When it comes to being organized, it’s hard to beat Kaizen Foam for giving your tools a dedicated home. Kaizen foam is easier to cut and customize than traditional tool foam sheets, but it can still be difficult to do a great job.
FastCap is a company that never stops innovating, and they have come out with a few new tools that might make working with Kaizen foam even easier.
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There are two new tools, a Kaizen Foam Scraper that helps smooth cutouts, and a Kaizen Knife Sled that helps with making straight cuts.
Kaizen Foam Scraper
The Kaizen Foam Scraper make it quick and easy to level out a cutout after you’ve peeled back the foam layers. The super-thin blade allows you to work in small or large tool cutouts, just grab the Scraper and flatten the bottom!
Although it’s called a scraper, the tool works more like a shaver, eliminating high spots to create a flat and even recess.
Price: $9.95
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Kaizen Foam Knife Sled
The Knife Sled holds a snap-blade utility knife perpendicular to the foam, allowing you to cut the foam at the perfect angle. It holds the knife at a fixed angle but also a fixed depth.
Sure, you don’t need something like this, but making the same cut freehand requires you to hold the utility knife at consistent angles in two directions and at a consistent cutting depth, and you have to maintain control throughout the cut.
Price: $12.50
Although it might work with other utility knives, the sled is specifically designed for Fastcap’s TriBlade utility knife.
Price: $3.63
Kaizen Foam Hot Knife
The Kaizen Foam Hot Knife isn’t a new product, but it’s a versatile Kaizen foam customization tool that’s worth mentioning here.
The hot knife allows you melt the foam to either smooth out a cutout, or to add a nice round finger hold to leverage out tools.
Price: $32.99
Thoughts
I have owned the FastCap hot knife for a while, and when used carefully it certainly adds a better finish to cutouts. Despite Kaizen foam being made of laminated layers of foam, I still find it hard to get a perfectly smooth cutout. It’s particular good at creating thumb sized holes for leveraging out tools. It’s a messy and smelly tool to use, but it does the job effectively.
The scraper looks to be an easier way of smoothing cutouts, and I think it might even replace the use of the hot knife for larger cut outs.
Based on my experience, cutting out sections with a nice perpendicular cut can be a challenge. I normally use a ruler and a knife and whilst the top of the cut is clean, doing this cleanly throughout the full cutting depth is tricky. The sled is a nice and simple solution for that task.
What I like most about the sled is the backstory; it was invented by a FastCap customer who worked with them to bring it to market. In return, they pay out a royalty of 2-5%. It’s a win-win for everyone!
Stuart’s Note: FastCap has a number of other of tools that were developed by independent users and inventors like this!
I purchased both the scraper and the sled and plan to put them through their paces getting my NWS pliers set organized.
Jared
As someone persnickety enough to organize tools in individual foam cutouts, I can immediately recognize the utility of that knife sled.
I haven’t tried using the Kaizen foam (balking at the price), but I could have used it when making my homemade version of a foam camping mat spray-adhesive glued to a thick rubber tool drawer liner. My version came out looking and working great, but it was highly tedious and does not allow for tools to be stored at different heights (except by adding a whole extra lawyer of camping foam).
Ben, you must have more storage room than you know what to do with to be keeping your pliers organized that way. I have a rack that keeps the pliers lined up on their edges and can therefore fit like four times as many pliers in a drawer.
Anson
1. Buy the material as a thin layer, cut and stack pieces until you have the depth you want, lightly clamp a frame around them (a pair of 1×3 boards typically), then cut. We cut the shallowest layer first then keep adding layers until done. We use a can of 3M spray adhesive to hold the layers together. It dries hard and does not remelt.
2. If you want a tool buy an electric carving knife. Once you get past about an inch that box cutter is not going to stay straight, period, it walks even when clamped. We made a similar tool with a worn out push block and a piece of 2×4 routed to hold the box cutter, we found out that my hand was steady it was the box cutter blade that was walking.
What we’ve learned is to buy a thickness of foam to make the cutouts in (typically 1 inch) and then glue it to a stiff backer (1/4″ high density) to put in the drawer or move it. A typical 11×14 tray runs $1-3 including the cost of the spray adhesive.
note: For very thin walls we use alene’s tacky glue to hold it to the backer.
Ben V
There’s a bit of poetic license with the photo, but I do also have a ton of draw space!
https://toolguyd.com/building-tool-cabinet-drawers-journey-to-an-organized-workshop-part-4/
I specifically have 2″ drawers for pliers and other hands tools. Unfortunately I also wanted to use them for screwdrives but they need another 1/2″ more height.
Matt F
I wonder how it does with rigid foam board like polyiso and EPS foam?
A version that fits to festool/makita tracks would be even better.
Ben V
It wouldn’t be too hard to attach it to the outside t-track of track saw guide.
That’s provide even more reliable cuts!
That said I’ve seen people cutting foam with a track saw 🙂
MattF
I have a been doing an insulation project that require a cutting a lot of polyiso foam board. I’ve cut about 3000 linear ft. with a Makita track saw so far.
Nathan
I was going to say I think Bosch has a jigsaw blade specific for it too – sort of a wavy knife blade.
Frank D
I got my first two kaizen foam insert blocks over the summer.
While there may be a bit of an art to it, separating those layers is not as seen on tv. The layers do not separate and glue holds together very strong, so there has yet to been cleanly pulling out a cutout tool shape. It is all just bit and pieces coming out, despite having viewed the videos, etc.
I had done some trials and layout sampling by staking five layers of individual sheets of foam and had a much easier time.
Pretty frustrating for the price paid.
