You can do almost anything with a Pelican...

January 23, 2010 6:19 AM

Pelican-question: I need to transport some heavy equipment in medium-sized Pelican cases. The default soft gray pick-and-pluck foam is too soft and compressible for this purpose. I'm looking for a source to buy sheets or blocks of a very dense black foam that can be cut to my custom shapes with a hot wire knife.

I have a Pelican 1610 case which needs to hold two relatively heavy sealed (absorbent glass mat) type voltage regulated lead acid batteries, in addition to a cavity for other equipment. The stock pick and pluck foam that comes in 3 layers in a new Pelican case is ideal for protecting things like laptops, cameras, telescopes etc but it is too compressible for this application.

I am not sure how to properly describe this stuff, some of you may have seen it used for packaging heavy but somewhat fragile electronics. It's a dark grey or black color and comes in sheets or blocks, but is about twice to three times as dense as the Pelican foam. It is not quite as dense as the cheap white flaky foam that is used to pack LCD monitors and TVs in their cardboard cartons.

I'd like to buy big chunks of it or sheets. With a hot wire knife and glue I will create my own custom equipment-shaped foam to hold everything securely in the Pelican.

posted by thewalrus to Technology (3 answers total)

Whitewater canoe and kayak stores usually stock this stuff for people to outfit their boats (and not like REI, but the specialty ones). This might be the kind of thing you want.

FWIW, folks who carry cameras in their kayaks often use Pelican cases with this minicell foam.
posted by bluedaisy at 6:47 AM on January 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

Have you considered something like this the Instapak expanding foam? They make a version for heavy items. There's a PDF guide on the site which will let you calculate whether or not it is strong enough for your items. Plus, it's in a bag, so no crumbling or mess.
posted by cabingirl at 11:08 AM on January 23, 2010

not exactly what you are looking for, but you can cut the blue sheets of house insulation foam from home depot with a hot wire knife, and they are cheap as dirt
posted by kenbennedy at 9:22 AM on January 25, 2010