Get that stretch out of your system with this week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist. It’s fashioned up, ready to make you pull your shoulder blades back and knock out another week of meaningful work while you bob your head to the beat. Whether you’re in the shop milling aluminum, sketching the latest product prototypes or modeling up a 3D storm, consider these tracks as a tool for your process. Have suggestions? As always, let us know what you listen to, what you want to hear and what tunes get you through the week. Shoot us an email or leave a comment down below!! *Note: if the embedded playlist below doesn’t…

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 a thing in the real world, none feature the lightsabers’ cutting potential. That is… until now. Product developer-turned-YouTuber The Hacksmith recently turned his engineering expertise towards creating “the world’s first” protosaber – a fictional predecessor to the lightsaber with an external power supply box powering the saber to actually cut through objects. To start things…

You’re trundling through the train station with your Rubix Cube solving robot, huddled protectively around it like a badger on a worm-covered pinecone. SNAP, that guy with the umbrella and snake cage just broke the foot. THAT’S IT. You need a case. But not just any case – a 3D printed Rubix Cube Solving Robot Case. Fortunately, NYC-based Otvinta has a simply ingenious solution for that puzzle breaking bot (you can also build!) or anything else you might like to store in a 3D printed carry case. And they printed it in the most glorious green and yellow (sorry, Bears and Cowboys fans). Along with storing and protecting the robot,…

While there’s nothing quite as bad as stepping on a stray LEGO block, a close second is having to sort out the mess of bricks once you (or your kids) are done using them. It’s bad enough finding all of the little buggers, but when you’re a LEGO aficionado who plans on using specific parts for future builds, categorizing LEGOs can be an even bigger pain. LEGO mastermind Daniel West has gotten tired of sorting LEGOs the old fashioned way. Determined to make manual brick sorting a thing of the past, he recently used his love for toy bricks and artificial intelligence to make his own universal LEGO sorting machine…

As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Every Monday, we link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you to get your week started on the right foot. Be sure to check in each week for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight from the source of your favorite homegrown ‘Smack. What We’re Reading This Week: A $1 Billion Solar Plant Was Obsolete Before It Ever Went Online SolarReserve’s…

Now that 2020 is upon us its time to get busy flexing our creative muscles anew! So what did ole-Skillcoach go and do? He busted out his markers and set to sketching and videoed it to-boot! Here’s a little teaser of the tasty sketching tidbits coming down the pike throughout the year. First, up “Building Quick & Proportionally Accurate Concept Underlays.”Enjoy! Stay Tuned!