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Tool box organization

Alexander

Alexander

Ultra Member
Administrator
Well i am slowly making trays to organize my tools. The main issue is that the build volume is small on my wanhao duplicator i3. The other problem is that printing is really slow. The orange print in the picture took just over 24 hours. I want to buy sheets of plastic and mill these but the price of inch thick plastic sheet is too high.
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Alexander said:
Well i am slowly making trays to organize my tools. The main issue is that the build volume is small on my wanhao duplicator i3. The other problem is that printing is really slow. The orange print in the picture took just over 24 hours. I want to buy sheets of plastic and mill these but the price of inch thick plastic sheet is too high.
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I want the same kind of thing Alex.

Are you printing with supports? Did you print up side down?

What about millling into wood?

Anybody got a Cnc laser and cut into foam? I saw some nice custom tool trays in foam at the maker space where they cut them on their Cnc laser.
 
I was curious about laser cutting foams because similar materials typically have issues diffusing the beam. This YouTube vid suggests specific kinds of foams work. There are other google hits with keywords 'laser cut foam'. Water jetting is another option but I've heard mixed reviews depending on the foam, thickness, density, cell properties?

 
So instead of setting my tools on the bench i set them back in the tray. Any porous material will become dirty and soaked in oil or coolant. I don't want to use foam or wood. I work in a production environment so i don't have the luxury of always keeping things dry and clean. In the home shop wood or foam should be fine.
 
I made this a few years ago. It is useful for somewhere to set the tool for a few min.
 

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Cnc hydrojet looks interesting, i was building one once at work (didn't finish) ive used hot wire and foam (very crude apparatus) with pretty good results but very time consuming and no computers required (I could print a template i suppose)
In commercial roofing we use huge wire foam cutters to create slopes on “flat” surfaces, they have crisp sharp edges
 
For plastic sheets for milling this kind of stuff try dollar store cutting boards. Works for me. I also use their silicone basting brush for chip removal because polyester paint brushes just melt.

Sent from my H3123 using Tapatalk
 
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I’m pretty sure EVA foam floor mats are laserable. It’s closed cell foam and if you seal the edges it won’t be as absorbent. I googled this site
And there seems to be quite a few sealing options.
I’ve never used the foam and have no immediate plans to, but the new library at MRU has a laser that you can get stuff cut on for free.
 
I built a hot wire foam cutter at work for some custom pelican cases.
Not pretty but it works.

Laser or die cut is def cleaner though.

Great idea though. I am finding that the top drawer of my tool cabinet
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under my lathe is constantly being opened and closed with the common lathe tools and it turns into a disorganized mess very quickly.
 
That’s neat. I think I see a 120v dimmer? What voltage and current do you use? Transformer?
 
I had something similar that I used to cut foam for lost foam casting. I used a battery charger and a guitar string. If I remember it ran at 2 or 3 amps. It worked ok but my freehand cutting abilities are pretty poor.
 
Janger said:
That’s neat. I think I see a 120v dimmer? What voltage and current do you use? Transformer?
Click to expand...

This was built a little while ago so we are going off memory. It was using random parts we had kicking around. I think it was 120vac from the wall to the dimmer, then to a 120vac/12vAC transformer. Used the wire they use for coils in those vape things. Full open would prolly see 4-5 amps. The Dimmer would step that down though and help throttle it. BUT, the dimmer was super hard to control. little motion equated to massive change in temperature on the wire. So if we were to rebuild it were would use a different power supply.

The transformer I think we robbed from a multibank charging unit for some instrumentation we sell here at my office.
 
Johnwa said:
I had something similar that I used to cut foam for lost foam casting. I used a battery charger and a guitar string. If I remember it ran at 2 or 3 amps. It worked ok but my freehand cutting abilities are pretty poor.
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YES!!
The foam cutter works well.
The free hand cutting is what screws things up.
Requires skill and a steady hand.
 
Johnwa said:
I had something similar that I used to cut foam for lost foam casting. I used a battery charger and a guitar string. If I remember it ran at 2 or 3 amps. It worked ok but my freehand cutting abilities are pretty poor.
Click to expand...

Tried guitar string but we were cutting some very dense foam and needed to have the heat stupid high. The guitar string would melt at a lower temp. The Vape wire can handle higher temps.
 
This place shows some good schematics & offers the better (nichrome) wire & has an online calculator which is quite accurate. You might still be able to get small quantities of thin gauge nichrome wire at the hobby shop, I recall like 6 ft length or so.
https://jacobs-online.biz/power_supply_design.htm

Polystyrene (white extruded bead) foam and pink/blue (foamular & other trade names) isn't too bad fumes wise but you have to be careful around many other kinds of foams, particularly polyurethane. Its a good idea to have a bit of adjustable spring tension on the wire to allow for thermal expansion & keep the wire straight if accuracy is important. I've only cut a bajillion RC airplane flying surfaces using hot wire methods LOL
 
I used guitar strings and a computer power controller, i used the 12v system and found i could adjust the heat by moving the power contacts closer together, and as posted above the wire melts or in most my cases becomes brittle and fails under stress.
 
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