If you have some extra galvanized steel lying around your home and a ton of free time, then why not make your very own ball bearing track? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPguktA674w Designer and machine maker Daniel de Bruin shows some easy tricks you can do to make use of the excess materials lying about your workshop. With the…
Straight wooden legs are cool, but curved wooden legs are even cooler. Unfortunately, it usually takes more wood to make the latter. This is why not all woodworkers spend too much attention on them. James Hamilton of Stumpy Nubs is not one of those folks. In one of his projects, James showed an easy woodworking…
Have you ever passed by a construction site and seen all the rebars making up the skeleton of a structure? Apart from serving as a great way to forward the plot of a movie or show with injuries, rebars are essential in reinforcing the concrete they are cast into. It’s not such a big ask,…
Over the past year or so, people have been doing their best to improve living conditions inside their homes. This is the “new normal” after all, so we might as well make the best of being cooped up in a single place for the time being. One important aspect of home improvement is lighting; it…
If you haven’t seen it yet (in which case, you definitely should), Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle is a… well, moving story about the love between two opposite characters. Think Beauty and The Beast, only instead of a gorgeous woman and beast-like man, you have a gorgeous young man and a woman cursed with age.…
You have probably seen an igloo before (even just on videos) and wondered just how in the world some frozen water can keep a person warm. I mean, it’s made out of ice! But according to Joe Hanson of It’s Okay To Be Smart, there are specific reasons that can explain the igloo’s ability to…
After carving a wooden spoon using a spoon, you would think craftsman Alex Apollonov wouldn’t have any more inception-like tricks up his apron. Well, you would be sorely mistaken for thinking so. Upon discovering a stray tree stump in his backyard, Apollonov decided that the best way to get rid of the said tree would…
Back in 2009, LEGO partnered with Japanese company Muji and it’s hard to see why. The former is a Danish toy company known for making plastic bricks while the latter is a retail company widely known for its clothing, furniture, and stationery, just to name a few. So, what really spurred LEGO and Muji to…
Owning pets is like having 5-year-old children around you 24/7. While their Instagram photos and videos paint a picture of a perfect world, life behind the scenes is anything but. You have to train them, feed them, and worst of all… clean up their mess, specifically their dung! No one likes to clean someone (or…
When you buy a safe, padlock, or any kind of security device, you want that device to keep your stuff safe. Sadly, a lot of these devices aren’t up to snuff and do a poor job of keeping your valuables away from prying hands. So how do you tell the good security devices from the…
Metalworks require a lot of time, patience, and hard work. Moreover, the materials for metalworking aren’t cheap or easy to come by, so it’s always nice to see some old chunks of metal get recycled into something new. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-846gmAeNU8&t=648s&ab_channel=BlackBeardProjects Italian metalworker Black Beard Projects thought it would be a good idea to break down a…
Unless you’ve been in a vehicular accident (which I hope you haven’t), you won’t notice how much road barriers have evolved over the years. Despite what you see on television, these accident prevention materials have actually gotten better at saving lives rather than ending them. It just so happens that the small percentage of deaths…
You can see them in almost every appliance you own. No, I’m not talking about buttons or switches; I’m talking about those two holes in your electrical plugs. Well, what are those for? I bet you’re thinking that they must have some specific purposes, right? The guy behind Silver Cymbal is just as curious as…
If you’ve ever covered your eyes with a blindfold, you know how hard living could be without one of your five senses. Being blind is tough. Even restoring your sight using the newfangled eye surgeries would mean a great sum of money. But what if there was an app – a handy, affordable app- that…
Minecraft is a simple game that anyone can play it: kids, adults, even people with disabilities. But for hardcore players, the game can also be a way to test one’s creativity. Not just within the confines of the game’s rules, but also with how one plays it. Since the game was too easy for him…
When you hear the word “unstoppable”, chances are you think of something heavy and made from a strong material. No soft stuff made from plastic would fall into that concept, you said. Well, this vine robot is going to prove you wrong. In an interview with Derek Muller for his YouTube channel Veritasium, Dr. Elliot…
