In the age of online shopping and near-instant gratification, it’s not very often we see people creating their kitchen appliances from scratch. Let alone—kitchen appliances made from popsicle sticks and razor blades. Just check out this DIY food slicer from YouTuber Delta Hack. Using popsicle sticks, wood, razor blades, and a simple rotating mechanism, he creates a machine that can surprisingly slice some simple foods into clean cuts: After gluing four razor blades to a circular piece of wood, he affixes the blades of death onto the rotating mechanism, which is electrically powered by a small battery and a switch. When turned on, these rotating blades are the heart of…

First, let’s agree, here and now, to no longer use the phrase, “think outside the box”. Henceforth condensed to “it”.  “It” is a cliché, a tired trope, a worn-out platitude that should have never made it this far riding on the backs of cheap suits. It is a sad piece of strip mall management seminar jargon akin to “synergism”. There is one exception. If you just materialized in front of me, in a time-traveling Buick LeSabre from 1999 with the license plate “TIME SBR” (#TimeSabre).  Then roll down your window, finish your Surge energy drink, turn down Third Eye Blind and rightfully say, “I think outside the box”.  Don’t Tell,…

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 kicking things off with Toro y Moi and Blood Orange’s “Dark & Handsome” from the new album Angel’s Pulse before diving into atmospheric tracks from Ben Harper, Surfer Blood, Son Lux, and others before wrapping…

Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. 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…

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 tower design after years of a thermally limited, although quite compact, ‘trash can’ style design. Featuring a new grille/grate design, the computer transfers heat faster than Tim Cook shedding his shirt on a hot summer’s day. While tech reviewers and computer savants are itching to see what this new computer can do, maker, adventurer, and space enthusiast Winston Moy has a bigger, more important question in mind: Does Apple’s new design work…

If you’ve ever wondered how a semi-automatic pistol works without having to get anywhere within firing distance of one… then you’re in luck. 3D generalist and motion designer Matt Rittman has taken the liberty of animating a totally safe, digital recreation of the iconic Glock 19. After doing a fair bit of research to learn how the real thing works and about the details of each part, Matt bought a pre-made Glock 19 model from Turbosquid as a point of reference. He completely modeled all 50 internal parts using Cinema 4D along with the gun’s frame and slide. Here’s a shot of the model geoemtry along with the UVs. Once…