The FormBox is an inexpensive table-top vacuum former, and they say it’s “a perfect partner for your 3D printer”. What’s a vacuum former? A vacuum former a simple manufacturing system that uses molding principles to form 3D shapes. The idea is to heat a thin sheet of thermoplastic to the point where it is soft…

It’s no secret that Adam Savage is a big Nerf fan and incredibly fond of the company’s Rival Nemesis MXVII-10K 100-round assault weapon. As with any piece of equipment though, the Tested star is capable of taking it to the limit of what it can do, which is what he did with the Nemesis- transforming…

Not everybody sees a chainsaw and immediately thinks “wood cutting tool”. Thanks to pop culture, some are more likely to bring up images of Jason from Friday the 13th than a lumberjack doing his job. Well, YouTube creator ThisOldTony has the same problem – only instead of seeing fictional serial killers, he sees the ideal…

Despite its myriad of uses, not everything can be solved with the common Swiss Army Knife. There are times when you need something with a bit more “oomph”; be it a heavy-duty multi-tool for the outdoors, or just one which latches onto a keychain for easy access. In the case of the classic Leatherman tools,…

Since its founding in 1995, Lockheed Martin has made a myriad of contributions to the aerospace industry with groundbreaking new technologies. With the introduction of 3D printers and the onset of additive manufacturing, Lockheed has leveraged these tools to create everything from missile components to spacecraft parts. The aerospace company can now add giant 3D…

An anonymous tipster has provided the solution to last week’s Solidscape event. If you missed it, Stratasys unexpectedly sold their subsidiary, Solidscape, to Prodways for an undisclosed amount of cash. Solidscape produces high-end wax 3D printers mainly for the jewelry industry, whereas Prodways delivers large-scale production 3D printers for industry–quite a bit different. Our thought was that…

Not everybody knows how to play the game, but almost anyone can appreciate the quality of a good chess set. The smoothness of the pieces, the feel of the metal – it makes you wonder how some of the most expensive sports equipment is used on a tabletop “board” game. But not New York designer…

There’s a very interesting story that’s slowly being told, industry after industry. This is one of them. In Milan, Europe’s largest Opera House, La Scala, was to put on a performance of Don Pasquale. During one of the scenes, the production managers and set designers decided the soprano was to sing from within an automobile,…

Humans these days are so dependent on the technologies our ancestors created. From the simple wheel to the high-tech computer, it feels like living without these inventions in this day and age is just downright impossible. What if we didn’t have them in our daily lives? What if we turned back time? Designer Nikolas Bentel…

Aerosint has received a large funding round to support their highly unusual 3D printer development. The company, based in Liges, Belgium, has produced a rather unusual 3D printing process that to my knowledge has not been used elsewhere. While we wrote about it in detail some time ago, I can summarize it as follows. Aerosint uses a…

Xometry made its first acquisition, and it’s a big one. Last we reported, Xometry was up to $23M in two rounds of funding. Since then, they’ve added another round ($15M in June 2017) and just this week announced another $25M bringing the total up to $63M from seven different investors. Along with the $25M round announced this…

About a week ago, I talked about how YouTube user kiwami japan made an insanely sharp knife out of an Amazon cardboard box. Somewhere in the same article, I mentioned in passing about how he recently made a knife out of jelly. Well, curiosity got the better of me, so I had to see how…

We’ve seen some pretty neat wood carvings recently. From a mind-boggling dowel puzzle to hefty river table, woodworkers all over the world have shown there’s just as much creativity within dead trees as there are in hunks of metal. This time around, woodworker Andy Phillip is taking wooden art for a fantastical spin. Taking the…

Unlike wood or plastic, cutting metal on a CNC requires a lot more precision – needing use of both a high cutting speed and a specific spindle speed ratio to get those eyewatering-clean edges. To keep up with the high rotation speeds, the area around the milling area also has to keep cool to avoid…

As if making a kitchen knife out of aluminium foil wasn’t scary enough, YouTube user kiwami japan has outdone himself by making one of the sharpest kitchen utensils out of measly cardboard (you know, the stuff you usually cut with knives). Creating a cutting tool out of a harmless material isn’t as easy as sharpening…

Zippable is a novel approach to make most any stuffable, huggable 3D fabric-based shape you can think of. As the name suggests, a zipper is used as the closure system. But what’s really cool about Zippables is the super long spiraling zippers. The spiraling motion as the zipper is closed, magically transforms a twisty, curvy…

