For those who spend their days slicin’ and dicin’ material—be it for rough prototyping or simply just opening up all those Amazon purchases—having the right utility blade is an absolute must. While we love the simple and old-fashioned X-Acto blade, we’ve found them to be better for precision cutting versus all-around, at-the-ready utility. When it comes to the right tool that gets the job done time and time again, the OLFA 18mm Rubber Inset Heavy-Duty Utility Knife is never far from our back pocket. This grippy heavy-duty cutter makes use of OLFA’s unique snap-off blade system, so you’re never without a sharp blade at the ready. And with an anti-slip…
At an average of 200 to 250 words per minute, most humans accept their reading rate—which hasn’t changed in over 100 years. But in the information age, have you ever thought about how much your productivity could skyrocket if you doubled—even tripled—that rate? What if you could finally get around to finally finishing off that stack of books you’ve been putting off all year in a couple of weeks? By doubling your knowledge management rate alone—be it from skimming through emails or industry trade journals—you can quickly free up an additional working hour per day. For a typical work week, that’s no less than five hours gained back— all by…
It’s not uncommon for SolidWorks World to feel a little bit like Christmas for serious CAD junkies. Not to mention, it’s a great time for partner companies to get their announcements heard while everybody is in the ‘holiday spirit.’ Among other announcements at SolidWorks World 2018 earlier this week, Meta is going to be the first company to provide 3D CAD viewing capabilities in augmented reality (AR) with SolidWorks applications. Essentially, the SolidWorks experience is getting transported into a new, even more immersive and intuitive dimension. Whaaaat? Dubbed the “Publish to Xtended Reality” capability (which sounds pretty corny if you say it out loud), this new feature allows users to…
Well, ladies and gents, winter isn’t quite over. And for many of us, this may mean applying another fresh layer of waterproof fabric wax to all of our canvas shoes, hats, jackets, rucksacks to prepare for the final wet and cold months ahead. But when it comes to fabric waxes, not all are equal. Our choice? Portland, Oregon’s own Otter Wax brand. Otter Wax offers long-lasting protection from the elements and contains only all-natural ingredients from renewable resources. It is also the first and only water repellent wax that doesn’t utilize paraffin, silicone, or other synthetic ingredients. So whether you need to apply touch-ups to your existing gear, or want…
Remember those scenes in Iron Man where Tony Stark fiddles around with an interactive hologram? Of course, you do. Well, Google is about to bring that same experience to reality, because one of their latest projects seeks to make this technology available for everyone—right from your favorite device. Article is an upcoming 3D model viewer which works on any web browser (yes, even Internet Explorer). Whether it’s on a desktop computer or a mobile device, a 3D model can be rotated, zoomed, or panned to view from different angles. But this isn’t the only exciting part. When opened on an AR-capable device, users can tap an icon on the lower-right…
Always one for ingenuity, Eric Strebel puts his industrial design expertise to good use even with the simplest of tasks. This time, he’s been commissioned to produce 120 cast parts from a single solid master part. Seeing how costly it is to make solid parts, Strebel decides to take matters into his own hands and by using a specialized mold of his own design. Here’s how he did it: Using a reusable mold box, Strebel glues the master part and registration markers onto the bottom before submerging them under a mixture of green silicone. Once the silicone has cured, he removes the mold by disassembling the box. To hollow out…