I am a lawyer. Have you exhausted all of the SSA appeals? Federal appeals take lots of time and money. There is no avoiding it. I assume you've tried and not been able to find anyone who will take it on a contigency basis. If so, and if you don't want to pay the money for a lawyer, your best shot is to try to frame your case as an important public interest case, and get a large rich law firm to help you pro bono...or go to a library with legal volumes and bone up on federal appellate procedure.
I agree with Dino. If you are out of work, I would assume you have time to go to the local law library and start studying. It wouldn't take much to prepare a motion to continue to give you as much time as you need to learn and prepare. I am a judge and I NEVER like seeing someone represent themselves. Even if you manage to get the basic forms, petitions, motions, etc filed properly, your ability to argue your case based on case law is just never going to be in the same league as the other side.