Those who use a 3D mouse swear that once you use one, there’s no going back to using CAD without one. It’s hard to argue that it can dramatically change your entire modeling experience and speed up your process tenfold when used effectively. 3D mouse maker 3D Connexion offers an entry-level 3D mouse for $99,…

Recently, SolidSmack reported on this new ad campaign from Scottish whiskey maker DeWars promoting their new Highlander Honey Whiskey recipe. Using 80,000 bees, sculptures were created by bees using pre-shaped templates for hive production. We noted that between the recent MIT Silk pavilion and some other recent projects, the use of natural fabricators in modern…

With all the recent talk surrounding Apple’s iOS 7 redesign and the push for creating better harmony between software and hardware design, it’s easy to overlook an industry that has been tackling this design problem for years: the digital camera industry. Nikon’s design department recently released a video that takes us behind the scenes of…

Not sure about you, but I enjoy a plate of steaming hot Styrofoam chunks and raw silicon rubber in the morning. I enjoy it even more when it’s chock full of electronic and re-soldered PCB bits. Delicious. Now, take that and turn it into a lesson on form, function and recycling a USB mouse to…

Shapeways recently announced a new material, a ‘Maker-only’ material called Elasto Plastic–high strength, high flexibility, low detail and smoothness. I was intrigued. What wondrous creations could be manufactured with this wondrous material? Having created many other items with many other materials via Shapeways, there was definitely a lot of possibility for a more flexible material.…

Regardless of which side of the fence you’re on with Google Glass, one thing is for certain: it will most certainly come in handy at times. Google Glass user Todd Blatt recently used his Google Glass to capture photos hands-free at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. The photos were then sent to Autodesk’s 123D…

Reverse that Z-axis and cool the extruders. The print beds of the 3D Printing scene are amalgamating into a massive prosumer platform with two 3D Print manufacturers joining forces. Two weeks ago we reported on the rumored acquisition of MakerBot. Our first guess was Stratasys and although we thought that it was “highly unlikely that…

What does it take to design and build giant robots that fight each other to total destruction in four months? This week we had the chance to sit down and talk with robot designer Mark Setrakian about designing robots for the new SyFy tv show Robot Combat League. We’ll hear about what software he uses,…

It seems as though biomimicry has taken on new meanings as of late—between the recent MIT Silk Pavilion and now this Dewars marketing campaign, ‘natural fabricators’ have been getting just as much attention as the latest 3D printer Kickstarter campaign. To help generate hype for their new Highlander Honey whiskey release, Dewars is live-streaming the…

The season of “Yet Another 3D Printer” has arrived (to the point we have considered doing a ‘3D printer of the week’ segment). 3D Print manufacturers are a dime-a-dozen it seems and are having to differentiate themselves big time. Not only to compete with the established players, but to compete among the variety of kit…

There’s nothing quite like curling up in a one-of-a-kind leather safari chair, made to look distinctly like the one you remember from your childhood trip through the Serengeti. A pack of lions got that one, but this one… this one is just like it, but even better, because this one is custom made. I bet…

The garage. Such a lonely place to sift through drawers of resistors and unsorted hardware. Look into that glaring flood light illuminating your workbench and dream that dream, once again, of starting your very own hackerspace. Adafruit has posted a great guide on How to Start a Hackerspace created by Eric Michaud who, as you…

The low hum of 3D printers echoed through the historic warehouse in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park District this morning as MakerBot ‘Productors’ were busy at work building Replicator 2’s and 2X’s. Today, Bre Pettis and NYC city representatives presented the all new MakerBot Factory…a two-story 50,000 sq ft warehouse filled with nothing but…you guessed it…MakerBots up…

Do what? “It’s a mask.” I said. Walking into the grocery story on 5th avenue, you would think the typical stares, the people piling their probiotic drinks and organic nut bars into their recyclable bags, would be fewer. That is until a baby cries and his big sister yells, “HIS FACE SKIN IS A GENERATIVE…

Neri Oxman just can’t help being Neri Oxman. Always on the forefront of the next big thing, she famously revealed a line of runway-ready 3D printed apparel before 3D printing was even a buzzword. Revealed this week, the latest project to come out of Neri’s innovative Mediated Matter program at MIT centers around the intersection…

Back in July of 2012, Shapeways teased Makers with a new material offering in the form of Black Elasto. Revealed this week, the NEW Elasto Plastic is a refined offering for Shapeways Makers that while still in it’s experimental stage, is readily available and looks extremely promising. Let’s take a look.

