What better way to commemorate one of the fathers of modern electricity than by burning his portrait using it? Using live wires from a car battery, multimedia artist and YouTube creator Phil Hansen recently took on the arduous task of burning a portrait of Serbian-American inventor, engineer, and electrical aficionado Nikola Tesla using the resulting electrical sparks: In total, two days were spent zapping the two DC wires together against the white canvas, with Phil taking periodic breaks to cut the wires to prevent them from melting together. If you’ve ever seen two electrical wires spark when they make contact, chances are you’ve also been in the proximity of the…
If you’ve ever happened upon a raw sheet of aluminum in your workplace, you may not think anything unusual… or that perhaps a piece of scrap escaped from the machine shop. What you may not consider is how the surface can be finished to a near reflective material finish with an array of sanding pads and a little elbow grease. This is exactly what YouTube channel Skills and Trade has done. Taking various grits of sandpaper, they’ve taken an ordinary sheet of aluminum and polished it to a mirror finish. Have a look: After spraying the aluminum with Alumicut lubricant, they waste no time sanding down the aluminum sheet. Starting…
Huddle around the computer a little bit, your digital detox is a farce! How can you stay away from great stuff that you can read and chew on … mentally that is! We got you covered, while you were away, busy with your digital detox diet. Don’t be shy, take a look at the week that was, right here on SolidSmack. Cause we are ROCKIN! Proof: Apple’s New Mac Pro Will NOT Grate Cheese When the newest Mac Pro was announced by Apple in June, people were ecstatic. Not because of the computer’s maximum CPU capacity of 28 cores/56 threads and 2933MHz memory, but because the hardware was a return to Apple’s…
The oil-charred smell of the tar post pile flared the nostril of ever horse and rider that passed by. The wind was thick with the odor with the sand whipping the brows of the watchers on the hill who the vinelings kept control over with these links. Su Jian – So many new pieces since our last look at the Bejing-based Concept artist, killing it with bots, ships, and animal/humanoid characters. Big Walls – Peeta (aka Manuel Di Rita) creates mind-bending 3D optical illusion mural, canvas, and sculpture, captivate you for hours on end. ISS Passing Across the Sun: Catch a glimpse of the International Space Station as it orbits…
On the 3rd installment of “How to Network with HW enginerds in Europe,” we fly to Kiev, Ukraine! (AKA Kyiv, Ukraine.) I only had two days in this city but managed to tour three facilities and pack in four meetings, proving Ukrainians are awesome. In this short visit, I learned a lot of interesting facts about the challenges and perks of hardware development in Ukraine, which I’ll share here. How To Find HW Nerds Abroad Like my visit to Berlin and Warsaw, this trip was another Master’s Class in networking. Thank you again to Hardware Massive, who made the fantastic introduction for me to the HW accelerator, Concepter! Plus, their…
United States government invests $15 million towards the development of the next generation of metal 3D printing technology and 3D Systems is joining forces for the ambitious metal 3D printing project. Largest Metal 3D Printer This remarkable $15 million contract is officially targeted at work “to create the world’s largest, fastest, most precise metal 3D printer.” Do we hear thunderous applause in the background? Many large-format 3D printers aren’t especially precise, as they’re built for speed — which ticks two boxes — more than accuracy. Still, most of the time when we are thinking large-format, we are thinking of extrusion-based systems, where larger-diameter nozzles lay down thicker layers, leading to…