Have you ever wondered how new machine gears get their intricate, well-defined grooves? The answer is just like anything new made in this world: through the pain and suffering of much older gears and machines. Medley’s Mechanical Engineering is an Instagram page dedicated to showing the behind-the-scenes work done by machines that make parts for…

While most of the topics we share on SolidSmack show the beneficial and awesome aspects of design, there are some which are… less than savory. Just take a look at how digital artist Simon Weckert takes advantage of Google Maps’ GPS locator technology to create his own personal traffic jam: Now you’re probably thinking where…

If you’re a youngin’ whose neurons have just myelinated or an educator who’s responsible for bludgeoning their brain tissue with knowledge, there’s a 3D printer option you’ll want to add to your lab list – A RIZE 3D Printer. If you’re unfamiliar with RIZE, they came on the scene in 2017, introducing the RIZE ONE…

I’m looking at how a 3D print company provided colorful 3D prints for sale using commercial designs. We’ve all seen this many times, where a popular character from the movies, TV, games or other mass media has been somehow reproduced in 3D form and placed on sale. The question is whether this is done legally. …

Designers, artists, and developers are often so focused on working on their next project that they forget the little marvels which help them get to where they are. Take the simple pencil, for example: Sure, we all know it’s made of wood and lead, but a lot of time and effort goes into making these…

It was bound to happen sooner or later, so it comes as no surprise when someone made a working drone using the world’s most buildable children’s toy. The Brick Experiment Channel takes LEGO blocks to the sky and shows us how to make our own toy drones: The motors, propellers, and drone body are entirely…

If you’ve watched Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, you can never forget the iconic scene where the rebels use their ships’ harpoons to trip up a couple of giant AT-AT walkers by flying through and around the machines’ legs. While it would take years to recreate such a large scale battle with real death…

You’ve seen dozens of wood builds, metalworks, and resin casts on SolidSmack, but there’s a real scarcity here on sculptures made of cheese. You heard me right: cheese. Not many people in their right mind would dare work with such a mushy, pungent, and easy expiring material, but thankfully Lawrence Becker is the exception to…

If you’ve ever wanted to get into photography but were always hindered by how expensive cameras can be, then Ethan Moses has you covered. Provided you have your own 3D printer, you only need $40 worth of filament to make his patented panoramic Cameradactyl Brancopan: The Brancopan isn’t your run-of-the-mill, cheapo analog camera. Nope. Though…

While most of the world relies on dominoes and LEGOs to make large toppling sculptures, the Dutch have something a little bit different: Kapla blocks. These sets consisting of wood pieces measuring 11.7cm x 2.34cm x 0.78cm are very similar to dominoes, the only difference being Kaplas were made for construction and not for playing…

A young engineering student found a way to deliver 150 3D printed robots to students. Danielle Boyer is a nineteen-year-old engineering student with a passion for 3D printing and STEM. She’s the founder of a non-profit, The STEAM Connection, which develops accessible educational materials designed to increase thinking and diversity in students.  Boyer is clearly a…

You’ve seen pieces of wood get mixed with resin and turned into kitchen pieces before, but here’s one you can actually use to help with your cooking. Using a piece of old cherry tree burl and some blue resin, YouTube channel gavel coulee woodworking has crafted a resin bowl as smooth as the concoctions you’ll…

I spoke with Paulo Kiefe, the founder of STEMFIE, a new site dedicated to providing 3D printable construction set components. The site, as you might gather from its name, is focused on providing an ability for students to learn principles of construction. STEMFIE provides an “open educational construction set” for making new designs. Aside: It…

While there’s nothing particularly wrong with traditional horizontal doors, diagonally-opening “sideways-folding” metal doors look way cooler when you open them. Case in point, YouTuber Phil Vandelay’s folding metal door for his new workshop: Despite its daunting appearance, all it takes to make this futuristic door are a few sheets of metal, some metal frames, and…

I’m looking at an interesting project undertaken by Protolabs, the well-known manufacturing service. The project in question is the curiously-named “Wayzn Slide”, a smart robotic door opening system designed for pet access. It’s a mechanism that attaches to a standard sliding door and can open and close the door automatically. It does this through a…

The weapons of the titular Star Wars Jedi, lightsabers are nothing short of freaking cool. Fictionally powered by kyber crystals, these glowing portable beams have unique colors, handles, and best of all, can cut through pretty much anything. Countless replicas have been made since the original movie’s 1977 release, but seeing as kyber crystals aren’t…

After reading yet another mainstream publication talk about “3D printed human organs” I thought it wise to share my thoughts about the five most frequently heard myths of 3D printing.  These myths have been around since I started in this business over 12 years ago, and for some unexplainable reason, they have not gone away.…

