched most likely as well, I'm sure your employer will give you an indoctrination of the does and don'ts.

Yeah, I realize that the pliers as is may or may not fly with a future employer. All of my tooling is engraved, but I am hoping that a future employer, if they require etching have a laser etcher for inventory control.

I have all of my tooling inventoried and having it shadowed which really helps in keeping track of everything.

I am in the process of filling up all of the open slots in my tool organizers and am hoping to have everything done by the time I get my A&P.

 

[APEowner]

That looks great. I've started doing that for the tool box that I use in the race hauler to keep tools from moving around. It looks great but it's a tedious project and dramatically cuts down on how much you can fit in the drawers.

 

[jhnlngn]

Yeah, I realize that the pliers as is may or may not fly with a future employer. All of my tooling is engraved, but I am hoping that a future employer, if they require etching have a laser etcher for inventory control.

I have all of my tooling inventoried and having it shadowed which really helps in keeping track of everything.

I am in the process of filling up all of the open slots in my tool organizers and am hoping to have everything done by the time I get my A&P.

What thickness of foam did you use? I'd love to do this with some of my tools.

 

[WhiffySpark]

If that's a harbor freight dead blow I would replace it as soon as you can. It won't be fun chasing the shot when it breaks apart