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’ll get the groove going with “Like a Motherless Child” from the great Moby before diving into a mix of killer tracks from Neon Indian, Little Dragon, Chromatics, and others before wrapping up with “Fine” from…

When it comes to sketching and communicating your ideas well, nothing beats a good old-fashioned pencil and a keen sense of perspective. That said, adding simple depth to your form sketches with light and shadow is a natural next step in taking your sketches to the next level. And when it comes time to cranking ideas out fast, our favorite go-to is a fistful of 2-3 Sketching Grays from Copic that give us great contrast. These ultra-blendable, low odor, alcohol-based inks deliver rich and smooth strokes that are ideal for quickly communicating product concepts. And unlike water-based inks, which tend to pill and oversoak paper while blending, Copics mix on…

As far back as anyone can remember, batteries in our phones, flashlights, laptops, and other gadgets have all been powered by lithium-ion batteries. And while both the disposable and rechargeable versions could easily power tech of the late 90s and early 2000s, the 2010s and beyond see the introduction of more power-hungry machines. Though the lithium-ion battery still works, it’s quickly becoming outdated. Thankfully, scientists at the Honda Institute, in collaboration with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), have developed a new fluoride-ion battery that is both more powerful and eco-friendly than any existing battery variant. Previously, solid-state fluoride batteries could only operate at temperatures above 150°C.…

When you think of something on two wheels with a motor, chances are it’s fast, heavy, highly dangerous, and takes an entire assembly line to construct. What if you just needed a 3D printer? Well, 3D printer production company BigRep and their NOWLAB innovation branch are bringing us something lighter, sleeker and (almost) completely 3D printed. The NERA is the first mostly 3D printed e-motorcycle in the world constructed by Marco Mattia Cristofori in collaboration with Maximilian Sedlak. It’s ‘almost’ and ‘mostly’ 3D printed because, barring the electrical components and engine which make the bike actually run, everything from the tires, rim and frame to the fork, seat, and cowlings…

I realize that title may shock those with more mature sensibilities – “Why does he want to kick my spleen??!” But don’t worry, I’m using spleen to refer to that MESS, that is on your DESK… and it also rhymes with nineteen. Massaging sensitive internal organs with your FOOT aside, one of the best things you can do to make it feel like you’re starting the new year off right is to purge your desktop to make space for everything you’ll throw on it in the new year. What better way than with a desk organizer you can make yourself and looks way better than that cardboard box stabbed with…

We talk a lot about 3D printers, but most use plastic or resin materials. Rarely do we have the pleasure of seeing a ceramic 3D printer which uses honest-to-goodness earthen clay to print an object. The Cerambot does exactly that – it takes your standard Kaolinite clay material and allows you to builds shapes, sculptures and objects layer by layer. It’s also one of the more affordable ceramic 3D printers out there starting at a mere $199 USD. The printer itself is a delta-style printer with three nozzles (diameters of 0.8, 1.2, and 1.5mm) which allow you to print different thicknesses. Coupled with an industrial linear guide rail capable of…