Having been a heavy user of industrial-grade 3D printing since 2008, Jay Leno had since added an industrial 3D scanner and even a Dimension metal 3D printer from Stratasys to his personal collection for restoring cars and creating one-of-a-kind parts. Needless to say, the guy – along with his expert team – knows a thing or two about today’s 3D technologies. More recently, the former late-night talk show host and car buff spent the day with Local Motors CEO Jay Rogers to go behind the production process of the company’s Strati 3D printed car – including taking the time to build an entire Strati from scratch in the middle of…

As the host of one of the most satisfying woodworking channels on YouTube, Frank Howarth of Frank Makes tends to seamlessly balance interesting wood projects with clever videography skills regardless of the challenges from either thrown at him. To date, the Portland, Oregon-based Howarth has recorded and shared the build process of everything from lawn chairs and wood bowls to his recent kitchen remodel and even the entire build process of his drool-worthy workshop in a heavily-forested area of Portland, Oregon. More recently, Howarth turned his attention to building something that most of us CAD junkies are a little more familiar with: a CNC (Computer Numeric Control) machine. Over the…

12 centuries on and the Vikings are still a subject that looms large in our imaginations. Blonde, powerfully built men with horned helmets, nostrils flaring with aggression, weapon wielding to descend and capture. On a not-so-well-known note researchers assert that the weapon a Viking brought to his grave was a measure of his social standing. A more ordinary Viking would be buried with an axe or a knife, you needed to be one of the elite to be buried with a lance or a sword but it was only the gifted who were buried with their bow and arrow. In this article we will be paying special attention to the…

I love new types of Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs). When it comes to demonstrating design projects, you typically need both hands – unless you’re a badass who can fold origami cranes with one hand like it’s nothing. Now imagine trying to capture images while simultaneously working on a dual-wielding project. Yeah, it’s not that easy, and that’s under the assumption that the shot will not already be distorted or blurry. To free up his hands for capturing more compelling video shots, design engineer Jude Pullen – yes, he of Design Modelling fame – designed a cheap but effective system that allows him to use both hands without the need for world…

This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist knocks you in the pop sockets with head-boppin’ groove tuneage to help propel you through the work week in style. Whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or working that 3D geometry all day, consider these tracks as a tool for your process. This week we’ll start things off with “Slow Blues” from Wu-Tang Clan and work our way through The Kinks, I Monster, Talking Heads, Clams Casino and others before wrapping up with the classic “Come Fly With Me” from Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. Have suggestions? As always, let us know what you listen…

Although they started out in 2004 as an “artistic company anchored in snowboarding”, Signal Snowboards has since become synonymous with a less-traditional medium for building boards and other structures – cardboard. In partnership with LA-based Ernest Packaging, the snowboard company’s Cardboard Chaos series of videos has been exploring the structural limits of cardboard and how far paper can go since they created a cardboard snowboard in the Spring of 2014. Since then, the companies have created a cardboard surfboard, a cardboard push bike and, perhaps the most impressive of all, a cardboard skateboard for Tony Hawk that held up surprisingly well on the half-pipe. For their most recent experimental cardboard…