Why build a giant dinosaur? Kids – and adults – love ‘em. And nothing else spruces up a dinosaur-themed birthday party than a giant wood dinosaur. The best part: you can build your own for around $150 and a little sweat. It’s time to break out your tools for something whimsical. Read on past the jump to learn how to build your own giant dino.

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A few hours of shop time into wearing my new safety glasses, I found that not only were they uncomfortable, but they were scratching up my face pretty good. Disappointed that the glasses I paid the princely sum of $9 for were tearing up my mug, I searched for a way to fix them. To my embarrassment, my 10-year-old niece/helper suggested that I’d been using the tool that could fix them for the last two hours — she was, of course, correct.

I found that with a bit of 320 grit sandpaper you can not only remove whatever spurs and excess molding lines are causing you grief — you can also reshape areas near the nose piece, if you want, to fit your face more comfortably.

Is this a big deal? Most certainly not. But it can be handy if you’re living with plastic safety glasses that are the slightest bit uncomfortable.

This Dodecasub makes a great DIY project for a Toolmonger, but cutting the angles can be a problem. After reading this post on the All-In-One Clamp, and this post on the MilesCraft Saw Guide, I still had no solution for how to cut long, straight lines that’re at odd angles to the edge of a board. A table saw with the guide set at an angle will do the trick, but here’s a way to manage it if your shop hasn’t grown that big yet.

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About ten minutes after humans figured out how to make rope we started devising ways to tie two pieces together. Knot tying is a valuable skill for any Toolmonger, so today I present to you the first in a series of practical knots that you can use in daily life: the Fisherman’s Knot. Often used to re-connect tuna nets, it’s also handy for connecting two short ropes together into a single, longer one. In fact, I used this very knot today to repair to my shoelaces.

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Instructables user Vestus took one look at the high price of commercially-available router lifts and decided he could build his own a lot cheaper. Bustin’ out his shrewd Dealmongering skills he snagged an already-inexpensive Harbor Freight plunge router on sale for $40 and a router base plate on Amazon for another $40. After scrounging around the local hardware stores for a few other components, he assembled his router lift — complete with 1-3/4 HP router — for under $100.

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It’s hard to believe that there was a time in this country when children were encouraged to do risky (and interesting) things. But it’s true! Boys and Girls were given simple items and allowed to experiment with the way the world works by making and doing things that could possibly poke an eye out. Nothing exemplifies this better than The Boy Mechanic, a collection of simple projects that graced the pages of Popular Mechanics during the end of 19th and first half of the 20th century.

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Is workspace in your household as much an issue as it is in mine? An unfortunate soldering incident has me banished from the kitchen table, and my planned basement work bench is still on my to-do list. But I came across an ingenious idea for a very simple work table via the internet TV network Revison3’s show Systm episode 13. It doesn’t get simpler than this: one piece of 3/4 inch plywood and a few simple cuts yields a stable 37″ tall 16 square-foot work space.

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Having trouble getting those decking planks aligned right? You’re not alone. You could spend $50 to $150 on a specialized tool to jack ‘em into place, but don’t the immortal words of Jesse James — “Anything fits with a welder.” — apply to wood, too?

Hell, yes. When TM reader and photo pool member jef4130 hit this snag, he whiped out his welder and some spare parts to build the tool you see above — perfect for levering in planks without the arm pain. He says his total cost was around $16.

Check out the pool for another photo of the tool in use — and some great instructions on how to build your own.

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

Not long ago CNC (which stands for computer numerical control, by the way) machines were so expensive that only large companies could own them. But we’re in the middle of a full-fledged CNC revolution, reaching all the way down to the grassroots level. Now a dedicated average Joe whip up a precise fabricating tool with little more than some plans, basic tools, and a PC.

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Why carry an flashlight in your emergency car kit, when you have a pencil and some speaker wire?  If you haven’t already caught this how-to floating around the ‘net, check it out.  It’ll show you how to convert common graphite pencil lead into up to twenty minutes of light.

I finally grew tired of and tripping over scrap plywood and knocking down spare sticks of trim this weekend.  Thankfully, I had enough spare wood and junk lying around to make a storage bin to hold all of it.  If you’ve never attempted a storage bin project, you should know that the difficulty level is similar to tying your shoe.  The whole project takes about 20 minutes.  Read on past the jump for details.

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Rhode Island is the birthplace of the American industrial revolution, and along the Woonasquatucket River in the heart of Providence’s industrial valley you’ll find The Steel Yard. The Steel Yard carries on a tradition in the industrial arts: a centre for artists, businesses, educators and students.

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As TM readers know, I recently added a new Swiss Army Pioneer to my knife collection.  But something was missing from what otherwise would be a completely sweet utility knife – a lanyard or “pull-tail.”  Truthfully, some people dig lanyards and some don’t.  I love them on larger work knives because they make the knife easier to find in your pocket with a gloved hand.  If you’re a “lanyard dude,” too, here’s an uber-simple process to make one for your knife. 

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Luthiers — builders of guitars, violins, and such — are by definition very accurate woodworkers.  So who better to write a “how to” article on making your own finger plane?  Alan Dunwell, owner and operator of Dunwell Guitar which manufactures bespoke guitars and specializes in one-off double tops, wrote an interesting little article on building finger planes — tiny “micro planes” used for intricate detail work.  Look closely at the picture above; some aren’t much bigger than a quarter.

Making Finger Planes by Alan Dunwell [Dunwell Guitar]

This great “Miter Saw Stand Madness” video demonstrates a slew of miter saw stands and discusses the features and potential benefits of each.  In the video, Fine Homebuilding contributing editor Mike Guertin reviews four classes of stands: rail/sawhorse, tabletop, extending, and some unique products that are either hybrids of the other types or that stand in a class of their own.

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If you got a kick out of the steampunk-inspired “problem light” we posted a while back, you’ll enjoy this similar monitor mod.  After ditching the boring black plastic case, this guy discovered that the whole monitor was encased in stamped sheet steel.  A little metallic-gold Rustoleum plus some brown Krylon crystal color — and a lot of scavenged brass components from clocks and other stuff — yield what you see above.

Oh yeah, he made a kick-ass keyboard, too.  Check out his site for detailed instructions and pictures.

(Thanks, BT, for the tip!)

Steampunk Montor Mod [The Steampunk Workshop]

Update: Check out the comments on this post for TM reader Blind’s list of numerous other steampunk projects online.

TM reader BlindTreeFrog directed our attention to a site where the owner of the above-pictured Corvair — who knew he’d never have the cash to give his ride a real paint job — describes (in detail with photos) his $50 paint job applied via a technique borrowed from a net-renowned Moparts.com forum thread.

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