I’m watching the video for a new 3D Printer project on Kickstarter. “Are there not enough of those EACH WEEK?!” Well, with this one I’m thinking… or rather, my skin is crawling out of itself (if that’s possible) growing a brainstem of it’s own and thinking, “Great gobs of laser-fused resin, FINALLY, new 3D print…

After being stuck in an engineering job that left her feeling like ‘a coma victim’, design engineer and artist Nicole Hodson decided it was time for a change and decided to switch things up a bit by studying furniture crafting techniques. Flash forward a few years later and her company Ciseal has become a go-to…

Lo and behold, a wee update popped up on the Autodesk CAM page today. An update with a shiny ‘NEW’ badge to share that Autodesk has actually finished development of their very own native CAM app for Inventor. And like its companion app and predecessor HSMXpress for SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor HSM Express is completely free.

Founded in 2010 by students from Aalto University in Finland, ideas2cycles aims to bring wild and new bicycle design concepts to market as quickly and efficiently as possible. Using 3D printing to speed up their development process, the small company consisting of a single industrial designer and an engineer have found a unique and affordable…

It came with little surprise that those having the most fun at the Faire were those that required a (very happy) chaperone. From the crowd surrounding the ‘Make-Your-Own Marshmallow Shooters’ stand to the long line waiting to get into the ‘Learn How to Solder’ tent, you might have mistaken all the kid-centric excitement as a…

It’s no secret: 3D printing and other methods of digital fabrication are more popular than ever before. From access to 3D printers becoming increasingly easier to 3D modeling tools that even 5 year olds can use, the presence of 3D printing at this year’s Maker Faire highlighted just how far 3D printing has come in…

While the iPhone 5S shares many similarities as the iPhone 5 (as expected), the iPhone 5C is an entirely different manufacturing ballgame. In the announcement keynote, Apple’s VP of Design Jony Ive confidently noted that the iPhone 5C is ‘unapologetically plastic’. Those two simple words are still burned into my brain over a week later…

It’s been a dream of sci-fi fans for years: the flexible, semi-transparent digital newspaper that can fold up and be placed under your arm. That dream is a tad bit closer to reality today as Chinese researchers have released a video of their recent developments in creating the necessary materials for further developing flexible and…

Repurposing existing industrial products into a static sculpture is a beast to tackle in itself, but what about creating kinetic sculptures that actually…play decent music…and have a social message behind them? Artist Pedro Reyes has done just that with his collection of eight new instruments created from repurposed firearms. Built in collaboration with several musicians…

It is no secret that high-fashion is like history; it is known to repeat itself. While the latest fads might not always be carbon-copies of their predecessors, the roots of modern style are often painfully obvious to those with an observant eye—and eyeglasses themselves might be the perfect example of this. With the recent rise…

Remember the crew over at iGo3D who just opened up their fancy-schmancy brick and mortar store? Well, it seems that little opening is all part of bigger plans to have exclusive launch parties for new and improved 3D printers. This Friday, they will throw another shin-dig, teaming up with Ultimaker, to launch the Ultimaker 2.…

If I could do a website completely dedicated to 3d printed catapults, I would. In fact, from now on, SolidSmack is all 3D printed catapults, all the time. I kid of course. There are simply not enough 3D printed catapults to make that topic interesting, However, there is one which is quite interesting. Jonas Dalidd…

When the MakerBot Digitizer was announced a few weeks ago, it was considered a milestone for bringing 3D scanning to the masses. Could it be that a better and cheaper 3D scanner will be entering the market before Christmas as well? The Rubicon 3D Scanner is the Indiegogo project launched yesterday that aims to lop…

How do you open your first 3D print store? Why you kick off the event by cutting a 3D printed chain with a pair of bolt cutters. That’s exactly what iGo3D did. An established online 3D print source/supplier, they’re bringing on the brick-and-mortor, opening the doors over the weekend to the iGo3D Store, the first…

Here’s a treat for those who take to the street screaming “La revolución consolidada!” Last week we revealed that AIO Robotics, a small start-up out of the University of Southern California (USC) would be launching the “World’s First All-in-one 3D Copy Machine.” The functions include 3D printing, 3D scanning, copying and faxing (from one copier…

It’s that awkward pause during the conversation around the dinner table. You and your pea-tossing children have just found out your mom is listing her 3D printer online. She’s making necklaces and bracelets for the ladies down at the craft barn and padding her retirement income quite nicely with cash and discarded ABS spools. How’s…

When most people think of the word ‘frugal’, manufacturing their own silverware and flatware using household appliances and items found around the apartment don’t usually come to mind. When it comes to conceptual experiments in small scale manufacturing however, that’s a different story. Using everything from a disassembled embroidery hoop as a rotating cast in…