Protolabs has selected two innovative designs as their Cool Idea Award: Healthcare Grant.  Protolabs is a well-known 3D print and manufacturing service based in Minnesota, and they’ve been operating an awards program they call the “Cool Idea Award” since 2011. Since inception, the program has awarded projects some $1.5MM USD in services to aid in…

We’ve seen matchstick art before, but most of the time it usually involves a stupid amount of tiny, normal-sized matches. What Eduard Krawchenko from Our Vidos TV (OVT EN) wants to do instead is make one large match. It’s OBNOXIOUSLY large, ugly and has us laughing at the result. It’s just something you have to…

19 years after it was first released, the Nokia 3310 has been known to be THE phone when it comes to durability. It’s been dropped from high altitudes, run over by all types of vehicles, and even shot with firearms. And most of these times, the phone has lived to play mobile Snake another day.…

Ever find yourself in a situation where you wish you had a hacksaw on hand? Instead of lugging around a traditional hacksaw, YouTuber Cemal Açar shows how you can create your own portable version that fits neatly inside of a pen-like case: Taking a saw blade from an electric hacksaw, Cemal first sharpens the blade…

Has there ever been a time when you looked at your tool box/bin/pile and thought, “I wish I had more space”? Creator and craftsman, Hassan Abu-Izmero, has. Funny enough, he looked at an empty gasoline can and thought it was the perfect size for his most used tools. Let’s see how he made it: After…

Researchers have been exploring new concepts for developing metamaterials. Metamaterials are small mechanical structures made from one or more basic materials, but the motions possible in the structure exhibit more complex behaviors. A very simple example might be to 3D print a spiral structure – but at the same time creating a “springy” material. The…

Xomety just keeps on slamming out the hits. Early this week, the US (Maryland) based company, founded in 2013, acquired Germany ( Ottobrunn) based Shift to cement its plan of “growth initiatives, product development and global expansion” with its $50MM in equity funding early in May of 2019. As you (should) know, Xometry has established…

Industrial giant Siemens acquired Atlas 3D to add to their growing additive manufacturing portfolio. Somehow I missed this in the Formnext Frenzy, but on 12 November Siemens and Atlas 3D announced the Indiana-based startup was to be entirely acquired by Siemens. Sunata Features We’ve followed 3D Atlas for a few years now and were impressed…

It’s all happened to us before: one minute you’re tightening a bolt, the next one you’re scrambling to free it from its enclosure. Whether it be due to exaggerated machismo or bad bolt design, the fact of the matter is that you wound a bolt too tight and now you can’t get it out. DTI…

Whenever a YouTube channel hits certain subscription milestones, they are awarded a YouTube Play Button. You get a silver one at 100,000 subscribers, a gold one at 1,000,000, a diamond one at 10,000,000, and a customized Play Button upon reaching the seemingly unreachable 50,000,000 subscribers. The only problem with these Play Buttons is they aren’t…

What happens to skateboards after they’ve shredded their last bit of pavement? Some boards go to a wood chipper, where they are broken down to make new skateboard or *shudder* office supplies. A few lucky boards with sentimental owners get put on shelves or frames – a reminder of the person’s glory days. But the…

With the rise (fall, rise, plateau, small rise, little fall, and rise again) of 3D printing and its ability to let us create, basically, anything (except for money, which is illegal), it was only a matter of time before its close cousin, injection molding, got in on the accessible, mass part-producing action. Formlabs recently released…

Stratasys announced a new workflow system, GrabCAD Shop. GrabCAD GrabCAD is Stratasys’ main 3D model repository, having acquired it from independent owners way back in 2014. Stratasys bills it as: “The largest online community of professional designers, engineers, manufacturers, and students” And this is likely true, as they say there are currently over 6,550,000 members.…

Why limit recycling to Earth when you can do it in outer space too? Space manufacturing company Made in Space recently teamed up with thermoplastic resin and polypropylene company Braskem to create a plastic recycler for astronauts stationed at the International Space Station. Using Braskem’s specialized Green Plastic (a sugarcane-based plastic made using thermoplastic resin)…

I was a bit shocked when I saw a press release from Israel-based Modix that touted a coming “Personal Car Factory 3D Printer”. Could someone 3D print their own car? It seems to me that level of additive manufacturing tech is still a bit into the future. Maybe quite a bit. But it turns out…

Since the 19th century, the bicycle has undergone thousands of different design iterations for different riding styles and rider sizes. While you could say frame designs have varied based on road or offroad usage, the core design of the bicycle itself hasn’t gone through many revolutionary design changes. This is where German manufacturer Urwahn Bikes…