A few years ago, on a nice walk on the beach, knife enthusiast kiwami japan found a plastic bottle. Then he found an empty coffee can and a packet of unopened nori flakes. After sifting through the tons of trash he found washed ashore, he eventually came upon the remnants of half a shark’s jaw.…
Since it comes with its own assembly kit, you would think that making a fire pit patio would be a walk in the backyard. That was not the case for the guys behind the Bro Builds YouTube channel. Eager to get the most out of their kit, these DIY enthusiasts tried a couple of things…
When you’re a kid, concepts of prejudice and discrimination don’t exist. It is only when we are subject to others that hurtful notions like sexism and racism seep into our subconscious – altering the way we look at the world. The LEGO company is a group that always strives for inclusion, so it’s a wonder…
Though my office chair provides great comfort, there are times I would rather stand whilst working. Think about it: you get better blood flow when you do this. You’ll be more awake and alert which helps you get away from that tempting afternoon nap. Not to just that! Also, consider the amount of exercise your…
Even though we associate the lava lamp with the 80s and 90s, many don’t realize this tantalizing invention has been around since the 1960s. Imagined by entrepreneur Edward Craven Walker, these lamps took inspiration from an old egg timer made from a liquid-filled cocktail shaker. After seeing it in a pub, Walker took the idea…
https://youtu.be/kbK3oDsvivc Disclaimer: This exercise was purely for experimental and exploratory purposes. Although I hoped that I would gain insights on how to better sketch in perspective by transferring the 2 point cube sketch into SOLIDWORKS, the success of the exercise wasn’t tied to the outcome. Sometimes, it’s fun to try things and follow one’s instinct…
The head of a common axe is usually made from a single, solid piece of metal. Not only does this give the tool a more solid cutting surface; it also provides the axe the weight it needs to be swung properly. This axe by YouTube channel Mr. Inventor may not be the most suitable tool…
Finding the right free 3D modeling software that will fit your current skills and knowledge can be a challenge. For beginners, any type of this software is a tad intimidating. With a variety of software out there, finding a simple one can be truly a bit of work. If you are someone who is just…
You know what sucks? Working hundreds of hours on a project, only to have the project break right in front of you. This is the sad reality Bobby Duke had to deal with one of his sculptures. After carving a bucket and hand sculpture and painstakingly gluing thousands of pencils to create a flowing rainbow…
Normally when you make a knife, you have two main parts: the blade and the handle. The former is normally made out of some kind of metal while the latter is made from a separate material that provides a good grip like wood or rubber. While full tang knives exist (meaning the metal covers the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
https://youtu.be/zJXQxtx5e4s The best way to learn something is by a technique called spaced repetition, flashcards. I’ve made 180 flashcards so that you can pass the Solidworks CSWP with a 100% score like I did. I utilized the following resources to compose the flashcards: -Gabriel Corbett’s Linkedin Learning CSWP course *BONUS: Did you know that…
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…
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,…
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…
Don’t you just hate it when you get a flat tire? Apart from the fact that it messes into your precious driving time, you even have to bother changing the tire on the side of the road and get it vulcanized sometime later. YouTube channel Ban bekas & kerajinan has decided to make something new…
Origami, the Japanese art of folding paper into interesting shapes, is without a doubt a very delicate process. Not only you need to have the foresight for the specific shape you want to make, but you also have to be careful enough not to rip the delicate paper you’re working on. While most of us…
This is a new one: instead of making a unique project of his own, YouTuber The Q’s latest endeavor takes inspiration from none other than Homer Simpson himself. In one of the older Simpsons episodes, the iconic yellow lug creates a chair he claims no one can fall from. Rather than buying or making a…
Your bike is most likely the first thing that gave you your first experience of driving. Having your own set of wheels enables you to go wherever you want. This gives us the absolute luxury of liberation. However, what could hinder this exhilarating moment is your bike’s uncomfortable seat. Bicycle seats haven’t changed much over…
There are two types of first time LEGO builders: those who stack LEGOs randomly as high as they possibly can, and those who make impressive structures such as… cars! And while I’m still extremely proud of the 20-brick high wall I made when I was 4-years-old, I, as an adult now, see how much more…