Not sure if many people have seen it but Wolf Tooth have a pretty compact mech hanger straightener, it wouldn't be as accurate as the Park DAG 2.2 but it has worked fine the two times I have used mine and it takes up no room in the box.
custom tool boxes
- Thread starter jonKranked
- Start date
I saw that^ I had to watch a video to figure out how it actually worked. Thought about buying one but to be honest I just carry a spare hanger in my box these days, takes up even less space and I can buy 5 before I would break even with the tool... I’ll usually throw the spare on and fix the other one when I get home. With the new 12 speed stuff I’ve found drivetrains to be even more sensitive to hangers being straight and even with the giant park tool wonder bender hangers are pretty tough to get back to perfect. Cool idea though, wolftooth is making some really cool stuff.
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time to cut foam. Anyone got any tips? I didn’t buy the fancy kaizen knife, thought I’d be alright with an xacto knife?
While I have no experience most foams generally cut reasonably well with a fresh box cutter blade.
Use a heated copper pipe to melt/cut out the finger holes and generally clean stuff up if it gets frayed a little bit. Also a quick pass with a blowtorch will make frayed bits look better.
If you drive a nail (cut off the head after) or glue some thick wire into some sort of wooden handle and heat it up with a blowtorch you got yourself a heatknife that´ll easily and precisely cut through the foam.
There´s some good videos on youtube showing different techniques.
If you drive a nail (cut off the head after) or glue some thick wire into some sort of wooden handle and heat it up with a blowtorch you got yourself a heatknife that´ll easily and precisely cut through the foam.
There´s some good videos on youtube showing different techniques.
Got the foam cut, fun nerdy project, pretty happy with the result. Got a bunch of left over foam so I might cut some for the big box. Was a bit more work than I originally anticipated but should make it easy to see when something walks off.
The knipex I have in the box work up to 40mm size, I’ve used them for my fox 36 but have yet to try them on a 40. I would imagine they still work, honestly the greatest tool ever made. I would recommend the 7.25” size and the next one “up” if you want 2. In all honesty though the 7.25” is the most useful size, not overly large.
Also I kinda screwed up with the cutters as they are labeled “do not cut steel” , which was really the only thing I planned to use them for... I cut some cable housing with them for science and they did alright but I had to run over the blades with a file to get them back. For as often as they will be used I think it’ll be ok, but if I was starting from scratch I would choose a different cutter. I have the park cable cutter in my bigger box and it doesn’t really cut that awesome in my opinion, it’s too easy to get crooked cuts and they’re not that sharp from the factory, ymmv..
Also I kinda screwed up with the cutters as they are labeled “do not cut steel” , which was really the only thing I planned to use them for... I cut some cable housing with them for science and they did alright but I had to run over the blades with a file to get them back. For as often as they will be used I think it’ll be ok, but if I was starting from scratch I would choose a different cutter. I have the park cable cutter in my bigger box and it doesn’t really cut that awesome in my opinion, it’s too easy to get crooked cuts and they’re not that sharp from the factory, ymmv..
They are 7" long, they are great for top caps, although I would suggest getting 10" version, as it gives You more leverege. 7" version might become unhandy with bigger top cap sizes, as the lever arms become uneven.
Started redoing my big toolbox, still got some figuring out to do, but the plier drawer is way, way better. It hasn’t always been that much of a shitshow, but I’ve since bought way too many pairs of pliers
Does anyone know the type of foam most of these guys are using? I keep a roll bag of tools in my jeep but have an old Makita case I'd love to turn into a tool box w/ some slotted foam.
(edit) I'd like for it to be somewhat malleable, not an exact cutout situation. Reality is I'm not trying to take pics of the toolbox. If every tool isnt placed perfectly that ok just something to hold things tight. Hard foam ins a no.
(edit) I'd like for it to be somewhat malleable, not an exact cutout situation. Reality is I'm not trying to take pics of the toolbox. If every tool isnt placed perfectly that ok just something to hold things tight. Hard foam ins a no.
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Pick and pluck foam kind of blows, unless you’re trying to store square objects since it only creates square holes.
This stuff is a little spendy, but it’s super nice
If you live near a large city there’s probably an industrial foam supplier near by, they’ll sell you the same type of foam for next to nothing, it just won’t have the cool colors unless you laminate it yourself
This stuff is a little spendy, but it’s super nice
Kaizen Foam - FastCap
www.fastcap.com
If you live near a large city there’s probably an industrial foam supplier near by, they’ll sell you the same type of foam for next to nothing, it just won’t have the cool colors unless you laminate it yourself
convoluted foam?
