Welcome to our series ‘Shop Talk’, where Dan Slaski interviews people in the thick of product development business, who make the magic happen and turn their ideas into reality. Have an interview suggestion? Send it in. Xometry is an online mega manufacturing marketplace ready to take whatever 3D models you can throw at them.  Xometry isn’t…

An engineering drawing is a specialized type of communication tool. It’s also a contract.  This particular communication protocol is designed to be complete, closed, and one way. This means follow up questions should not be required for the recipient’s comprehension and contractual agreement. It’s like a message in a bottle. With this, I present to…

You’ve heard it said before.  Maybe from a manager or coworker. Maybe during an interview to try to connect or relate.  Maybe during crunch time as a misguided offer of assistance.  Maybe from someone that slapped their knee and gave you a little bump with their elbow like they were the first person to ever…

Konichiwa, SolidWorks ninjas. Welcome to the dojo (Designing Objects Journeymen Organization). Let’s flip roll right into our training regime. Mid Plane Is Your Symmetrical Friend As we take our 2D sketches from the flat world into the third Extruded Boss/Base Feature dimension we have options. Some options utilize references as drivers. When not using reference…

Miss our last edition? See it here: Tools I Freaking Love: Hand Tools [Sheet Metal Edition]. You know that sinking feeling. You’re at the doorstep of a major milestone with a smoldering heap of lessons learned. Things didn’t go according to plan and the next options aren’t any good. You need to breathe enough life…

Nine months ago I got the news and I knew everything was going to change.  And now here we are, exhausted and bleary-eyed, holding the wonder we have created.  As I look down on our little miracle I hold softly cradled in my arms I think ahead. Yes, I made a part. I want the…

Need a design taken from A to B or maybe A to Q? Going from A to B might take one skill set and from B to C, another. Do you know what Q through B looks like? Stuff that brain matter back in your ears and take a breath. Let’s review the ABCs of…

3D printing is additive. CNC milling is subtractive. Vacuum forming is transformative. It transforms a sheet of formless flat plastic into extraordinary complex copies. It transforms preconceived limitations about functional part thinness — the interplay between “consumable goods” (foodstuff) and “durable goods”(not food) — and low-volume throughput speeds. It transforms endless eternities (hours) staring at…

You are working on a new design and want to incorporate a new component or need a unique part; A part requiring outside design and fabrication expertise, a keystone part, a part that can break a design log jam. You need THE THING! How to find ‘The Thing’? You have looked everywhere. You scoured the…

I sat down with Derek Roberts, the man behind the MillRight CNC company. Derek is an entrepreneur, tinkerer, designer, visionary and guy with a cool southern accent. He goes over everything, from how he got started, to MillRight’s first product, starting a business, running a business, manufacturing challenges and, oh yes, their new desktop CNC product,…

First, let’s agree, here and now, to no longer use the phrase, “think outside the box”. Henceforth condensed to “it”.  “It” is a cliché, a tired trope, a worn-out platitude that should have never made it this far riding on the backs of cheap suits. It is a sad piece of strip mall management seminar…

It’s no secret I love 3D printing, laser cutting, and CNC routing. What I don’t love is all the maintenance and calibration of my own machines or questionable reliability and transit times to other people’s machines. And soooo many software programs — Talk about workflow woes. Hence my piqued interest in the upswell of 3-in-1…

You are a great designer. You have innate gifts with 3D and spatial relations and are a creative, original thinker. You have studied and mastered mechanical principles and fundamentals. Through industry experience, you’ve learned about manufacturing processes, rules of thumb and tools and tricks of the trade. You are an interesting “T-shaped” person pulling from…

3D printers (people) have a bad habit of wasting their print improvement effort on the shiny and new instead of the useful. I get it, I do. 3D printers (machines) are cool, and it’s fun to make them look cool. A big part of the fun is customizing and talking shop about mods. We spend…

We seasoned digital craftspeople can take an idea from a digital model to a physical concept with lightning speed. Unfortunately, that process seems prefered over starting with a physical part to create a digital part. For example, when I get an existing item, already designed with complex molded shapes, that I want to add to…

Despite often being pragmatic to the point of dispassionate, it turns out that I am not immune to hype, particularly when it comes to 3D printers. So, I fell for the lure of MakerBot’s announcement of a new product reveal on December 11th featuring cryptic and tantalizing images of glass and angular enclosures. It was a…

Are you a total n00b? Do you walk around proudly pronouncing fillet like in ballet instead skillet? You may be a n00b. It’s okay if you are. I once was myself. I thought k-factor was when someone had an undefinable special medium quality. I thought kerf was cheap imitation Nerf.  I thought we had the…

At an abstract level, every new project is composed of three elements: The known knowns (the things that you know you know), the known unknowns (the things you know that you don’t know), and the unknown unknowns (the things you don’t know that you don’t know)*. Stay far far away from the known gnomes. Given…

It’s when I entered middle school that I started to excel in math. Maybe excel is too strong a word. I was a good math student, but I wasn’t the best. I worked really hard at it. The award I publicly got at Parent’s Night was “Most Improved”. Middle school is also when I was…

Welcome to our “Ask An Engineer” series, where Dan Slaski addresses questions that have you losing sleep or staring off into space during important meetings. Have a question for Dan? Send it in. Question: Management keeps saying they want us to be the “Apple” of our industry. How can I deliver on that? Dear Massively…

Welcome to a new series called ‘Shop Talk’, where Dan Slaski interviews people in the thick of product development business, who make the magic happen and turn their ideas into reality. Have an interview suggestion? Send it in. Watching over the Washington DC area is a dynamic duo of hardware entrepreneurship known as the Red Blue…

