Socket Foam - Most Space Efficient?

[Pinne]

I'm looking for the most space efficient method of storing my sockets. As much as I like Snap-on's magnetic holders, they leave too much free space. I don't love traditional socket rails, find them annoying. Could go the VIM Mag Rail route...but maybe there is something else.

Snap-on's foam organizers actually seem pretty space efficient, but they also include sizes I have no need for (I don't want 4mm sockets or abnormally tiny 3/8 sockets) so you still end up with wasted space.

Is there a foam maker or customizer that makes something space efficient that isn't Snap-on priced? Appreciate any pointers!

 

[Toold_up]

Snap-on's foam organizers actually seem pretty space efficient, but they also include sizes I have no need for (I don't want 4mm sockets or abnormally tiny 3/8 sockets) so you still end up with wasted space.

Is there a foam maker or customizer that makes something space efficient that isn't Snap-on priced? Appreciate any pointers!

I think you can cut the foam with scissors and remove the really tiny socket cut outs. Then you can put whatever you want in the void.

 

[mp23]

Kaizan foam is layered and works good. Nor exactly cheap but you can cut to the exact depth. You have to do the cutting and labels yourself though

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

Just so you can look into it, as far as I know these guys do the Snap-On foam: https://www.toolbed.com/en

They are pretty much the, or one of the OG, foam organizer manufacturers and were also the, or one of, the first to offer a browser based tool for designing your own foam organizer. They have the whole Snap-On catalog in their database so making foam organizers is dead easy. (Along all the other options they offer for designing & making organizers …)

When I got my Snap-on box over ten years ago, I designed organizers with their tool and wanted to purchase them/ kit out my box, I had all my designs ready. Well, in the end I went a completely different route and I’m both “sad” to not have these great organizers and “happy” I didn’t spent the $$$ on them as they would be sacked, wrapped and in storage now that I utilize my stuff in a very different way from what I originally thought. That is just to explain why I never made the purchase.

Making a socket organizer with them would be very simple and fully customizable.


Kind regards,
Olli

 

[Pinne]

@Nobody-named-Olli Thank you, thats super helpful and I'll check them out.

 

[ecotec]

I would like to see something like what Foamfit organizers manufactures for Snap-on sets… but without the SAE and with the least amount of space between sockets .

Maybe for 1/4” 4-15mm shallow, semi-deep, and deep. 3/8” 6-19or20mm shallow, semi-deep and deep. 1/2” 10-27mm shallow and deep. 1/2” impact 10-36mm shallow and deep…

Maybe foam for individual bit socket sets (Allen, Torx, E-Torx, XZN) and maybe a foam for the BluePoint 87pc bit socket set.

I think that foam organizers would sell really well, especially if they were durable and priced well.

 

[Firebrick43]

You are not going to get the density of sockets with foam and maintain the structural integrity of the foam compared to a good socket rail system like olsa, tekton, or VIM socket rail systems.

If you place the sockets close enough to even come close to the same density it will have no strength left as the walls were too thin. Then deep sockets worked well stored vertically but shallow sockets did not.

I used foam for years it for years working on aircraft and at one jobs and was very good at making it. It was great for seeing missing tools, and if you had a moderate number of tools or less it was pretty good system if the work was consistent. But it was terrible for when you bought that new tool and now had to figure out what to do with it and it sucked at storage density.

 

[Pinne]

You are not going to get the density of sockets with foam and maintain the structural integrity of the foam compared to a good socket rail system like olsa, tekton, or VIM socket rail systems.

If you place the sockets close enough to even come close to the same density it will have no strength left as the walls were too thin. Then deep sockets worked well stored vertically but shallow sockets did not.

I used foam for years it for years working on aircraft and at one jobs and was very good at making it. It was great for seeing missing tools, and if you had a moderate number of tools or less it was pretty good system if the work was consistent. But it was terrible for when you bought that new tool and now had to figure out what to do with it and it sucked at storage density.

The Snap-on foam organizers for sockets aren't very different in terms of space efficiency than the Tekton or Olsa rails - possibly a bit better than the Tekton. VIM is definitely more efficient - and was what I was leaning towards but curious if I can get foam configured how I'd like it.

