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 a couple of hastily put together plexiglass containers, CraftStation pours in a foam mixture to mimic their contours. With the foam solidified, he cuts out the chess pieces and uses the foam as a mold for his new resin chess set. Using a mixture of resin, water, and dye (blue for one side and white…
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 STARTIN’ THE PARTY with “4 MIND”, a little Skrillex remix dish, followed by SebastiAn, A-Trak, Eva808, Aphex Twin, and others before wrapping up with Lemon Jelly, Basement Jaxx, and smooth, new one from ELAX. Ready?…
If you’ve cyborged your upper torso with gears and lights glued to a cardboard box, I hate to tell you but, the transformation isn’t complete until you’ve embedded a Nixie clock in your chest cavity. Oh, what’s that? Missing one? Hmmm, shameful, in’t it? Well, I’ve got two options for you today – 1) Snag the Nixie clock mentioned in this post to complete your box-borg transformation, or shed the box and make yourself a sweet-ace vintage TV Nixie clock instead. CHOICES. Neoptolemos Kyriakou opted for the latter and shared his success in a simple little model, that turned into a weekend electronics project, that turned into a dream come…
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 with an unusual motion system (stationary extruder, platform moving in all axes, all direct drive). Since then they’ve focused on industrial 3D printing and have developed equipment that can successfully and reliably 3D print high-temperature materials, such as ULTEM. Their most recently announced machine, the ULTRA, is about as far away as you can imagine…
These days, Apple can do just about anything with any of their iPhone cameras and turn it into in ad—be it amateur photographs on a billboard or entire video ad campaigns created under the direction of celebrity photographers. But their latest might be their most fascinating iPhone ad campaign to date. Tapping into the ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) phenomenon, which is commonly described as a low-grade euphoria triggered by soothing sounds and visual stimuli, the Cupertino company produced four different ads that each carry their own ASMR audiovisual experiences—all shot on iPhones (XS and XS Max), of course. While our favorite is the woodshop sounds (naturally), we recommend checking…
After seeing a faceted sculpture design made from folded paper one day, welder Andrei Kazantsev decided to try his hand at making his own sculptures using the material he works best with: folded steel. His most recent project lifesized faceted Pitbull, and he was generous enough to share the entire build process that goes into making this insane four-legged sculpture: Using a press brake and a CybTouch 12 controller, Andrei takes his precut sheets of metal and folds them to spec. The press brake allows him to set the angle for each fold based on his CAD data, which leaves him with less guesswork. Once all the pieces are adequately…