We’ve seen some weird things cast in epoxy resin before, from a Godzilla bust to a McDonald’s cheeseburger, but never have we seen something as delicate as an ice cube encased in the permanent mixture. There is a good reason behind this. Since epoxy casts have to be pressurized to remove the air bubbles inside…
If you’ve recently just bought a new 3D printer, chances are your mind is going berserk thinking about the potentials your new toy has. But hold your horses! Instead of printing something as large and complex as a 3D printer or, dare I say it, a house, you might want to start your new printer…
It’s been a while since we’ve seen some good woodturning projects here on SolidSmack, so let’s take a look at something you can actually use: a coffee mug. Using an apple log as the basis of the project, woodturner Matt Jordan starts his morning by carving out a container for his cup o’ Joe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EDF4g7xpEM…
I’ve seen wooden gyms before. I’ve even seen gym equipment repurposed into ATV wheels. But this is the first time I’ve seen a gym made completely from nothing but junk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2GtnimESOg It’s been done countless times by many different people, but Hudson, Brandon, and Duke White of B.U.F.F. Dudes (Better Understanding of Food and Fitness)…
In this day and age, a good number of the world’s population is already using 3D printing technology. From large manufacturing companies utilizing Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) to the more common Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) found in commercial 3D printers, almost anyone with a couple of bucks to spare can buy and make use of…
Work keeps piling up on the daily and with no way to really know when to clock out, our minds have a tendency to stay in work mode 24/7. With this, we always find ourselves looking for a way to soothe our minds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jn3jcvw3Bs The Thinking Egg II by Orijin is the second iteration of…
When you enter a hardware store to buy bolts, chances are you want to use them to connect or repair something. But if you’re sculptor and woodcarver Bobby Duke, you look at these fasteners as raw material with which you can craft some really small weaponry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1PQs0Yxauo&ab_channel=BobbyDukeArts Bobby takes a Bowie knife design made by…
If you’ve ever visited a carnival before, you’ll likely have spent a disproportionately large amount of money for the amount of time you’ve been there. The rides are fun and all, but the carnival really burns a hole in your wallet through its unfair games. Back in 2017, when the world wasn’t in the throes…
Do you own any action figures? You know, the ones with so many points of articulation than you know so you just keep them in the same two or three poses for all eternity? A YouTuber going by the name of the Animist has a ton of these well-articulated figures. But instead of posing them…
Do you remember playing that origami football game back in school? The one where two players would take turns flicking a triangular piece of paper from one end of the “field” to the other, with the occasional field goal requiring you to flick the triangle through a goalpost made by your opponent’s hands? A YouTube…
Nostalgia can be a double-edged sword. It can keep you rooted in the past and help you take a good look at some valuable memories. It’s been 30 years since Andrew “Andy” Bailey made his first-ever flipbooks as a kid. What started as a childhood obsession landed him a career as a stop-motion animator in…
Mention woodworking to Alex Apollonov and you’ll visibly see his toes curl. The YouTuber and craftsman, known for his channel I Did A Thing, is famous for going barefoot in his videos while making humorous creative content for us to watch. Apollonov mentions himself that he isn’t a very good woodworker, so when it comes…
When young couples start their new life together, they normally rent out an apartment or condo until they can afford their own house. But Gena and Vita aren’t like most couples, at least when it comes to renting out space. Instead of leaving themselves at the mercy of some landlord, they decided to make their…
Remember the 2018 Venom movie? The one about the alien symbiote attaching itself to a badly New York-accented Matt Hardy? If not, then don’t worry; even the most die-hard fans like to forget it ever existed as well. The movie was pretty bad, but the symbiote special effects seem to have left a lasting impression…
Ah, cup noodles. What passed as fine cuisine during your college days still holds significant memories in your mind (and stomach) well after your dorm years have passed. Quite possibly no other brand of noodles is as famous as Nissin’s – what with their iconic plastic packaging and assortment of flavors. To help immortalize these…
We all know how resin casting can be used to preserve some of the coolest things. From dissected cameras to a soggy McDonald’s cheeseburger, even the most disgusting things look cool when you fossilize them inside the hard resin. YouTuber JackJack’s creations prove it. Using polymer clay to create his sculptures, he encases his art…
