The Grinch snowman

At work I was given the task of making something to represent our department.

It had to be over 5 foot tall and be roughly snowman shaped. 

Since I work in a library (relatively new job) I decided on the Grinch.

Once again I was given exactly $0.00 as a maximum budget, 

and I had to have it finished in one day, so considering the

Project Triangle…

It would not be my best work.

I started off with some legs.  Made from 2x4s

My wife cleans a doctor's office and they regularly throw out styrofoam coolers that have transported refrigerated medicine. (No they don't transport organs or anything like that.)
I got three of them that were roughly the same size.

Using my heat knife I cut two holes in one of the cooler lids.  Just big enough for the 2x4s to fit into.
I then glued the legs with Gorilla Glue.

I put the cooler back on the lid and we have the starting of the body.

I drew out a rough Grinch face and sanded it down a little to give it some depth.

I needed to make his nose so I used my Drill Press Lathe method. (described here)

I shaped him a small pointed nose.

He needed the tuft of hair, so I used my hot wire cutter and cut that out of 1/2 inch pink foam.

I made a hole in the top of his head for the tuft to go into.  And glued it in with Gorilla Glue.

I forgot to take pictures before he was painted so here are a few before he was assembled.

A blurry shot of one of his arms.

A coat of green paint. 

Waiting to dry and be moved to his new home.

The Grinch arrives at his new home.

I think he is happy about it.

Building the Rocketeer Helmet - lenses

Update on the Rocketeer helmet project.  I have been really busy and it has been hard to work on some of my "fun" projects.  That being said, I did carve out a little bit of time to work on my Rocketeer helmet.  When we last left off it needed some lenses.

I have never put lenses in anything before, so I had a little trial and error process.

I first ordered some sample lens sheets from http://tapplastics.com.  They come in 4 inch by 4 inch squares.  I peeled the protective paper off of each side, then holding it with needle nose pliers I used my heat gun to slightly melt it.

I melted the plastic outside of the helmet until it would flop over all by itself.  Then I put it inside the helmet and used a rag and pushed on the lens to slightly bubble it out.  

This is the first piece (after it was cool enough to hold.)

I taped the lenses in place...

 and couldn't resist trying it on.

Then I had to take a picture outside.  

I peeled the left side of the tape off of the lens and folded it over.  I put some 5 minute epoxy in a large area around the eye, and folded the lens back over.  I held it in place until the epoxy held then I did the other eye.

It is available for sale on Ebay 
Rocketeer Helmet Fan Made Custom Prop