Building your own tools just got much easier...

Arrow Spine Tester plans, plus thousands more tool plans.

Does this sound familiar?

• You have projects that you're ready to build, but first you need some specific tools.
• You can't afford all the tools that you want (nobody can).
• You've had your fill of plans for picnic tables, garden benches, bird feeders, and birdhouses. You're a man, not a bird.

We started this website 12 years ago because we saw this same problem on internet forums for metalworkers, machinists, woodworkers, and hobbyists of all kinds.

Tool companies will be happy to sell you the tools to build your projects. And not just the tools, but all the upsells too. Accessories. Add-ons. Jigs. Consumables.

By the time you buy them all, you haven't saved any money by building your project instead of just buying it new.

It's not a conspiracy, it's just the dominant business model in the tool industry.

If you're not made of money, then the only way forward is to get the plans and ideas for building your own tools, your way.

Here's how we can help...

Homemade Tools

We're the world's largest and busiest community of tool builders, for people who realize that the most accomplished DIYers are the ones who build their own tools.

We provide you with thousands of tool plans for building your own tools, eBooks filled with homemade tool projects and ideas, and access to a busy online community of people just like you.

Here's EXACTLY how we help you build your own tools

1. Build your tools faster with our collection of 2,000+ plans for homemade tools. It's MUCH easier to build a homemade tool when you have detailed plans. Click here to see all the plans.

2. Find endless homemade tool ideas with the 22 eBooks we've written detailing the best homemade tools, tool modifications, and tool tips and tricks. You can browse through these eBooks for countless ideas and example homemade tool builds.

 

3. Get expert help with unlimited access to our homemade tools forum filled with thousands of homemade tool builders, including bona-fide experts across many fields. You can easily ask any questions you have as you build your homemade tools.

4. Find homemade tool builds more easily with our pages organizing 30,000+ homemade tool builds by tags and ingredients. For example, you can see all homemade tools tagged with "floor jack", or all the homemade tools you can build with plywood, bar stock, or threaded rod.

What makes us so different?

We don't sell tools.

We don't have advertising.

We don't have sponsors.

We don't write "unbiased" reviews of the same products that we also coincidentally advertise.

We don't have inexperienced internet know-it-alls on our forum. Most of our members are over 40 years old. Many are retired. We have real experts with decades of experience in their fields.

People on our forum are respectful, helpful, and tech-focused. Browse our forum and see for yourself. We don't deal in internet drama, and we don't have algorithms that encourage conflict to boost pageviews (Facebook - we're looking at you).

All we do is homemade tools, all the time.

Why should you listen to us?

Short answer: you shouldn't.

This is where websites insult your intelligence by displaying enthusiastic 5-star reviews of their products, from a "real" person whose photo is also available on a stock photo website.

We've all seen too many 5-star reviews like these.

Instead, you should listen to the thousands of tool builders who call this place home.

We're known on hundreds of different DIY forums; click here to see what people on other forums say about us.

We maintain a list of the net's top tool builders and all of the tools that they built. You can click on each name to see forum discussions about every single one of their tool builds.

We also made a "Before vs. After" page showing 100 of our tool builders' latest and greatest tool builds, compared with the tools that they built when they first joined our forum. You can click on each tool photo to see for yourself how much your tools improve when you join a community of dedicated tool builders.

A tool built just after joining, vs. a tool built after being a member for a while. For many more examples from the twelve years we've been online, see our Before vs. After gallery.

30 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee

When you join, you're fully protected by our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.

If you try out our membership and decide that you want to cancel anytime within the first 30 days of joining, we'll refund 100% of your payment. No hassle, no questions - just a quick and easy refund back to your payment method.

Get instant access and start building your tools right now

You can join and get access immediately for $9/month, or subscribe for a year and get 35% off at $69/year.

Frequently Asked Questions

I'm a complete beginner at working with my hands; is this site too advanced for me?

Short answer: yes. This site is meant for hobbyists at an intermediate and higher skill level. We are a friendly and helpful bunch, but if you just bought your first set of hand tools, then you should get a few projects under your belt before you start building your own tools. If you've already built or fixed a few things (and made some mistakes along the way!), then you're ready to start building tools. We can help you build basic woodworking tools like clamps and jigs, basic metalworking tools like sheet metal brakes and metal benders, and plenty of basic hand tools. And then we can show you how to use those tools to work on your projects, and to build more tools.

I'm an advanced woodworker, metalworker, machinist, or do-it-yourselfer; is this site too basic for me?

Our target audience is intermediate to advanced hobbyists. Our most advanced tool builders build their own machines like lathes and mills, print circuit boards, create machining fixtures and jigs, and devise unique work practices to make their tools more efficient and enjoyable to use. If you have a decade or more of experience in your hobby, and are looking to expand to using new processes and tools, then you're probably a good fit for us.

Can you help me with modifying existing tools?

Yes, we like to modify existing tools. This generally means making attachments and jigs for existing tools, and also making improvements to store-bought tools. In particular, we like to modify Harbor Freight tools (these days the same old Harbor Freight tools are on Amazon.com), and we even made two Best Harbor Freight Tool Modifications eBooks.

Will you help with tool reviews for buying new tools?

We do sometimes talk about buying new tools, especially tools that we're going to modify, but no, we don't really review new tools.

Did you write all the tool building plans yourselves?

Instead of just writing a few sets of tool plans ourselves, we created the single largest repository of homemade tool plans from all over the internet. While other sites offer you a single download of one set of tool plans, often for more than the price of one month's membership, we give you access to over 2,000 different downloadable tool plans from many different tool builders, all organized in one place for easy access. Not only is this the largest collection of tool plans on the internet, but we're constantly adding more tool plans to it.

Are you sponsored by any tool companies?

No, we aren't sponsored by any tool companies, or any tool manufacturers, or anyone in the tool industry. We're an independent online community. Here's our first forum post, from 2012.

Do I get everything up front?

Yes, you get instant access to everything as soon as you sign up.

What if I don't like the membership?

You can easily cancel your membership at any time.

What if I just want to download one set of plans or one eBook for this one tool that I want to build. Can I do that and then cancel?

Sure, no problem. And when you want to use that tool to build another tool, you can always re-join.

Do I get anything in the mail?

No, all of our plans collections, eBooks, build guides, and member-only content are digital. You can download all of our content to your computer and save it. Sometimes guys like to print out paper copies of plans drawings as they work, and you're welcome to do that.