Normally when you want something about nature explained to you, you either look it up on Google or have someone like Sir David Attenborough narrate it to you in a soothing voice. While Max Egorov from Advoko MAKES doesn’t speak the best English (he is a native Russian speaker), he goes the extra mile to…
Halloween is still months away, but the boring online video calls are definitely not going anywhere anytime soon. So why not spice things up with a mask that projects all sorts of digital images? A couple of years ago, Sean Hodgins thought of a cool idea for a mask. By installing a projector connected to…
Sprice Machines is both a simple and not-so-simple YouTube channel for the same reason: that it specializes solely in making Rube Goldberg machines. And while you think having a single selling point makes it easier to dream up content, it takes a highly creative mind to think up and execute new ways to oversimplify the…
As I type this, I look down at my naturally black keyboard and wonder just how much dirt and dust this thing has accumulated. It has been ten years since I bought it and I know without a doubt that my keyboard has amassed a ton of filth and I will never be motivated enough…
The Brick Experiment Channel has taken a break from destroying every LEGO brick known to man. Today, it will indulge us with a simple LEGO gear train: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAThvwGJJoI The goal: to create the longest 1:1 LEGO gear train imaginable. The restrictions: they can only use LEGO parts to create the gear train. On top of…
If you’re a big fan of comics or Japanese manga (like, literally) then this will totally be up your alley. Publishing company Kodansha is set to publish a hundred gargantuan copies of its famous Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin, for you purists out there) manga. Featuring the first volume which contains episodes one and…
Spring may be fast approaching, but it’s still pretty cold in a lot of parts of the world. So while the bodies of water in your area are still solid, why not enjoy and ride a bladed bicycle on them? Okay, let me back up a bit: a few weeks ago, DIY enthusiast The Q…
Quick! Off the top of your head, what do you think is the weirdest speed record out there? Soda can opening? Pen clicking? Toenail clipping? All good answers with their respective record ranks. But for speedrunner and challenge taker SmallAnt, one of the strangest challenges he has ever undertaken has got to be pencil sharpening.…
It’s always interesting to take a look at weapons from the past and see how they would have worked back in the day. While a lot of them fall under the categories of stabbing weapons, clubbed weapons, slashing weapons, and other weapons with macabre adjectives, quite a number have weird designs that aren’t so well-known…
Anyone who has a passing interest in Nintendo’s Mario will know that eating a red mushroom will make the little Italian plumber grow. But it’s surprising that not many people know Mario can also eat a fire flower, allowing him to throw great balls of flame. While not as famous as his older brother, Luigi…
Only second to Nintendo’s Italian plumber, Sonic the Hedgehog is probably the most recognizable video game character out there. Blue fur, red shoes, and a too-cool-for-school attitude, Sonic looks and acts nothing like his real-life counterpart. If you don’t believe me, check out this Sonic clay figurine, created from scratch by Kia from kiArt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RcP3YvjUhc&ab_channel=kiArt…
You’ve probably seen a Japanese kunai in a movie or anime before. Initially built as a gardening tool, these forged metal pieces can become deadly in the right hands. Due to their multi-purpose nature, kunai were made from sturdy yet simple metals. But I’m pretty sure no one in Japan traditionally made kunai from rusty…
By now, a lot of people credit Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. As the saying goes, the best person for the job is a lazy person, because he’ll find the easiest way to do it. Now I’m not saying the founder of Experimental Fun is lazy, but he does come up with interesting ways to reduce…
We’ve covered wood carvings before here on SolidSmack, but it’s not often we see them made out of a single piece of wood… nor this big. Vlad Carving is a YouTube channel dedicated to the art of making giant wood carvings. In one of his videos, he carves a giant bust of a Native American,…
The best part about having a chilled soda is drinking one after a hard, hot day’s work. The worst part? Waiting for it to get cold. While you could wait 20 minutes by storing your beverage in a cooler or fridge, Chris Notap has found a much faster way to chill a soda: through an…
Back in 2019, MythBusters host, special effects designer, and all-around crazy creator Adam Savage released a book titled Every Tool’s a Hammer. Chronicling his career as a creator, it takes a deep dive into Savage’s creative process and how he approaches crafting… well, I mean anything. While I’m sure creators will get a kick out…
Tons of creative X-Men fans have made Wolverine claws that can cut through pretty much anything. Nonetheless, only a few of those folks can brag a pair that actually draws and retracts. Just as a refresher, in addition to Wolverine’s advanced healing factor (his actual mutant power), he has a solid adamantium skeleton complete with…