Low and behold, the newest version of SketchUp has arrived. Come hither you geometry shaping device of delight. Since being acquired from Google by Trimble Navigation last April, the only update has been a stylish new logo. That all changed last week with the launch of SketchUp 2013. The name changes from version number to…

Ahh the world of iPhone case designs. It seems that ever since Apple posted the iPhone blueprints for case designers, it is impossible to escape ‘the next big thing in iPhone case design’…especially when it involves 3D printing. Perhaps Graft Concepts is one of the more unique case designers, however. By creating a system of…

The art of manipulating wood can be traced back centuries ago when even stone was being manipulated to have more flexible properties. Last year, designer Elisa Strozyk created a range of household goods that are “half wood-half textile, between hard and soft, challenging what can be expected from a material or category. It looks and…

When you’re walking through the hallway slapping a rubber mallet across your mouthhole and both ears to produce an ethereal, hollow song, people may first wonder how you’ve managed to grow a third arm from your lower torso, before becoming enchanted by the rhythm reaching past the waxy depths of their inner ear. Kent Jenkins…

While 3D printing may not be disrupting entire distribution chains, there are quite a few people who will be printing their next iPhone case, or glasses, or headphones, or toy set…rather than purchasing one off of Amazon. While it may be a drop in the bucket, it is still real, and it is a threat.…

We’ve seen some killer 3D robot arm printing come out of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) before in both clay and sand with others exploring recycled plastic, but this new collaboration between researcher, Petr Novikov, and architect, Saša Jokić, is making the print and the printer an absolute art form. Mataerial is…

Nearly a month to the date since they announced the ‘full-color’ desktop 3D printer, botObjects has published new details on their ProDesk3D printer, including specifications, pricing and images. The whole product launch is awash with skepticism from industry insiders due to a lack of physical prints, unrendered product shots, video or detail on how they’re…

While the majority of us may find happiness in 3D prints based off of complicated geometry, there is still a population out there that would love to turn a simple 2D drawing into an extruded shape (cookie cutters anybody?). While the 3D printing market has expanded into 3D print pens and other novelties, the ease…

Raise of filament rolls in the room–who thinks they can open up a website that allows you to 1) download 3D printable files and 2) upload your own to make some cold, hard cash? I know, you’re thinking, “Egad, what is this genius!? The like has yet been seen!” The reality is there are a…

Invented just one year after the invention of Scotch tape in 1930, the tape dispenser is a unique package design-tool hybrid that can be found in just about every household. Due to the frustration of finding the loose end of tape on a roll, 3M Engineer John A. Borden invented the serrated-edge dispenser to keep…

As the number of 3D printers purchased each week increases exponentially, many proud new owners of a 3D printer are also learning the limitations of their new device. Chances are, an entire weekend may have been spent calibrating your printer or waiting for that very first test print. But what about the other limitations of…

File this under your ‘good uses for 3D printing’ stack. The Local Motors Lab Team has been actively using the MakerBot Replicator 2 3D Printer to print prototypes, scale-down versions of parts, and smaller replicated pieces. Lo and behold, one of these sample parts actually found it’s way onto the Rally Fighter as a final…

Have you ever wondered what Willy Wonka’s factory would be making if it ‘existed’ in 2013? After attempting and failing to 3D print a cake for a friend years ago, Silver Lake-based husband and wife design team Kyle and Liz took their understanding of complex geometry and did something Wonka himself would be proud of:…

When Kickstarter first launched, it was a hotbed for garage hobbyists, indie game developers, and the occasional ‘pro’ who wanted to test the crowdfunding market. More recently, the platform has made its way to more commercial projects that while having been successful, are arguably exploiting an indie-based platform and have led some into a pit…

Missed the early adoption period for a Google Glass? Need to see how they frame your pretty mug without forking over the $$$? Sunny Gao, an entrepreneur from China, showed off his replica Google Glass during the the Global Hackathon this past weekend in Shanghai. He also uploaded the file for your 3D printing pleasure.