Here's a photo and the corresponding eBay listing for the 1/4 and 3/8 sets in foam (at a wild price): https://www.ebay.com/itm/126298218493

 

[Grant Gunderson]

When I did mine I used Tool Bed. They are in Germany but ship to the us. They have damn near every Snapon item in their database plus Knipex, etc so you just add the tool to your layout and position it anywhere you’d like. It’s held up great to daily use for almost 10 years now. That being said I’m religious about putting tools away clean. All of my drawers were done with foam and I used to think it was the best system out there despite needing to redo it when adding more tools.



I did a set of custom ones for my drifts etc too.

If your going with foam I’d highly recommend them. Holds up way better than kaizen foam and since you don’t have to manually design the layouts it’s a lot faster / easier than other providers. Plus you design it to fit your drawers. No need to play Tetris with premade ones like Snapon that may or may not fit your drawer layouts. In my case I have Lista cabinets so more room then most Snapon drawers.

My only issue is I keep buying tools (despite having damn near every Snapon socket). I had what I thought was a mature tool set with everything I could imagine, but the damn bike industry keeps inventing new “standards” so I’m constantly buying more dedicated tooling. It never ends.

So I’m now using gridfinity going forward.

Each tool gets it own cube so completely customizable and easy to expand when I add more tools. Plus PETG will hold up well to oils etc. you can increase tool density by adding multiple tools to each cube too. The downside to gridfinity is design time (could use countless premade designs) and print time. I have a 100 hours of print time so far in just 1 drawer. Granted it’s doing it in the background while I do other work

With opening my new shop I’m also going to have the need to expand / move setups around as I build dedicated work stations so when I add duplicate tools I’ll just print another gridfinity insert for it.

When you factor in the cost of the printer plus filament custom foam is a lot cheaper if you’re just doing 1 tool box. I have a few hundred drawers to do so gridfinity made sense for me but I really need to add a second printer to speed up production times.

 

[e015475]

I sent FoamFit a spreadsheet with all my sockets' diameters and they made this for me. It is about 10 years old and has stood up well to occasional garage shop use, but I agree with concerns about how it would hold up in a production shop.

I have about 25 drawers foamed at this writing and this is the one from FoamFitTools is the only commercial one I have

For the other 24 drawers, I made vector drawings in Inkscape from iphone photos taken with a cheap LED photobox light for all my tools and saved the vector files. When I get new tools or want to change something in the drawers, I pull up the file and modify it for the new tool. I need at least a couple of drawers that need modifying to pay the $25 minimum fee at the print shop that has a laser bed cutter, but once the initial digitization is done, modifying a drawer is pretty straight-forward

I've done enough of these now where I could have justified the purchase of an Amazon laser - I still might. Gridfinity looks very tempting too

 

[Firebrick43]

The Snap-on foam organizers for sockets aren't very different in terms of space efficiency than the Tekton or Olsa rails - possibly a bit better than the Tekton. VIM is definitely more efficient - and was what I was leaning towards but curious if I can get foam configured how I'd like it.

Here's a photo and the corresponding eBay listing for the 1/4 and 3/8 sets in foam (at a wild price): https://www.ebay.com/itm/126298218493

My experience is that the thin spaces between sockets will fail. @Grant Gunderson and and @e015475 examples have far less density and more support as a result and in my experience will survive much better.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

My experience is that the thin spaces between sockets will fail. @Grant Gunderson and and @e015475 examples have far less density and more support as a result and in my experience will survive much better.

I have done some that had way higher tool density, but that resulted in two problems, the foam didnt have enough support and eventually broke, but more importantly, it wasn't very ergonomic. Tools placed too close together can be a real ***** to get in and out. A bit of separation is needed. Thats why I went with used Lisata / vidmar / Equipto cabinets, for less than the cost of 1 new Snapon box, I have 20+ cabinets with over 200 drawers. So plenty of space. Plus they are built 10X better than anything snapon makes.

Personally, over the years Ive found being able to quickly find the correct tool is far more important to me then storage density, and id rather be efficient then cram a bunch of tools into one drawer.

 

[M.Jay]

Just so you can look into it, as far as I know these guys do the Snap-On foam: https://www.toolbed.com/en

There is also Tecsafe. https://tecsafe.de/en/foam-configurator

Their configurator is awesome and the ability to import tools via camera photo is an absolute killer feature because you don't have to rely on a internal database.