It doesn’t matter if you were a kid in the early 2000s: you couldn’t go a day without hearing about Pokémon during those years. What spawned into the now gargantuan media franchise started as a pair of video games for the Nintendo Game Boy. Pokémon Red and Blue that were both released in 1996 have…
Woodturning can be used to make tons of useful things but sometimes, you just want to make something that looks extremely cool but serves zero purposes. Andy Phillip, woodturner and resin aficionado, loves using different combinations of wood and resins to different effects. In one of his recent projects, he mixes a number of resins…
Candy may not have a lot of useful benefits (it causes diabetes, toothache, and high blood pressure just to name a few), but many people still love it. It’s sweet, it makes for a great Valentine’s Day gift, and (shockingly) you can string a bunch of it to hold your weight. Nate and Cali at…
For some reason, no one ever thought of making surface-colored screws. Think about it: if you could produce screws that would blend well with the color and texture of the surface they would be put in, you would make millions of projects and builds look way cleaner. Most of all, you would also make a…
And now for your daily dose of ASMR: Metalworker and restorer my mechanics is best known for bringing rusty old machinery back to life. His YouTube channel is chock-full of restoration projects, but once in a blue moon, he decides to make something different. Armed with the newfound knowledge of creating balls using a lathe…
Quite possibly the oldest tool in known history that has taken on many forms is the hand axe. You’ve got your various one-sided axes and your double-sided axes (used in Medieval ages and cosplays), but rarely you have seen a hand axe live up to its namesake. The Metalist is a metalworker whose latest work…
Weapons are cool but do you know what’s even cooler? Making your own weapons! The YouTube channel known only as Koss is dedicated to making all types of handmade weaponry which includes swords, hammers, hatchets, and knives (which are basically smaller swords), just to name a few. In this particular case, the weaponsmith takes an…
Have you ever wondered why carpenter pencils are shaped the way they are? It wasn’t a design error or some environment-conscious carpenter trying to reuse rejected pencils from the production line. There really are a number of things a good, old construction pencil can do which a #1, #2, or even the fabled #3 pencils…
Safes are some of the most secure places in the world to store your belongings. I mean, it’s why they’re called “safes” in the first place. A lot of them are meant to withstand the harshest of situations, so you won’t be surprised to find fireproof, bulletproof, and even idiotproof variants that keep you from…
For some weird, unspoken reason, it bet you have dreamt of swimming in a pool of Jell-O before. Perhaps, triggered by subliminal product placement? Or maybe it’s just because swimming in a sea of sweetened gelatin is just something every child (and child at heart) with a sweet tooth would want. Just so you know,…
Whenever you hear the word “resin casting,” your mind usually gravitates to objects you would normally dunk in a vat of resin. Things like wood, metal, or even mosquitoes cased in amber like in Jurassic Park. Rarely, if ever, you think of food. YouTuber jedrek29t must have been thinking on an empty stomach a few…
When I was younger, I always wanted to label everything. My younger brother and I would constantly fight over things, and the only way I could stake my claim on something could only be possible if I put my name on it. Doing this was easy enough on books and toys (thanks for the tip,…
Thanks to movies like The Matrix, a good portion of the general populace knows how a lot of things can look way cooler in slow motion. Shooting a gun? Cooler in slow-mo. Riding a bike? Cooler in slow-mo. Pouring yourself a glass of water? Yup! Even cooler in slow-mo. Since 2010, Gav and Dan of…
Building an underground hideout and pool with nothing but bare hands. Well, that’s not entirely true – they actually employ the use of some handy machete-like tools, as well. Nevertheless, these three men from the YouTube channel The Survival get their kicks from building astounding structures using nothing but the environment, their creativity, and their…
One of the biggest strengths of an artist is being able to see the world in a different light and to bring their vision into reality. Painters do it with brushes and a canvas. Musicians do it with instruments. But for a special artist in Korea, his medium of art comes in the form of…
Have you ever seen Michael Jackson’s iconic Thriller music video and said, “Hey! I can do that!” Well, with the advances in cinematography, special effects, and costume design since the video first came out in 1983, I’m pretty sure you can. But while a working adult such as yourself has access to the know-how and…
Though its main purpose is to flatten things to make them easier to work with, hydraulic presses have a secondary function where it serves as a very entertaining piece of machinery. I doubt anyone ever grows out of watching things get crushed under excessive amounts of force, and while this isn’t quite the same as…