Ah! The early days of flight! Experimental flights, experimental aircraft and, most interesting of all, experimental engines. Since 1903 there have been all matter of engines from air-cooled to liquid-cooled, inline, v-type, rotary, piston, turbine, and more. A bump in the 100+ year history of the aircraft engine is the Curtiss Number 3, a V-8 water-cooled, electric-start engine that would power the AEA Silver Dart experimental aircraft. It’s an engine that won’t make any ‘best of’ lists but one that did set the stage for many a decision about powered flight to come. Erich Weidenhammer, aka ‘Erich with an H’ on Thingiverse, has captured a recreation of the Curtiss No.…
I can’t quite call myself old enough to have experienced the golden age of the phonograph, ya know since they date back as early as the mid-1800s. But with the (continual) resurgence of vinyl records, now with the age of hipsters and vintage music enthusiasts, I figure this would be a nice opportunity to see how these timeless music storage devices are made. In this video by Insider, they take a trip to BrooklynPhono’s vinyl record pressing plant to explore how the New York-based factory makes up to 3,000 vinyls a day: The whole video is a treat to watch, but for those who want the short version, here’s the…
Tumbling across the crust of the stinjin’ bog, a band of the small creatures amassed toward the hill. In the distance five of the machines broke the horizon, sun at their backs and the blood of a thousand worlds pumping through their veins to these sound of these links. Tianhua Xu – He may be the master of highly detailed art featuring characters riding atop beasts. Really though, all pieces are masterfully done. Book sculpture – Bethan Bickle calls herself a creative problem solver shown best in her sculptures illustrating the books they are built on. 100 Days of Poetry – 100 graphics created by graphic artist Notty as if…
VELO3D announced the availability of a new alloy of aluminum for use in their Sapphire series of metal 3D printers. The California company has been quietly developing new materials for the Sapphire system, which recently gained a new, tall option. The stretch version of the Sapphire 3D printer sports a 1m tall build volume, and can 3D print any of VELO3D’s support metal materials. We’ll have some thoughts about that machine in a future post, but before we can get to that they’ve already announced a new material, Aluminum F357. Anodized Aluminum Aluminum is available in a number of alloys for 3D printing, but the most frequently used aluminum powder…
Designers, artists, and 3D professionals across different industries know there’s nothing better than a powerful computer that cuts through your processes like warm butter. Whether it’s 3D CAD, animation, video production, or complex simulations, a computer with hardware and software tailored to the work you do makes work life that much better. And that’s MAINGEAR’s focus. This week, they announced its newest high-performance computer build, the Pro WS Workstation – a desktop tower that comes in either pre-configured or customizable flavors allowing you to optimize your rig for your software needs. CPU options abound and bring huge power with Intel Core i9 8-core and 18-core options or AMD Ryzen 16-core…
Using your hands in VR can often feel like using two clubs to eat a sandwich. Though the past decade gave us a glimpse into motion/hand tracking, it’s really only recently that it has had a jump in accuracy and functionality. Dennys Kuhnert, Co-founder and COO of Holonautic, a Swiss VR experience and game maker, has shared a new project demonstrating where we’re at with the technology and some potential applications. Hand Physics Lab is a project that pushes the limits of hand tracking, combining it with physics to provide a more life-like VR experience. Dennys has shared several tweets previewing the interaction physics of virtual objects. And then there’s…