Qbrick System PRO Toolcase foam inlay (WHL #113)
Back after a short training week for work in Köln, and some additional 2000km all over the Ruhr area, the Netherlands, and some B-roads in Belgium. While I prepared videos for my Beach Buggy channel, I simply was too lazy to do the same here, oops 
Today’s post is about a small box from the Qbrick system (https://www.qbricksystem.com), specifically the toolcase from their “Pro” lineup. We have one of their larger boxes at work for 3D printer filament storage under low-humidity conditions, as recommended by a coworker. The large boxes are really sturdy, and, if one has the space, are genuinely worth their price. I think we got the One 450 Vario 2.0 because we couldn’t get one of the red ones through our established suppliers, which has like 50 liters of usable volume in a box sized 90 liters, for around 65€ delivered with VAT. Reeks of plastic for a week, fine afterwards – the red ones apparently don’t do that. For reference, Pelicases and other high-end vendor products of the same size and toughness of construction are like 5, 6, 8 times more expensive.
I got intrigued and ordered two small cases for myself, one Pro Technician cases, and one Pro toolcase, for tool storage. The series and naming details, plus which ones can be had as red and which ones are only available in recycling-black plastic versions is terribly documented on their website. In the end I asked ChatGPT to list all Qbrick boxes of a specific size (plus other manufacturers), verified the claims myself, and came to a purchase decision. Just browsing their crappy website wouldn’t have done the job for me. Plus every so often (and always when viewing in the 3D configurator) the website switches to Polish, which isn’t terribly helpful either. The Pro Technician was 18.95€, the Toolcase was 14.99€, from a German hardware store (online shop), plus a reasonable shipping fee.
Shout-out to their friends over at Really Useful Boxes in the UK, who unfortunately don’t make boxes and cases with water/air tight seals, but have sold dozens of products to me over the years simply because they have a complete list of their product sizes (inside and outside!) on their web page, copyable (for some Excel sorting magic), and with corresponding photos. That’s REALLY useful, period.
Anyway, back to the Qbrick ones. The Pro Technician one is as expected – a lot of space is taken out of the inside volume due to the massive handle, but I knew that from our box at work. Otherwise, the thing is empty and only has a couple of stickers that are easy to remove (the QC label isn’t, but all the stupid marketing BS is).
(not yet sure what to do with the removable tray, though)
The Pro toolcase however is shipped with foam attached on both sides, and this is where I got angry: It’s neither cut to small squares for easy sizing to items, nor is it removable in order to cut it to size on a desk. But it is placed on two glue strips each, which DO NOT FUCKING LET GO. Plus these are only available in recycling black, so they reek and I would have liked to give them a quick rinse with hot water, which only grows mold on the foam part anyway. And lastly, the foam isn’t ESD-compliant and totally attracts every speck of dust electrostatically, which for me is a no-go.
So I removed it. And it rips apart. And every piece plucked from the glue strip leaves a foam piece behind that is one third of the size just removed. It’s a fucking mess. Since the box is made from ABS, acetone is out of the question, that would damage the box right away. Once again I asked ChatGPT for suggestions after trying parcel tape (sticks well to remaining foam, would recommend!) dry heat, hot water, isopropyl alcohol and WD40 myself, without much success. We also tried concentrated white vinegar, which did nothing to the glue itself, but somehow attacked the boundary layer to the remaining foam, which caused it to be better removable than before (I didn’t want to use any scraping tools because that would leave harsh marks on the box). Ballistol also didn’t help, and in the end I swapped between Gunex (like a gun cleaner/lubricant) and a citrus cleaner about 6 times each plus a soaking period. One product would make one component of the glue more soluble so it can be picked up with a paper towel, and then the other does similar things to another bit of the glue, until everything is gone and no sticky mess is left behind. It’s not really dissolving the stuff, but making it so sticky that it can be wiped away without ripping paper towels apart. Very effective, but disgusting stuff.
This is from the post-vinegar Ballistol stage of removal:
Foam bits are basically fully removed and the remaining glue is exposed:
One side done and the other one prepared, so at this stage I knew what chemicals would (barely) work:
And this is from literally an hour later after I have finished cleaning the lower lid as well – the red seal strip is not a loop, but does come off as one long string with bend marks, just make sure it does go in in a similar way afterwards, when everything is fully dry again.
So in total I have spent 3 hours all-in-all and like 5 bucks for wipes and cleaning supplies, to get a 14.99€ toolbox clean and ready for a custom insert without leaving too much marks from the cleaning process.
Qbrick, if you can read this: I will NOT FUCKING BUY another toolcase until you idiots ship your products with either a no-foam option, or wax paper over the pre-applied glue strips on the foam side so that it can be cut and applied later by the end-user. Yes, the glue is a super heavy duty product, congratulations, so are the boxes themselves, but good fucking Lord, hit me in the face if I will ever attempt to remove that glue from another box.