It happened fast, but drones these days are a dime a dozen. With the air filled with hovering robots, you need something to make your drone stand out from the standard store-bought crowd. DRAGON (short for “Dual-rotor embedded multi-link Robot with the Ability of multi-deGree-of-freedom aerial transformation”) might be the coolest drone concept you’ve ever…

The company launched their product not too long ago but is receiving a great deal of attention and one might say their venture is entirely successful. In today’s ultra-competitive professional 3D partner market it is often difficult for companies to stand out among the dozens of alternative machines. AON3D decided to focus on 3D printers…

If the smell of coffee can’t wake you up in the morning, there is one more thing you can try: engine oil. Okay, it may be a stretch, but Italian YouTube creator Rulof Maker has taken these two strong scents and mixed them together. How? By making an espresso machine out of an old piston…

He’s at it again… We’ve seen the wild range of garage invention hijinks that YouTuber Colin Furze has gotten into—including a working Jet-powered bicycle and a homemade hoverbike—so it comes with little surprise that 5-year-old “Little Furze” would eventually come knocking on dad’s workshop door with his own requests. “Dad, can you make me a…

You may take it for granted (what with all the cars in your neighborhood), but a large percentage of the Netherlands population (27% to be exact) heavily rely on bikes for their day-to-day commute. So it’s pretty sad when you realize most bicycles in the country are manufactured overseas— effectively increasing their cost. Due to…

Anyone can impress their friends and family by playing a musical instrument, but a real musician knows when to break the mold and crank it up a notch or five. Justin Johnson has played his fair share of guitars over his career, so it only made sense for him to make one no one else…

I’m looking at a very interesting concept 3D printer from engineer Swaleh Owais. The “WorkHorse 3D” is a 3D printer able to do some functions few other machines can accomplish. First, it is one of several “continuous” 3D printers in that it can, by itself, automatically unload prints and commence 3D printing a subsequent object.…

The New Story charity organization may have beaten them to the first punch, but that sure won’t stop the Eindhoven University of Technology, contractor Van Wijnen, real estate company Vesteda, materials company Saint Gobain-Weber Beamix, and engineering firm Witteveen+Bos from setting up five 3D printed concrete houses in Bosrijk, a relatively new residential district in…

Researchers from MIT have developed a new technique to enable highly detailed, multi-material 3D prints from 3D scanners. “By using voxel-printing methods, superfluous preparation overhead and loss in detail can be prevented. This approach enables one to directly translate volumetric property gradients to 3D printable material gradients. Hence, if preservation of the given data representation…

Deadly objects crafted by and from molten metal are nothing new here on Solidsmack, but it isn’t every day you see an old hardware material get repurposed into a Southeast Asian curved knife. This is precisely what Australian knifemaker Steve has done with an old drill bit he found in one of his drawers. With…

I’m reading a brief analysis by Gartner’s Pete Basiliere on how 3D printing could affect business models. Business models, of course, are critical devices for the successful operation of a business. They define how money is spent and collected based on the creation and distribution of value to clients. Companies without business models are not…

Continuing work on his cellphone charger prototype, industrial designer Eric Strebel takes this opportunity to show how he completes his designs with a bit of high gloss finish. After taking out the electronic components, he fills in the imperfections of the foam using some polyester body filler before sanding it down and coating it in…

Engraving isn’t just for little league trophies or IT departments; for Bram Ramon, it’s an evolving art medium. Ever since he started working on fine jewelry and eventually making his way to expensive watches, Bram has been on the search for what he calls “the beautiful line” – traditional engraving techniques which he makes with…

If you miss the joy of throwing quarters down a cheap arcade machine or working on a gigantic LEGO creation, then this unique project might fill both of those gaping holes from your youthful glory days. LEGO creator Bre Burns’ love for arcade machines was so strong, she decided to make Benny’s Spaceship Adventure –…

As Avengers: Infinity War makes its way towards the box office-shattering $2 billion global earnings milestone, it comes as little surprise that the superhero movie has inspired a small legion of creators to don their maker capes and create their renditions of the iron-clad superhero troop. Among others is the SolidSmack favorite wacky garage inventor…

We all know Eric Strebel is a savant when it comes to prototype making. He’s done a hundred cast parts from a single master part, used a CNC machine to manufacture 200 vaccum-formed panels, and even showed us how to finish and paint different molds. In his latest video, Strebel dips into the world of…

Researchers at CMU’s Morphing Matter Lab have developed a technique for 4D printing that could prove popular. 4D printing, if you are not familiar, is a variation of 3D printing in which the printed object is not static but somehow changes shape after normal 3D printing completes. There are a number of research projects underway…