To begin with, I don’t know whether to file this under ‘Fabrication’ or just plain crazy—but either way, it’s definitely a spectacle to behold. In preparation for the launch of the new Nike Free Flyknit (a mashup between the popular Flyknit shoe and Nike Free Midsole), Nike China decided to pull a ‘guerilla-yet-not-really-guerilla’ marketing campaign…

Few things could be as satisfying as the primal act of burying yourself deep in the Latvian woods for the winter season making knives by hand, yet the talented crew at John Neeman Tools lives this reality every day. Their mission? To use their blacksmith and woodworking knowledge that’s been passed down through many generations…

While there are plenty of books on the various methods of fabrication techniques, a select few ever appear on the subject of modelmaking and protoyping for product design purposes. Sure, there is value in learning dovetail joints and proper bandsaw maintenance, but the core values of these existing books tend to veer into ‘shop class’…

The swollen artery of 3D printers on the market keeps expanding. I would say it has burst open, spewing endless configurations of plastic, epoxy or powder binding possibilities across your workshop/office floor. You would think there’s not much innovation or improvement left with the explosion of 3D printers we’ve seen… unless you have actually used…

For as long as the human race has had access to 3D printers, they’ve dreamt of creating a 3D printed skateboard… Well, maybe not the entire human race, but a few imaginative persons have dreamt of printing custom decks and one of them has made it happen. 3DPRINTUK posted the result of the CGTrader 3D…

For his ‘about’ section on his Behance profile page, designer Francois Xavier Saint Georges of Montreal describes his work as “low tech, bare hands, and experimental”. With that in mind, it’s not surprising that his slingshot design is entirely void of the actual ‘slingshot’ itself. With his clever go-anywhere design, you can pack this badboy…

File this under your ‘reasons to get a CNC machine in the near future’ if you don’t already have access to one. OpenDesk is the new open source furniture design resource from the team behind FabHub that aims to explore new models for open and collaborative design of digitally fabricated free modern furniture designs that…

As reported by SolidSmack last week, MakerBot has announced that the MakerBot Digitizer 3D scanner is ready for pre-order. In the announcement video released today, MakerBot Founder and CEO Bre Pettis encourages you to “blaze a trail into the future…this is an amazing adventure we get to go on together.” So it is.

Ah, the memories of learning about manufacturing techniques back in freshman year of design school. I’ll never forget when my Manufacturing Processes teacher pulled out a run-of-the-mill plastic car model kit and explained to us the process and complexities of injection molding. Flash forward to today, I find myself reverse engineering at least a handful…

The folks over at WhiteClouds Labs certainly know how to strike the iron when the iron is hot. Their recently released video of Elon Musk’s (who is he again?) Hyperloop concept in 3D printed form is quite possibly the most satisfying rendition of any and all concepts posted since the open source initiative went into…

Pencils. They’re all the rage with kids these days. You can write with them, draw with them, chew on them and absorb the graphite directly into your blood stream. Unfortunately, the common pencil is a bit drab. So to prevent someone from becoming offended at that drabness and stabbing the pencil in your jugular, there’s…

Computer Science Ph.D. students Kai Chang and Jens Windau of tech startup AIO Robotics have just announced that they’ve been developing an ‘All-in-One’ 3D copy machine similar to that of what we have seen with 2D printers. The ‘copier’ from Chang and Windau would essentially let you be able to scan, print, copy, and fax…

When you’re thinking about squeezing those mashed taters between your fingers and your elbow skin starts to flare, it usually means one thing. You have a hankering for some completely unfettered week-night sculpting insanity. Now, you have quite a few options out there, the newest of which is Cubify Sculpt. 3D Systems announced the new…

There are three things I throw away on a daily basis; Scraps of wood, lint from the pocket of a woolen yak coat, and business cards. I dare you to throw this business card away. It may look like your standard 2.5″ x 3.0″ infocard of someone you met at that one conference, but it…

Hot off the heels of their announcement that they’ll be setting up shop within the cozy confines of Microsoft retail stores across the US, MakerBot has also just announced that they’ll be releasing their coveted 3D scanner next week. According to their announcement via their mailing list, MakerBot has “optimized the whole process to work…

It seems like we’re in no shortage of inspirational short maker films these days, and The Secret Story of Toys is the latest to catch our attention. Kansas City, Missouri-based filmmaker Anthony Ladesich of Mile Deep Films has documented the often-overlooked craft of toy sculpting and the processes behind making those toys real manufacturable products…much…

You can have my new XBox One—this is the only toy that I really want this holiday season. Glassified is a modified ruler with a transparent display that supplements physical strokes made on the paper with virtual graphics—consider it an augmented reality of sorts for simple lines on a page. Before I make it sound…