Joseph
Dig that finger in there, you aren’t trying to separate at the glue line, rather between them. I found the further I get with it, the easier it gets, and I still want to go back and redo that first drawer I made.
Frank D
I hear you. I completely understand the glue holds better than the foam. Just can’t seem to manage to get large clean chunks, let alone a tool shape outline out. I’m doing my first case for 12v tools. The foam is six layers deep or so. Trying to cut a layer or two at a time, tapering for a nice fit, cut is fine … and … it is very frustrating so see the uneven results …
Maybe that’s where smoothing comes in?
Jared
Does anyone sell just a soldering iron tip like the end of the hot knife? It reminds me of my Tread Doctor/ Knobby Knife in that it’s just a soldering iron with a big specialty tip. Made me wonder if there were other tips I could use to make that tool do the same thing.
Charles
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Weller-Electric-15-Piece-Wood-Burning-Kit/3402984
the kaisan hot knife is a rebranded Weller unit that you can grab at Lowe’s for almost half the cost . . . I would imagine that the tips would be available separately somewhere online.
Ben V
Yes I forgot to mention that I had seen the hot knife with other branding. I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to find that brass button attachment separately.
Ben
Jared
Nice find. I tried searching on amazon for tips like that without much success. There are big brass tips in various shapes that would probably do the same thing, but nothing I could find was quite the same.
I wouldn’t have thought of it without seeing the Kaizen knife, but I might just try using my Tread Doctor to see how well that works. It’s got a big wide chisel tip and no heat control, but I’m wondering if I could get a similar effect my holding it on a 45 degree angle and dragging it across the foam.
Adabhael
These look handy, but insufficient for my OCD: I use a hybrid of methods I discovered in prior posts here, and it is slow but satisfying. I do the layout in CAD, and laser-cut a template in solid carboard. I use that template to help cut the top layer of foam with an xacto knife (#11 blade) and peel that out one layer and save it. Then I use a Dremel with a router base and a spiral bit following the inside of the template to cut the other layers of foam. used carefully this stays perpendicular to the surface, and allows me to keep a consistent depth of cut). I peel out the rest of the foam without worrying about being messy, because I finish by gluing the cutout top layer down in the bottom. Because the top layer was cut with a knife, it fills the entire cavity. The spiral bit leaves a nice smooth edge on the foam sides, and I don’t have to worry about a messy bottom, because the top part covers it. This method is particularly annoying for multi-level (variable depth) cutouts, but doable. You could also cut the piece for the bottom out of a different color, to enhance the shadow board effect.
Ben V
Lol, I’m glad I’m not the only one 🙂
I have been contemplating a similar approach but using my Shapeoko CNC to cut out the insert!
My biggest hesitation was getting the design right. Then I saw a video of a guy using his touchscreen laptop to trace each tool into the CAD software.
One day I’ll go down this rabbit hole!
The What?
Well what happens when you start throwing a bunch of other sht in the drawer like most people do? That’s what I had to do. I did a whole bunch of foam sheets for all the sht I thought I was going to organize. Then I started not giving a sht if it went in the cutout. Then I started throwing more and more stuff in the drawers. Then I realized that it was a complete waste of time. Don’t worry it’ll happen to you as well. There’s a much easier way of cutting out shapes besides shaving it or any sort of cutting. All you need is a soldering iron and some tips & small hose clamp. Set the depth with the hose clamp to take out the large proportion and remove the tip. Outline your shape with a marker and do it to it. Cutting or trying to shave that sht is a pita. I tried it. It always leaves foam furs and it’s never evenly shaped. If you want to cut it straight to fit in a drawer all you need is a straight edge a marker and pair of shears. If you can’t cut the line you drew then I don’t know what to tell you.
Jared
I thought long and hard about my foam cutout plans before I committed to them. My strategy was to leave extra room where I might want to add more tools. So one of my drawers for example, is for ratchets. I bunched all my ratchets as close together as I could while still being able to pry them out without a struggle, but left enough space that I could add another 3-4 in the future.
I also though, have more than one tool box. The second part of my plan is keeping irregularly used tools (that I still want to keep) in that tool box so my perfectly organized foam-cutout box stays pristine. That way when I’m working, I am usually using only my exceptionally well-organized main tool box.
Kilroy
I’m very much an amateur woodworker, but I’ve been very impressed with the handful of FastCap tools that I have used. As a rule, they have been great tools at reasonable prices.
Even for the FastCap tools that aren’t relevant to my needs, I appreciate the fact that FastCap differentiates their tools based (mostly) on true innovation. They seem to come out with tools created by/for end users that solve genuine problems, instead of the “me too” copycat tools driven by big brands’ marketing teams that could be any number of brands if the color and logo were different.
I also appreciate the fact that FastCap isn’t afraid to come out with “long tail” tools that may not have the biggest market potential, but that are very useful for those who truly need them. In this regard they are similar to some of the tools that Lee Valley designs and sells.
Nathan
That knife sled has my attention. it’s useful for other things.
cardboard cutting – change the blade depth – same function – smoother running against a straight edge.
etc
ktash
I don’t use kaizen foam, but like the looks of the knife sled. Might be useful for making knife cuts with a shorter, retracted blade. I’m cutting (ripping) some veneer edging currently and thinking it might make that go quicker. currently using a straight edge and olfa knife. I also like the looks of Fastcap’s Izzy guide ruler and mouse with blade. Trouble is, it’s too expensive to justify cost for the few times I’d use it.
ktash
I’m not always crazy about the Fast Cap products, too specialized for my uses. A big exception are their “upper hand”, “little hand” etc system. This is well worth the money if you are hanging cabinets, but also for many other uses in the shop. Superior to the other systems out there that I’ve seen.