Welcome to a new series called ‘Shop Talk’, where Dan Slaski interviews people in the thick of product development business, who make the magic happen and turn their ideas into reality. Have an interview suggestion? Send it in. Cory Sokolowski is the owner and operator of Crossline Creations, a 7,000 square foot northern Virginia based wood…

The 4th Dimension is a new series where we go behind the scenes with leaders in 3D printing to add a new dimension. Our Dan Slaski interviews Ryan Turk, Business Development Lead at Formlabs, and nerds-out on 3D printing.  And nerd-out they did. Dan Slaski: Can you provide a brief intro to Formlabs and your…

Welcome to a new series called ‘Shop Talk’, where Dan Slaski interviews people in the thick of product development business, who make the magic happen and turn their ideas into reality. Have an interview suggestion? Send it in. Cory Sokolowski is the owner and operator of Crossline Creations, a 7,000 square foot northern Virginia based wood…

Welcome to our new ‘Ask An Engineer’ series, where Dan Slaski addresses questions that have you losing sleep or staring off into space during important meetings. Have a question for Dan? Send it in. Question: My company doesn’t create product requirements I feel they are necessary to do my job effectively. What can I do? Dear…

The rotary tool (Dremel) is the ubiquitous hand tool for low skill prototyping. The magic wand of the prototyping world. And by that, I mean it can make sparks, dust, and smoke. The real magic is how all those theatrics can produce such a small cut (and leave such a razor-sharp edge). It is time…

Washington DC is not known for a being a manufacturing town, which is why I was so surprised when I first heard that TechShop was opening a location here in Spring 2014. When I went on a tour I was smiling ear to ear in wide-eyed disbelief. Had I won a golden ticket? How is…

Maslow’s hammer: If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Design engineering is a constantly evolving field. It is forming and shaping faster than a complex hexagonal honeycomb micromesh structure growing out of a Carbon3D printer; from new technologies with implementable applications to tools, software, and manufacturing processes. Keep…

Welcome to our new ‘Ask An Engineer’ series, where Dan Slaski addresses questions that have you losing sleep or staring off into space during important meetings. Have a question for Dan? Send it in. Question: Why aren’t there more women in Engineering and what can be done to change that? Dear the Future Is Female, This…

Welcome to our new ‘Ask An Engineer’ series, where Dan Slaski addresses questions that have you losing sleep or staring off into space during important meetings. Have a question for Dan? Send it in. Question: I’m thinking about using an online machine shop. Am I betraying my local machine shop? Dear Loyal Luddite, Respect. In an…

Welcome to our new ‘Ask An Engineer’ series, where Dan Slaski addresses questions that have you losing sleep or staring off into space during important meetings. Have a question for Dan? Send it in. Question: Should I work for a big company or a small company? Dear Consciously Corporately Constrained, Recently my girlfriend and I…

Efficiency. Glorious efficiency. The streamlined and punctual Japanese train system. The meticulous movement of precision components in a Swiss made watch. The time saving zzzchick of Velcro shoes. I don’t know about you, but I am getting goosebumps. Certain cultures, like the Germans and their engineers in particular, are known for prizing the concept of…

A great pleasure of mine is enjoying an overpriced hot caffeinated beverage while having esoteric conversations about design around like minded individuals. We rhapsodize about the coolest things we have designed, the crazy hours, and hurdles we overcame. We debate the merits and pitfalls (usually pitfalls) of different 3D printers and CAD packages. And, of…

Prototyping. An overused buzzword? A misunderstood concept? A noun, a verb, and an adjective? Prototyping is a philosophy. Actually, prototyping is the philosophy when it comes to making top notch designs in today’s hyper competitive market.

Non-designers have the misconception that design is easy. Any designer will tell you the polar opposite is true. Design is going up against a master ninja and his army of foot shoulders; when you are little more than a band of misfit humanoid turtle martial artist apprentice junk food eaters.

The Engineering Boss. A peculiar creature. Shhh, there he is in his native habitat.

As engineers and designers we solve problems. It’s what we do. Often to the great dismay of people in our lives that are perfectly content with the setup of their home TV systems or who just want us to “listen”. But if you want to put a person in space, or a cheese like gelatinous…

There has been much fanfare around 3D printers in recent years. Meanwhile, you rarely hear about the laser cutter in mainstream media. Honestly, I am not sure why. Perhaps it is because the laser cutter doesn’t have a charismatic evangelist like Bre Pettis. Hey laser cutter manufacturers, I’m pretty charismatic and available, wink wink. It…

As a young block builder, you loved LEGO and would fly through the kits before quickly moving beyond build tutorials to creating your own unique creations using items from around the house. You loved puzzle games and toys with mechanisms like Mouse Trap and Transfomers. Maybe your parents started to let you take apart broken…

I want to introduce you to someone. Let’s call this person Gary. Gary works nights and weekends in a garage on a project based on the same technology you work on. Gary is a Maker. Picture this, you stand around the water cooler complaining about how last year’s holiday party was better because they had…

Let’s start with the basics: you have an awesome job. You get to use cool tools to create awesome stuff. You may very well have the job that you wanted as a kid – a job that kids today still desire (but don’t let kids do your job, that would be irresponsible). Not many people…

The 3D printer; an expression, a symbol, a icon. I got on board the additive manufacturing awesomeness express 12 years ago and the ride just keeps getting better. Wonder why you can’t think of the last time you saw a lava lamp? Because seeing that extruded molten plastic methodically placed layer by micro layer as…

We live in a world full of amazing design software and hi-tech automated machines. These “tools” are designed to reduce design cycle times and leverage productivity. Companies spend a lot of money on these tools and expect a productivity pay off from their designers. Some of the new expectations are realistic and some are not.…