FASTCAP Black Kaizen Foam 24 in. x 48 in. x 20 mm FC.KF20.2X4.BL - The Home Depot
FastCap Kaizen Foam is another great product designed to help you achieve maximum organization and visual control in your workspace. Kaizen Foam separates between the layers creating a perfect fit for
www.homedepot.com
This is what I used, it’s sort of the standard tool box foam. There’s other stuff out there as well, but I’m not familiar with it. The kaizen stuff feels like a camping mattress (the cheap blue ones) but is easy to cut.
The 2’x4’ sheet Home Depot sells is plenty to do a box with and you should have enough leftover to fix a screw up or two when cutting it or change a layout if you want to add a tool or whatever. You can get it precut for different boxes from kaizen as well but the cost goes up quite a bit. The sheet was enough to do my small box and have enough left to do 3 layers in my larger box. Haven’t figured that one out yet though
Thanks guys!
fastcap makes a custom cut set for the pelican case i have, but this will probably be cheaper.FASTCAP Black Kaizen Foam 24 in. x 48 in. x 20 mm FC.KF20.2X4.BL - The Home Depot
FastCap Kaizen Foam is another great product designed to help you achieve maximum organization and visual control in your workspace. Kaizen Foam separates between the layers creating a perfect fit forwww.homedepot.com
This is what I used, it’s sort of the standard tool box foam. There’s other stuff out there as well, but I’m not familiar with it. The kaizen stuff feels like a camping mattress (the cheap blue ones) but is easy to cut.
The 2’x4’ sheet Home Depot sells is plenty to do a box with and you should have enough leftover to fix a screw up or two when cutting it or change a layout if you want to add a tool or whatever. You can get it precut for different boxes from kaizen as well but the cost goes up quite a bit. The sheet was enough to do my small box and have enough left to do 3 layers in my larger box. Haven’t figured that one out yet though
^Does your pelican still have the factory foam in it? I used my factory foam as a template and it turned out pretty good. The factory cut stuff has cleaner edges and stuff like that but it’s honestly very easy to cut. The hardest part was The cut outs for the actual tools, I found that cutting the basic outline somewhat shallow and then adding cuts for wider parts (thicker I guess) was the best way to go for a solid fit.
@maxyedor that’s a hell of a plier collection!
@maxyedor that’s a hell of a plier collection!
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Factory no, but it does have some custom pur foam that would serve the same purpose.
Screwed up one dado cut when I flipped the piece on the left of my plier drawer, and ended up with my me weird slot. Managed to move my snap ring pliers into the plier drawer and free up some space for hex keys, but can’t figure out a good way to fit my t handles in.
Started on the screwdriver drawer too, so far I’m pretty happy with how this is working with scraps of birch ply
Started on the screwdriver drawer too, so far I’m pretty happy with how this is working with scraps of birch ply
Could you pop a few holes and run some elastic through them to stop the sprung nips from opening rather than tieing them?
That’s sorta the game plan, just wanted to get the drawer back in the box to free up some workbench space.
if you went full nerd and ran your pliers in order ascending by size (longest ones on bottom maybe) would that give you enough room to nest the t handles in between?
Not even close haha, fucking T handles don't pack together worth a shit, I could throw all my pliers in the trash and the drawer still wouldn't hold the three sets of t handles. Debating selling my current sets and picking up either Beta or the Powerbuilt ones that Gwin's Mech seems to love since they at least seem to nest better and honestly the tool truck brands suck now that I no longer work somewhere the tool trucks stop.
More and more I'm thinking a bigger box is inevitable, just gotta get back to full time at work, dropping a couple grand on box seems like a bit of an irresponsible financial move right now.
Im dyslexic. I was thinking L handles not T handles. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy, more tools, need bigger box, bigger box, need more tools and then one day...
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Jesus, do you tow it around with your E-Bike when you want to move it?
I only own one piece of Snap-On gear and the day I got it I had to take to it with emery to make it tolerable to hold in the hand, never again, sadly the only other battery ratchets are fully Chinese made.
I only own one piece of Snap-On gear and the day I got it I had to take to it with emery to make it tolerable to hold in the hand, never again, sadly the only other battery ratchets are fully Chinese made.
