Making a Giant Noodle Grabber to Learn Foam and Fiberglass

I had never heard of a noodle grabber until recently. Turns out it’s that weird pasta spoon thing with the teeth on the side that helps you pick up and drain noodles. Pretty simple tool, nothing special about it. But then I got this idea stuck in my head – what if I made one that was 10 feet long? Yeah, I knew it was dumb from the start. But sometimes the dumbest ideas teach you the most, and I really wanted an excuse to learn how to carve pink insulation foam and work with fiberglass.

The plan was straightforward enough. I took measurements from a regular noodle grabber and scaled everything up to massive proportions. The final product would be 10 or 11 feet long – the exact size didn’t matter as long as it was ridiculously oversized. Working with foam meant I needed to stack and glue multiple pieces together to get enough material, then carve everything down to the right shape. This was completely new territory for me. I’d seen other makers sculpt amazing things from foam, but I’d never had a good reason to try it myself. This still wasn’t a good reason, but I was doing it anyway.

Right away, I hit my first learning curve. The utility knife worked fine for straight cuts, but it was slow and got dull fast. The bandsaw turned out to be perfect for cutting the triangular teeth pieces. I decided to carve the main spoon section first, then shape the teeth separately before attaching them. This way I could adjust their position and get everything looking right before permanently sticking them in place. The spray adhesive was going to get everywhere – that’s just the nature of the beast. Once you use that stuff in your shop, everything feels sticky forever.

The handle presented its own set of challenges. This thing needed to be light enough that I could actually lift and use it, but strong enough not to snap in half. My first attempt with PVC pipe was a disaster. The whole thing felt sketchy just picking it up, bending and flexing like it wanted to fold in half. So I pulled it out and switched to one-inch metal conduit instead of the three-quarter-inch PVC. Getting that conduit through the foam took some work – I heated up the end and sharpened it a bit to help it push through. The difference was night and day. The metal gave it actual structure and made it feel like something that might survive being used.

Shaping the foam was where things got messy. Really messy. I threw on a mask and just started carving, sending pink dust everywhere. The foam carved easier than I expected, almost like working with really dense styrofoam. Getting smooth curves took some practice, but the material was forgiving. Before attaching the teeth to the main spoon, I cut slots where they’d go – much easier without them in the way. The spray adhesive alone wouldn’t hold them for actual use, so I reinforced everything with bamboo skewers stuck in at angles. It looked pretty good at this point, like an actual giant noodle grabber. Which confirmed what I already knew – this was definitely a dumb idea.

The fiberglass part scared me a bit. I’d only done it once before and it was a disaster. But that’s part of learning, right? The process seemed simple enough – paint on epoxy, lay down fiberglass mesh, add more epoxy to squish it together. What I learned quickly was that there’s no clean way to do this. You just slather everything up and hope for the best. The flat sections went on pretty well once I figured out you need way more resin than you think. But those teeth were a nightmare. Trying to wrap small strips around curved surfaces while they’re all sticky and wanting to buckle and lift – I still don’t know the right way to do it. At least I could sand everything smooth later.

The moment of truth came when we tested it at the pool with actual giant pool noodles floating around. Did it work? Not really. The noodles floated too much and I could only grab one at a time. The whole thing was awkward and unwieldy. But here’s the thing – it didn’t matter that it didn’t work well or look perfect. The entire point was learning something new. I wanted to figure out foam carving and get some experience with fiberglass, and I needed an excuse to actually do it. Sometimes the best projects are the ones that don’t make any sense. They give you permission to experiment and fail without any real consequences.

Looking back, I learned a ton from this ridiculous project. Foam carving is actually pretty approachable if you have the right tools. Metal conduit beats PVC for structural support every time. Fiberglass over complex shapes is harder than it looks, and you need way more resin than you think. And sometimes the best reason to build something is simply because you want to learn how. Not every project needs to be useful or practical or even make sense to anyone else. Sometimes you just need a giant noodle grabber to remind you that making stuff should be fun. Thanks for following along with this ridiculous build. Now, go make something awesome!