You are working on a new design and want to incorporate a new component or need a unique part; A part requiring outside design and fabrication expertise, a keystone part, a part that can break a design log jam. You need THE THING! How to find ‘The Thing’? You have looked everywhere. You scoured the internet, you looked in your junk drawer, you dug a hole in the ground… And quickly filled it back in when your neighbor started dialing the police. Nothing. As a last-ditch effort, you make an unholy bargain with a clever imp creature* to turn straw into ‘The Thing’. Suddenly he wants your first patent, all…

While in-house 3D printing is commonly used for early concept work, many professionals and businesses still outsource their parts to industrial services when more complicated materials are required. Among others, Protolabs has been a leader of custom 3D printing services over the past decade—with more than 100,000 parts printed every month across six different additive manufacturing technologies. And now, they’re adding Carbon technology to that list for engineers to get parts created through Carbon Digital Light Synthesis without the headache of ownership. “We recognize that market demand for additive manufacturing has moved beyond prototyping and is being leveraged to create fully functional parts at a much larger scale,” said Greg…

From the 1950s to the 1980s, Braun, under the guidance of German industrial design icon Dieter Rams, helmed a ton of firsts for the audio industry. They made the first all-wave receiver, first portable music player, first stackable Hi-Fi system, and the first wall mounded sound system, among many others. Fast forward to 2019 where Braun Audio has announced its return to the industry that helped put it on the map. Taking inspiration from Rams’ previous designs, the new Braun Audio LE speakers retain the classic blocky look of past Braun speakers with a modern 21st-century technology update including—you guessed it, voice control. Much like any smart speaker you see…

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. This week on SolidSmack Radio we’re getting things rolling with “Galleon Ship” from the all-new Nick Cave album, Ghosteen, before rolling into a tasty set with tracks from Lou Hayter, Pixies, Beck, Ariel Pink, and others before wrapping up with “Little Dark…

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: Goal-Setting Doesn’t Have To Be Complicated 10 Tips to set better…

While drilling a hole is something every CNC machine user can do easily, programming the locations of several holes takes a bit more time and effort. Instead of going through the arduous process of setting the locations of numerous holes, Autodesk recently shared how to use their new hole recognition software in Fusion 360 to streamline the entire process using a mold core block as an example.: Holes in material don’t always have the same size, shape, or make—so the trick is to create an operation for each section of a hole. Hole recognition allows you to create hole templates in your design, which you can then use to segregate…