 

[AEAdam]

I think there are ample opportunities for GJ to design and 3D print socket set holders that make sense. I feel we are almost victimized by the lack of better socket storage.

 

[mikegt4]

I think there are ample opportunities for GJ to design and 3D print socket set holders that make sense. I feel we are almost victimized by the lack of better socket storage.

There are a million 3D models for socket storage out there. Printables, Thingiverse, Makerworld, Creality Cloud, 3Drop and many other sources.

 

[AEAdam]

There are a million 3D models for socket storage out there. Printables, Thingiverse, Makerworld, Creality Cloud, 3Drop and many other sources.

I never hear about them here. Who has 3d printed socket holders they love?

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Just so you can look into it, as far as I know these guys do the Snap-On foam: https://www.toolbed.com/en

They are pretty much the, or one of the OG, foam organizer manufacturers and were also the, or one of, the first to offer a browser based tool for designing your own foam organizer. They have the whole Snap-On catalog in their database so making foam organizers is dead easy. (Along all the other options they offer for designing & making organizers …)

When I got my Snap-on box over ten years ago, I designed organizers with their tool and wanted to purchase them/ kit out my box, I had all my designs ready. Well, in the end I went a completely different route and I’m both “sad” to not have these great organizers and “happy” I didn’t spent the $$$ on them as they would be sacked, wrapped and in storage now that I utilize my stuff in a very different way from what I originally thought. That is just to explain why I never made the purchase.

Making a socket organizer with them would be very simple and fully customizable.


Kind regards,
Olli

That’s exactly who I used. I highly recommend them. Wish someone would scan all of the tools they had so I could use those for doing gridfinity. Haven’t found any good Snapon gridfinity sets I like yet.

 

[drokihazan]

I'm of the opinion that foam is almost never the most space efficient option. I have it in a few places because it looks cool, but my toolbox is about 50% toolgrid and it makes a massive difference in organizing

 

[merkyworks]

Foam is too much work to cut out and if you need to reorganize to accommodate a new tool you better have planned ahead or get to redo everything on a new sheet of foam.

Most efficient use of space has to be toolgrid in my opinion, plus you have the flexibility to change the layout down the road without little to no cost. Also if you have a 3D printer you can print your entire toolgrid system yourself. This is my home game setup and its entirely 3D printed. If you don’t have a 3D printer, get one cause it is by far the best tool for creating organization in a toolbox.

 

[AEAdam]

Is anyone using LEGO as the base? and 3d printing tool specific parts to mate with that?

 

[Firebrick43]

Is anyone using LEGO as the base? and 3d printing tool specific parts to mate with that?

3D printer legos is hard. The fit has to be just right and is hard to accomplish.

 

[AEAdam]

3D printer legos is hard. The fit has to be just right and is hard to accomplish.

Not pushing the lego idea - I wonder if you could epoxy 3D prints on to the flat 2X6 LEGO plates and use them to connect to a base. You could probably build a decent number of holders (thinking extensions, ratchets) out of LEGO straight up. I'd be shocked if someone hasn't already done this.

 

[Toold_up]

Legos are fuggin expensive, and the knock off brands are no where near the quality of name brand Legos.

I imagine you could do a lot with wood/plastic stock. Couple of dowels and some drills and Bob's your uncle!

 

[Firebrick43]

Not pushing the lego idea - I wonder if you could epoxy 3D prints on to the flat 2X6 LEGO plates and use them to connect to a base. You could probably build a decent number of holders (thinking extensions, ratchets) out of LEGO straight up. I'd be shocked if someone hasn't already done this.

That sounds like it would work decent. A search of “Lego based tool storage” brings up people using large tool boxes to sort and store their blocks for their hobby

I am have been printing a large amount of gridfinity and mostly like it, even if it’s inventor has mental issues

 

[JradM]

Foam is great to work out of - if you have the toolbox space.

Space-efficiency just isn't the reason to use it. It's for quick retrieval/replacement and identifying missing tools. If density is your goal, there are simply much better ways to achieve it.

I oscillate myself on what organization strategy to use. Sometimes density is actually helpful since you don't need to navigate as many tool boxes or drawers. On the other hand, you can store way more wrenches on edge than you can laid flat - but it's harder to find a specific size.

