Inlaid Pliers

I suppose working in the aerospace industry has gotten the better of me, but I really like inlaid toolboxes. You know if you leave a tool out and when you're working with an assistant, he should be able to find the tool you need quickly. Unless it's my dad, then it's "where's the pliers?" "In the drawer marked pliers, Dad."

So anyway here's my pliers drawer inlay made from a anti-fatigue mat years ago, sized for a smaller box, and not ready for the new pliers I got for Christmas.


This time I have real two color toolbox foam. This stuff is high density and hard to cut, but I think I figured it out.


I have a jigsaw and knife blade.


I have to cut the foam to fill the drawer first.

The knife blade made quick work of that.

Now to lay out the inlay. Of course everything won't fit, so I get everything I use the most in and I'll figure out a spot for the rest later. (I think I need to upgrade from the 41inch box to the 54inch box and luckily the drawers are the same size and this inlay will work in it.)

I used the old inlay piece to trace out pattern on the new piece of foam.

Knife blade and the jigsaw worked flawlessly.

Like a glove...

Now to get rid of the red part.

This has ER visit written all over it.

Seemed to work though.

Okay mark the rest.

The knife blade was great for the cut outs, but splitting the colors was a total hack job. If I had an electric filet knife I would have tried it. I looked for my coping saw, but couldn't find it. So I used this little pull saw and it working perfectly.

Keep doing it until your done.

So if you're in my garage and need pliers, they're in the plier drawer. The extra long pliers are in a different drawer though TBD.