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That is the sickest toolbox ever, do you wrench for Kawasaki? Love the color!
also in new things for the trusty
steed. this lives in the back of the car toolbox. can be used with shim on any of my bikes in a pinch. pull out busted shit post/remote, bolt this up and go. sure, no infinite drop, and it's only 5" max, but it beats nothing! old 27.2mm gravity dropper lp with a thomson remote.
is not new. was on the commuter for a long time. now, the O.G. descender post is on there, freeing up the remote post for backup duty. the O.G. post has had many, many repairs over the years. yet, it keeps kicking!
Snap On is indeed super hit and miss. I own a lot of their tools, and have owned a bunch I thought were complete crap. Finally dumped my Snappy screwdrivers and replaced them with Wera, my old school Craftsman Pros made by Western Forge are still better, but the Wera screwdrivers are still way better than Snap On.
I may be wrong, but I believe the Snap On cordless tools are entirely Chinese, though possibly US assembled like DeWalt. Only Bosch and Festool still manufacture and assemble anything in the west to my knowledge, Bosch obviously does some of their line up in China too. Makita May still have some Japanese manufacturing on the high end as well. Snap On cordless tools are roughly equivalent to Harbor Freight, so you’re definitely not missing out. Seriously, worst cordless tools I’ve ever used, my company provided set sat in a box and I used my personal Makita and
North of $100k for that thing. Those upper drawers usually hold chassis alignment jigs and other stuff you don’t have to see in order to grab. Designed some chassis for a hot rod shop that had easily 3x that size box, nobody could ever figure out how he could afford it. Then the owner ended up being arrested a while later for drug trafficking, and had some sort of connection to the Ex President of Mexico, who now raises horses around here, but we finally figured out how they paid their Snap On bill.is that a 50k toolbox? The drawers on the right side are funny...its like a lifted truck with 38 inch mud tires. How are you going to get anything in or out of it?
Do you design and work on chassis?
Ha, odd, I bought my first Wera product a few months ago, a screwdriver set and I returned them because the tips hadn't been cut straight on two of them. I swapped out as much of Milwaukee gear as I could for Fein, they do motors and plastics in house, they do the heads and possibly brushless motors on Festool grinders.
I just use cheaper Vessel brand screwdrivers now, if I got to see screws that weren't half munted I'd get some Wihas with nice hollow ground slot heads, not many people do hollow ground without insulation. When my current Philips drivers wear out I'll swap to JIS tips so I don't have two sets in my toolbag, again most screws are abused so using JIS won't be an issue.
These are handy, saves me having to have a proper impact driver set rattling around the bottom of my toolbag.
EDIT- Pretty sure our local Snap-On bloke always sold Sun-Flag screwdrivers.
DOUBLE EDIT- Finally ordered some circlip pliers, went with a Gedore 8pce set just because I'm a bit of a tard and different colors for int and ext is a good idea. If they are crap I'll get Knipex and Stahlwille to keep the int/ext color thing going.
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Amazon actually just dropped one of those Vessel impact drivers off this morning. Always wanted one, but haven’t had a real need in the last few years, but will definitely need one for the hinges on my front door so I figured I should pick one up before finishing out my screwdriver drawer organizer.
Forgot Fein and some of the other oddball industrial tools like Mirka. Had too many issues with my Fein multitool, sorta swore them off after that.
May need to change the thread tittle to Custom Toolbox’s and Tool Nerds.
Forgot Fein and some of the other oddball industrial tools like Mirka. Had too many issues with my Fein multitool, sorta swore them off after that.
May need to change the thread tittle to Custom Toolbox’s and Tool Nerds.
Used to do a lot more chassis stuff, both design and fab. I still do a bit as a freelance Solidworks nerd, but mostly just do glorified TV screens for aerospace/defense applications now, but the government spent all their money (on something, not sure what) at the start of Covid and put a hold on all our work, so who knows what I’ll be drawing in the next couple months.
^That thing looks nice, I have no idea why more people don’t use torque wrenches that accept hex bits.
Picked up a set of these, not crazy about them, the flex joint has a bit too much play for my liking and they’re a bit more China-tastic than I’d expect from Bondhus. However I think they’re going to make a useful addition to the box in addition to standard L keys, they’d be perfect for a super compact travel kit.
If I end up liking them, they’re available in torx too, but the set is double the price and comes with mostly large sizes I don’t need.
Picked up a set of these, not crazy about them, the flex joint has a bit too much play for my liking and they’re a bit more China-tastic than I’d expect from Bondhus. However I think they’re going to make a useful addition to the box in addition to standard L keys, they’d be perfect for a super compact travel kit.
If I end up liking them, they’re available in torx too, but the set is double the price and comes with mostly large sizes I don’t need.