Here are two phrased I’d like you to let sink in for a few moments. Share and sync models from GitHub. Edit models with OpenSCAD in the browser. If you just frightened your boss with a high-pitched squeal as he walked by, you’re not alone. However, you may also be wondering, “What the gravy is…

Hop on the tube down to Farringdon? You have plenty of markets, historic sites and just down Clerkenwell road, right next to a quaint, little Vespa dealership you have the newly opened iMakr store. In April we told you about the largest 3D printing store coming to London. They’re two weeks in, with interest in…

There are ever-increasing piles of 3D prints being amassed upon the earth–single-color, multicolor and a healthy amount of plastic squiggles that didn’t quite make it through the process. It’s sometimes (always) nice to know how people are going about building and creating the contraptions that lead to hours of tinkering and even more hours of…

Say you’re driving past your favorite office supply store, suddenly realize you’re out of extra large paper clips, slam on the brakes and hightail it across five lanes of traffic to enter the door, where you see… a mound of boxed 3D printers reaching the heights of the ceiling with gangly-looking, red-shirted staff singing a…

I’ve built my share of laser cut catapults and trebuchets in my life, but an entire laser cut castle attack scene? If I could be so lucky. GrabCAD user Andrea Garuti made it happen with his ‘Castle under attack’ entry that won the SolidSmack Laser Cut Toy Design Challenge. Ponoko sponsored a free laser cut…

What would you do if you love lasers, 3d modeling and had an obsessive-compulsive knack for software development and uber-functional design? You would design and launch a 3D scanner that made all other 3D scanners look like shop-class throwbacks. We like the cost of DIY scanners and the resolution and scan area of some high-end…

There’s so much news coming out on 3D Printing this year, it’s becoming difficult to both cover it all and separate out the wheat from the chaff. With printers being announced every other week, new materials and reports of acquisitions, it’s no surprise that 3D printing is getting the coverage it has. Throughout all of…

That roaring tiger head coming out of a lattice work structure? That’s Shapeways. On their blog and at the Inside 3D Printing conference this week, they announced a $30 million round of funding from Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon. He’ll be joining the executive board and, you better believe it 3D shop-makin’, material-bakin’ fiends, Shapeways is…

This is where I really appreciate the facility of having a 3D printer in the home. Instead of chocking up a couple hundred bucks for a semi-pro steadi-cam or building another make-shift camera holder with off-the-shelf parts, print the major components and bolt them together. We just couldn’t wait to put this on Cool Tools…

When it comes to 3D printing, there have been a lot of ‘first’ printed this and ‘World’s only’ 3d printed that. But when it comes to sports gear, the fabbing has been few and far between. It’s for this reason that I (in my mind) ran cross-country to Dave Lee and Jeb Ferria of Signal…

For those who aren’t cranking out 3D prints in full-rotation 24/7, there is another money-making opportunity on the block on par with MakeXYZ. As previously reported by SolidSmack, MakeXYZ is a sort of ‘AirBnB’ concept for your 3D printer. Similar to the concept of renting out a spare room in your house to travelers that…

Aiming at becoming the flagship store for the UK Makers Community, the iMakr store is getting ready for their highly-anticipated grand opening later this month. As previously reported by SolidSmack, the store will stock all things Maker on two stories of retail space. However most importantly, will it be an early example of the ‘office…

Need 600 ice cream spoons for a birthday party tomorrow…straight from your CAD file? In this recently released video from Stratasys, we are able to see just how powerful 3D printing can be in a traditional manufacturing environment. For garage and hackerspace Makers who may only need a few hundred parts for their Kickstarter project…

Between incorporating their color library into Autodesk’s Sketchbook Pro and providing drool-worthy retail displays, Copic is stepping up their marker game even further with the upcoming release of 288 color chips. Featuring matte or gloss on curved and flat surfaces, the new chips will be highly-beneficial for better envisioning your product before you even put…

This week we have the great pleasure to speak with the talented Elliot Blanchard of Invisible Light Network. Elliot is a multi-disciplinary designer who recently presented his latest 3D printed product at Austin’s SXSW Festival. We’ll talk with Elliot about everything from Rhino’s Grasshopper to using the new Shapeways API. Rock.

Some people go around mixing things that shouldn’t be mixed, like macaroni and ketchup, loafers and capri pants or violins and Metallica’s greatest hits, but every once in a while the mix of two objects with completely different functions makes a whole lot of sense. Take for instance The MULTI. Capital letters are warranted for…

As a PhD student at the University of Florida studying Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in controls, Tim Elmore is about to shake up the future of 3D printer filaments. Currently, a spool of your favorite color of ABS (or PLA or PVA) runs just south of $50 at the MakerBot store, not including the…

It’s not quite Halloween yet, but if you’re the type that likes to plan ahead, then you should consider this for that masquerade ball seven months from now. COLLAGENE is a Kinect software application designed to create adaptive and customizable masks based off of a quick scan from an XBox Kinect. Developed by DO THE…

It use to be that when you leave kids to their own volition, you would get various reenactments of Lord of the Flies or, at the very least, flour and eggs sprayed across the kitchen floor. Nowadays… well, you still get that, but with all the activities, online communities and things to make, there’s a…