I don’t know what you think when you hear of small prints that can expand to 40x their size, but my first thought is JACKETS. Thousands of little jackets printed, stored, and expanded with heat when I need a new one. Just think, unlimited jackets. Of course, there are some other applications like, oh, let’s…

I can’t quite call myself old enough to have experienced the golden age of the phonograph, ya know since they date back as early as the mid-1800s.  But with the (continual) resurgence of vinyl records, now with the age of hipsters and vintage music enthusiasts, I figure this would be a nice opportunity to see…

VELO3D announced the availability of a new alloy of aluminum for use in their Sapphire series of metal 3D printers. The California company has been quietly developing new materials for the Sapphire system, which recently gained a new, tall option. The stretch version of the Sapphire 3D printer sports a 1m tall build volume, and…

Stratasys has dropped a full-color 3D printed bombshell with the introduction of the new J55 3D Printer that combines a number of features in a printer that’s sized and priced for small and medium design and engineering business. The J55 is a full-color 3D printer with a rotating build platform, stationary head, odor-free operation, native…

If you like sneakers and you’re interested in sustainable product development, outsourcing smarter, and making sure your products are not made under forced labor conditions, you need to check out VEJA. They’ve been around a while (some 15 years) but you may not have heard of them. Why? Unlike most fashion brands that put the…

In these tough times, people are scrambling to stay healthy and safe. Naturally, this means staying at home. But when necessity (i.e. the need for groceries) calls, there’s no other choice but to go out and brave the crowds in order to get what you need. But how can you get your supply of face…

If you’re cooped up for the weekend with naught to do, here’s a simple experiment in electromagnetism you can make with your quarantine buddies/family using a couple of neodymium magnets, some copper wire, and a AA battery. While you’re at it, use it to teach the kiddos about the wonders of electromagnetism™. Let’s watch: So,…

Miss our last edition? See it here: Tools I Freaking Love: Hand Tools [Sheet Metal Edition]. You know that sinking feeling. You’re at the doorstep of a major milestone with a smoldering heap of lessons learned. Things didn’t go according to plan and the next options aren’t any good. You need to breathe enough life…

3D printed structures have already made their way into the world of architecture with 3D printed houses to change our word and inspiring future 3D printed houses for other worlds. Now, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), the Barcelonan experimental and experiential center is making strides (pun intended) into the public construction sector…

There’s simply no lack of options for gear to hold your laptop. We each have our own preference, I’m sure, but when my backpack finally gave out recently, I decided to consider other options. One of those options is the Harber London Leather Laptop Case. It’s simple and unassuming, yet durable and well-designed. Harber London…

I’ve bumped into a very interesting technique that could save an enormous amount of support material and 3D printing time. Support structures are an inevitable aspect of 3D printing: some geometries are simply not capable of being printed without support for overhangs exceeding the threshold of your device. Typically this ranges from 45 to 60…

Transmissions through the corridor were not uncommon but this one contained the fears and joys of a thousand worlds. We could only expect what was to come and knew, somehow, it was tied to the innocuous, strange hum coming from these links. Jimmy Knives – Low brow. maybe. Wild. definitely. Bat faces, eye heads, and…

Though the world has yet to see what this year’s PlayStation 5 will look like (it’s still set to arrive sometime during the holidays), the folks at Sony were kind enough to unveil the thing you’ll be gripping for hours on end: the brand-new DualSense controller. How can the oringinal design of a controller be…

He’s been at the designing gig for quite some time now, so you know when designer and product maker Eric Strebel recommends tools, it carries a little weight. Eager to help both new and experienced designers alike, he recently listed seven tools which he personally finds indispensable when working on a project: 1. Digital Calipers…

I’ve received a detailed update from Photocentric regarding a spectacular improvement in their COVID-19 production rate.  If you recall, last week I reported on the Photocentric’s efforts to mass-produce a disposable ventilator valve. This component is, in some areas, in short supply and thus there could be interest in being able to produce them quickly. …

When I was younger, I believed in the all-healing capacity of the Band-Aid. Small cut on the hand? Band-Aid. Large gash on the knee? Band-Aid. Swarmed by eels in the South Pacific. Band-Aid. Took a while, but I finally realized that not every injury can be fixed by a simple piece of adhesive plastic. Thankfully,…

Have skills and itching to make a difference with the shortages in coronavirus-related supplies? There are lots of individuals, companies, and communities organizing and many other open-source personal protection equipment (PPE) designs available. Investigate the list below to find a way to put your vital CAD-modeling, 3D-printing, nunchuck skills, and other talents to use! There’s…

Digital food storage is the name of the game in this tutorial. In a recent assignment, I sought to coach my CAD students at Virginia Tech through an Onshape modeling exercise in the kitchenware category. Our aim was to build a parametric model that was robust and could be morphed into different configurations by changing…

Matt Boyle is the VP of Engineering at Shapeways and, in a recent post from him on StackOverflow, reveals some of the methods the company uses to provide high-speed, global 3D print services.  Shapeways History Shapeways has been one of the longest-running 3D print services available to the public. They launched in the Netherlands long…

