Home > My Land Rover Blog > Shadow Foam review and toolbox cutting experiences
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I have a Halfords tool chest, which has been great for organising all my tools, except that I use the top drawer a lot and I was spending quite a lot of time when doing mechanical work trying to find the correct socket or spanner - like 10 seconds for every tool, which starts to add up. I wanted to organise my tools a bit better so I could go to the exact place where I knew the 13mm socket would be without having to hunt for it.
The video on this page is my story of learning how to cut Shadow Foam. I hadn't done this kind of crafty work before and I realised my experience with a scalpel was limited to cutting models of out sprues. I discovered that Shadow Foam is easy to cut when you have a really sharp blade and that blade has a flat handle. When you have these two things, you can cut the Shadow Foam accurately and like a hot knife through butter.
I did find that the blade got dulled after a while, so having a stock of sharp blades will help keep things neat when cutting Shadow Foam.
From deciding that I wanted to foam my toolbox and actually buying Shadow Foam was about 6 months. Originally, I thought it was too expensive for what was just a piece of glorified foam. But I came to realise that (at least in the UK) there weren't many Shadow Foam alternatives available. Shadow Foam itself is specifically designed to allow easy cutting and holding of tools, so ultimately I decided to buy a single sheet and give it a go.
I'm very pleased with the results. A single sheet fits well in the top drawer of my tool chest. The foam holds the tools nicely and really neatens the top drawer. I don't think I would do the entire toolbox, as it'll get really expensive and the other drawers are mostly larger tools that are easy to find.
However, for the top drawer that holds lots of fiddly tools that I need quick access to, it has really made a difference. It was money well spent!