There are only a few things I wish to have at some point in my life. I can get by without the chocolate fountain or the Jello pool, but a fully-stocked wood shop in the woods of the Pacific Northwest is one thing I don’t think I’ll ever drop from my list. Frank Howarth is…

Of all the application 3D printing has, there is none kinder than that of providing a printed shelter. Particularly if the residents are 6-legged crustaceans with soft, spirally abdomens. All species of hermit crabs move to a larger home as they grow, most commonly using shells, but also known to commandeer broken bottles or hollow…

I know you’ve nearly filled up your hard-drive with all those selfie shots you post to Instagram and Facebook. Just imagine, however, if that mobile device was a handheld 3D scanner, capable of capturing your porous cheek flaps and gorgeous skin tones. It’s happening with the push of a button and a triple-flash of 3D…

Shower rings? iPhone cases? Banana Hooks? Watering Spouts? Whatever products you might create on your 3D printer as an alternative to purchasing said products, researchers at Michigan Technological University have determined that after a years’ time, you will most likely have paid for the 3D printer in money saved alone. Ultimately, this brings up perhaps…

Every once in a while we hear about a Maker with zero previous making experience come by and run circles around those who have been in the business of making for years. Ivan Sentch of Auckland, New Zealand is one of those Makers who only last December picked up his first 3D printer for $499.…

I’m certain one of your favorite things is to dream of complicated and highly frustrating mathematical puzzles that boggle the mind. If so, you’ve heard of Henry Segerman and his wonderful creations. Henry is a mathematician at the University of Melbourne. He loves math(s) and he loves art(s). He and fellow mathematician Saul Schleimer have…

When it was announced nearly a month ago that Microsoft Windows 8.1 would natively support 3D printing similar to that of printing directly to a paper printer, the news was greeted with open arms in the maker and tech communities. With the release of Windows 8.1, a user will be able to plug their 3D…

While the concept of 3D printing eyewear frames isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, new company Protos is aiming to use 3D printing as a method of final manufacture on a mass market scale. For those with tiny noses, wide faces, or anything that’s overlooked in ‘stock’ eyewear designs, this just might be the next Warby Parker for…

Outside of Need for Speed and other driving simulator videogames, the knowledge of ‘real’ manual transmission driving is dying out with younger generations of drivers. Ford engineer Zachary Nelson is aiming to change all that with a new 3D printed shift knob that tells you when to shift based on haptic feedback—essentially creating the physical…

If you’ve been looking for a way to keep those SolidWorks muscles strong and your History Tree Zen operating at it’s prime, consider the newly-released SolidWorks 101 Course from acclaimed industrial designer Adam O’Hern (AKA ‘the cadjunkie’). Unlike other industrial design tutorial series, Adam keeps the long, awkward pauses out and the intensity full throttle…all…

SIGGRAPH 2013 has been kicking into full gear the past couple of days, and among other exciting news to come out of the Anaheim, California event is the announcement from Microsoft Research that they are developing embedded ID tags for 3D printed objects. Titled InfraStructs, the internal tags are created from the same 3D printing…

Recently, Shapeways announced a new ‘Maker-Only’ material in the form of Elasto Plastic – a high strength, high flexibility, low detail silicone-like material. Today, Shapeways introduced yet another material offering for all you happy-go-lucky Makers: Gold Plated Brass. Speaking of which, I’m pretty sure a Crania Anatomica Filigre from Joshua Harker would look good on…

It started with a 3D printed pinhole camera for hobbyists. Enthusiasts took it to the other extreme seeking ultimate quality with the wildly successful Travelwide 4×5 kickstarter campaign. Twenty-four year old Léo Marius has taken the middle road this time around with his project OpenReflex; a 35mm film SLR concept created with…you guessed it, a…

It sounds typical. A small startup launches a Kickstarter project that achieves funding in record time. Kytelabs is not only the new startup that has achieved funding in this story, but is distinguished as one of the fastest growing hardware campaigns on Kickstarter. In June, they launched the BLEduino project, bucking the status quo and…

Shaving your head, eyebrows and facial hair to instantly apply a putty to your face when the time calls for it is an important skill nowadays, especially considering the joy you’ll bring with various candies added to the outer layer. There are a few options, but frankly, decoupage and papier-mâché is just so messy. Silicone…

Somewhere in a galaxy far, far away the LEGO Deathstar is silently weeping laser tears as it hides under the blanket. Yes, the LEGO Deathstar has been dethroned as the coolest lego project ever…by a DIY project that yes, YOU can build if you feel so inclined. The LEGObot is the brainchild of engineering student…