Foam is great though - just not for density. E.g. in your example photo, do you want your sockets vertical without visible size markings?

 

[AEAdam]

Foam is great to work out of - if you have the toolbox space.

Space-efficiency just isn't the reason to use it. It's for quick retrieval/replacement and identifying missing tools. If density is your goal, there are simply much better ways to achieve it.

I oscillate myself on what organization strategy to use. Sometimes density is actually helpful since you don't need to navigate as many tool boxes or drawers. On the other hand, you can store way more wrenches on edge than you can laid flat - but it's harder to find a specific size.

Foam is great though - just not for density. E.g. in your example photo, do you want your sockets vertical without visible size markings?

Agree. I feel like there is not one slam dunk approach. I like the plastic trays Snap on extensions come in. I think foam would be better for ratchets. I have the unmarked vertical socket trays in my main box, and the horizontal marked trays in my roll cart. I like the marked trays.

When I'm working away from my garage, I love mechanics time savers. I like the ones that are size marked better, especially for SAE sockets. What I would like would be a one piece magnetic holder with sockets, a couple extensions, and a place for a ratchet.

 

[Pinne]

Foam is great to work out of - if you have the toolbox space.

Space-efficiency just isn't the reason to use it. It's for quick retrieval/replacement and identifying missing tools. If density is your goal, there are simply much better ways to achieve it.

I oscillate myself on what organization strategy to use. Sometimes density is actually helpful since you don't need to navigate as many tool boxes or drawers. On the other hand, you can store way more wrenches on edge than you can laid flat - but it's harder to find a specific size.

Foam is great though - just not for density. E.g. in your example photo, do you want your sockets vertical without visible size markings?

What I'm looking for is a combo of density and quick retrieval. Foam seems like the best blend between these two goals. I know I could cram everything in super tight (which is what I have now) but it's a pain to find everything and put it back.

Vertically stored sockets make sense to me if it's easy to spot missing ones (and Snap-on marks theirs which would also be important).

I may look into the Gridfinity setup others have posted. Perhaps with some labeling that could work nicely. If printing it, I imagine there is a way to do to multicolor - black organizers with orange beneath to indicate an empty space like foam does.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

What I'm looking for is a combo of density and quick retrieval. Foam seems like the best blend between these two goals. I know I could cram everything in super tight (which is what I have now) but it's a pain to find everything and put it back.

Vertically stored sockets make sense to me if it's easy to spot missing ones (and Snap-on marks theirs which would also be important).

I may look into the Gridfinity setup others have posted. Perhaps with some labeling that could work nicely. If printing it, I imagine there is a way to do to multicolor - black organizers with orange beneath to indicate an empty space like foam does.

Thats EXACTLY what I have been doing. I have an H2C so large bed and multiple nozzles and it still is a slow process but it works in the background. Figure at least a week per drawer of print time.

 

[kbeefy]

Love my VIM magrails. Too bad they got so expensive. I have enough extra socket sets to justify buying another set, but my bank account doesn't.

 

[Dig Doug]

I like the Olsa 3 row socket holder
it’s fits chrome and impact sockets

@Olsa Tools you need to get the green in the metric sizes

 

[mikegt4]

For those without a 3D printer this guy sells pre-printed tool storage pieces.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/lousbrews

 

[Wamsutta]

What we used to do in the Navy is use EPDM closed cell foam.

We'd trace around the tool using an ink pen.

Then we'd cut the silhouette out using a Dremel carving bit.

The carving bit cuts the sides and the bottom at the same time.

We'd use the carving bit straight up and down perpendicular to the surface.

We'd set the depth by submerging the hight of the carving bit into the foam.

The speed of the Dremel was spinning full bore at 30,000 RPM.

The foam would turn into a very fine black dust.

We'd blow the silhouette out every once in a while with an air gun to check our progress.

We'd trace around a nickel next to the silhouette to cut out a place to grab the tool with your fingers.

The end result was a very precise silhouette that looked like it was cut by a CNC water jet machine.

 

[Krad]

I see every ones post on custom foam, the company U.S. foam & Etch provide custom cut foam. www.usfoamandetch.com we have drawing data base that has lots of tools in our system. Snap on, Matco, mac, and others,