Back before having a car, having a bike meant you were the coolest kid on the block; it said you could go anywhere, do anything, and cause untold bodily harm to yourself when you fell flat on your face. As you get older though, having a car becomes way more chill than owning a bike.…

Tires are amazing. Until, you know, they run out of air or altogether pop in the middle of a trip. Seeking to make your daily commute less of a hassle, 3D printer manufacturer BigRep just made a bicycle tire which doesn’t go flat or runs out of air. The wheel uses the company’s PRO FLEX…

Though its cardboard applications are definitely finite, you can’t deny the Nintendo Labo is a fine piece of DIY hardware. For those unfamiliar, the cardboard bits can be assembled with the Nintendo Switch and Joy-Con controllers to create some pretty interactive constructs including a fishing rod, a piano, or even a giant mech. While these…

Nike announced a new “3-D Printed” running shoe, but it seems a bit strange to me. The new shoe, released in time for the famous London Marathon, is made using their new “Flyprint” method. This is quite a competitive move, as their major nemesis, Adidas, has been 3D printing amazing midsoles using Carbon’s technology in recent…

We can always depend on industrial designer Eric Strebel to put a ton of effort into every project he makes—especially when it comes to his YouTube videos that unveil many design tips and tricks. In his latest, Strebel showcases how he makes his prototypes look so dang remarkable—from filling imperfections to achieving that perfect coat…

M3D is well known for their inexpensive desktop 3D printers, but now they’ve added a very different machine to their product line. The new “Crane Quad” system is a full-color desktop 3D printer with a price said to be less than USD$500. Previously the company marketed single or dual extrusion machines that proved very popular,…

When you typically think of a CNC machine, you’re likely to envision a gigantic monstrosity that makes its home in a corner of a factory and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. I mean, you wouldn’t be wrong. The SwissMak Desktop CNC Machine, however, seeks to provide the same milling quality at a significantly lower…

Repurposing old materials and using them to create something new—also known as Upcycling— is a great idea. Rather than throwing out those used materials, they can be utilized for many ingenious projects if you’re willing to stretch that creative muscle enough. Many upcycled projects have to deal with reclaimed wood—such as using an old barn…

For some strange reason, humans sure love to knock themselves on the head with countless mind puzzles. The Rubik’s Cube, Chess—heck, even Candy Crush are all examples of how we have a penchant for exercising our minds in different ways. This wooden dowel puzzle by Instructables user mtairymd is no different. It may sound easy…

You may think creating cosplay (the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game) costumes involves locking yourself up in a garage and making do with whatever spare hardware supplies are lying around—and you wouldn’t be far from correct! A lot of good cosplayers do precisely this; but with…

Your product design is ready, your prototype works and you want to hit the store shelves as soon as possible. But how? Manufacturing looks easy on “How it’s made”, whether it’s a Ferrari FF or Jawbreakers, everything sold to consumers has been manufactured to some degree. While things run smoothly in established factories across the…

Need a fix of retro nostalgia mash-up? We’ve got one to make your drool tubs. Colin of Why Not Make It is to blame for your sudden craving to combine a 19080’s boombox and Super Nintendo (Chalmers). Being born in a time where the video games were simpler/better and the music players a lot bigger/doper, he took it upon…

FoldStar provides a very unusual 3D model generation system. The New Jersey-based company’s product, by the same name, is a generative system to dynamically create 3D models of folded geometry. Here’s how it works, in their words: Doubly-Periodic Folding Tessellations are a versatile family of deployable materials that repeat a pattern in “row” and “column”…

If you’re looking for a video game to play with friends or your kids, Rocket League is a great way to remove stress, bond with them, and crush them in race to the finish intensity. It’s basically soccer only, instead of football players, you’re controlling a virtual RC car which can double jump and rocket…

When working on a project for a client, designer Eric Strebel likes to help out his fellow man by dropping some of his own modelling tips and tricks along the way. He’s already showed us how to create casting boxes, approximately a hundred cast parts from scratch, and his personal process for low volume manufacturing.…

If you thought 3D printing an entire jet engine was a ambitious task, you aren’t thinking big enough… at least as far as size is concerned. 3D printed houses have been attempted in various ways, but we’ve been keeping our eye on what non-profit organization New Story and for-profit construction firm ICON is doing. They…

It’s always nice to see well-designed creations built from relatively cheap materials. With a little ingenuity and (in some cases) a lot of hard work, you don’t need a fortune to craft something worthy of a showroom floor. Among others, master builder Mike Clifford recently proved this with his homemade white glass-fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC)…