While exploded views can be traced all the way back to the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, it wasn’t until the manufacturing boom of the mid-twentieth century where the term “Exploded View Drawing” became an industry standard for engineering and manufacturing professionals. Today, fascination with exploded views has crossed over into the mainstream as these…

We love seeing how everyday objects are manufactured, but it can be equally as interesting to see those same objects disassembled; bringing to light just how parts and subassemblies are required to make an object function. Netherlands-based prototype designer Daniel de Bruin also has a profound sense of appreciation for the manufactured object. Professionally, he…

The high-speed space battles, lightsaber fights, and unique stories that make up the Star Wars galaxy far, far, away has transcended space and time to give us one of the most unique fictional worlds ever made. That said, the Jim Henson-like puppeteering techniques used to bring the original trilogy space opera to life are pretty…

Have you ever loved something so much you would want to keep something on your person at all times to remind you of it? A memento from a loved one, perhaps. How about a tattoo of your favorite symbol? Or maybe… a ring made from a bowling ball? An avid bowler and ring maker, Patrick…

If you’ve ever accidentally let go of a helium-filled balloon as a kid and watched it slowly float into the sky, chances are you’ve also wondered where it goes. Does it float past the point of no return and into space, thereby giving an extra-terrestrial child the joy of finding a free balloon? Now that…

While extremely versatile for a wide range of applications, there’s no denying that poorly-disposed PET plastics are affecting our ocean systems. To help counteract their contribution, Coca-Cola committed to manufacturing all of their bottles with at least 50% recycled plastics by the year 2030. So far, it looks like they’re on track. This month the…

As mankind’s ever-growing desire to make his own stuff increases, so does the amount of materials he can use to 3D print with. Wood, metal, carbon fiber, and now… wool? Researchers at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning developed a new felting process—dubbed Hard + Soft—that allows for different kinds…

Ever since Elon Musk took to Twitter to ask his followers what they would like from a Tesla pickup truck, the world has waited with bated breath. Of course, this was back in 2018, and as we all know, he never really followed up on his promise—yet. This left a lot of Tesla fans hungry…

There are plenty of uses of 3D printing, and one of them is for design feedback. The most frequent use of 3D printing is prototyping, in which a proposed model of the final design is produced and tested. The testing can take many forms, from mechanical to aesthetic, and this approach has been very successful…

We can all (mostly) agree that being environment-friendly and leaning towards sustainable manufacturing methods is a good thing. So is eating well and being healthy. So by the unspoken rules of the universe, doing both at the same time is doubly good and an all-around best-case scenario. Design firm Carly Ratti Associati (CRA) and multinational oil and…

They say space exploration is good because it generates “spin-offs”. Well, here’s one to add to the list. Over the past couple of years NASA has been searching for solutions for 3D printed structures in space. Specifically, on the Moon and other planets. Instead of developing the technology themselves, they used crowdsourcing to generate unique…

Though many people think of chess as a boring, non-contact sport to watch, there’s nothing boring about a chess set which lights up in the dark. Crafted by YouTube creator CraftStation, he repurposes an old, wooden chess set and uses the pieces as molds for an awesome resin-casted set: After encasing the chess pieces in…

miniFactory has announced the release of a series of technical datasheets that should enable engineers to more easily use their 3D printers. Finland-based miniFactory (not be be confused with London-based 3D model repository MyMiniFactory) has been producing high-end desktop 3D printers for many years. We first saw them in 2013 when they exhibited a device…

You’ve been told time and time again how riding a bike can be beneficial for both the environment and your health. But if you’re not inclined to strap into the pedals for a pedal-pusher first thing in the AM, why not turn to an electrified solution? As Russian online power tool store Kuvalda shows in a…

Everyone needs to relax every now and then, and what better way to do it with some good old-fashioned snooker? But while most people would go to their local bar or arcade, the creators at Tube Unique Wilderness would rather make a pool room of their own. Using nothing but wood, their hands, and some…

It takes a heck of a lot of resources to get a superyacht seaworthy. Serious money, human resources, and time are spent making sure the luxury ships can withstand extreme ocean swells—yet still provide enough comfort for passengers so they can feel safe in what is essentially a floating hunk of metal in the sea.…

Researchers at the Berkeley Lab have developed a technique for 3D printing liquid structures that are reconfigurable. Microscopic Machines The researchers were experimenting with ferro-fluids, which are liquids infused with ferric nanoparticles. These iron oxide particles are only 20 nanometers across, so they are extremely tiny. The liquid was 3D printed into 1mm droplets through…