YouTube creator Kiwami Japan is famous for making hand-made knives using materials that odd, rare, and not exactly sharp to begin with. He’s made knives out of Amazon boxes, aluminum foil, and even family-friendly gelatin. In another one of his fascinating videos, he makes a knife from a single piece of solid wood. And not…

You might not recall the man’s name, but you’ve surely seen his work somewhere online. Felix Semper, a self-taught Cuban-American artist whose claim to fame is sculpture, doesn’t sculpt wood or stone; he sculpts paper. In a recent interview with WPBT2, he provided some insight into the process behind the paper sculpting that took him…

The biggest thing to hit 3D printing in the next few years is likely to be volumetric 3D printing. But who’s developing it? If you haven’t seen Fabbaloo’s previous questions about volumetric 3D printing on the tech, let’s start with a quick overview.  Volumetric 3D Printing Volumetric 3D Printing projects the form of an object from…

In this post, I’m celebrating another Onshape CAD mystery solved! You see, time and again I was left scratching my head as to the mystery of why my nicely and precisely placed dimensions kept disappearing when building up my 2D sketch sections in Onshape! Before me was the case of the “Disappearing Sketcher Dimensions” (DSD).…

You’ve seen lots of bowls, giant eggs, and other semi-round shapes hand-shaped on a lathe, but have you ever seen the creation of a bowl within a bowl? How do you imagine you would even go about turning it? With inspiration from German woodturner, Martin Adomat, YouTube creator SteRa Turning tried his hand (quite successfully)…

Even though humankind has gone pale and pasty from excessive indoor living, they somehow still find joy in eating outdoors. Trees rustling, birds chirping, congealed hame and cheese on whole grain wheat, Ahhhhhh. It’s one of life’s great mysteries; there’s something about nature that makes eating more satisfying. Of course, you’d be remiss to go…

Xometry is used to shakin’ things up a bit. And while they’ve got a fair amount of info on their Materials & Finishes and quite a few spec sheets, you may have wondered how their 3D print materials stand up to face-jiggling amounts of vibration and shock. Well, in a video that addresses conditions 3D…

SolidSmack readers are a rowdy, capable bunch, professionals in their field and able to take on just about any project. If any of these projects have called for a square hole, you’ve done your fair share of measuring twice and cutting once… then trimming a bit. But what if you could make that square cut…

Researchers have developed a complex system that is able to 3D print tiny structures at very high speeds.  There are few vendors providing microscopic 3D printing today, but those that do enable the production of incredible microscopic devices, lenses, and components. Many use what’s called the “two-photon” approach, where light is focused deep within a…

Recently I’ve seen moves by several 3D printer manufacturers to position their equipment for use in specific industries, and this is a strong trend. Let me explain my thinking here: years ago, when the initial 3D printing patents expired, a large number of 3D printing startups appeared. Most tended to offer very basic equipment with…

Do you remember being told off for burning ants and leaves with a magnifying glass when you were a kid? If so, congrats; your parents made sure you wouldn’t go blind from staring at focused sunlight for too long. Taking a page out of this timeless childhood pastime, artist and filmmaker Michael Papadakis of Sunscribes…

Designers, artists, and developers are often so focused on working on their next project that they forget the little marvels which help them get to where they are. Take the simple pencil, for example: Sure, we all know it’s made of wood and lead, but a lot of time and effort goes into making these…

A young engineering student found a way to deliver 150 3D printed robots to students. Danielle Boyer is a nineteen-year-old engineering student with a passion for 3D printing and STEM. She’s the founder of a non-profit, The STEAM Connection, which develops accessible educational materials designed to increase thinking and diversity in students.  Boyer is clearly a…

What are the tech trends for 2020 and the decade to come? Read on and watch the video for all the gadget goodness that catches a HW engineers’ eyes at CES 2020! This year’s show in Las Vegas expected over 170,000 attendees and took up literally millions of square feet of exhibit space. That’s a…

While there’s nothing particularly wrong with traditional horizontal doors, diagonally-opening “sideways-folding” metal doors look way cooler when you open them. Case in point, YouTuber Phil Vandelay’s folding metal door for his new workshop: Despite its daunting appearance, all it takes to make this futuristic door are a few sheets of metal, some metal frames, and…

The weapons of the titular Star Wars Jedi, lightsabers are nothing short of freaking cool. Fictionally powered by kyber crystals, these glowing portable beams have unique colors, handles, and best of all, can cut through pretty much anything. Countless replicas have been made since the original movie’s 1977 release, but seeing as kyber crystals aren’t…

After reading yet another mainstream publication talk about “3D printed human organs” I thought it wise to share my thoughts about the five most frequently heard myths of 3D printing.  These myths have been around since I started in this business over 12 years ago, and for some unexplainable reason, they have not gone away.…

Researchers have been exploring new concepts for developing metamaterials. Metamaterials are small mechanical structures made from one or more basic materials, but the motions possible in the structure exhibit more complex behaviors. A very simple example might be to 3D print a spiral structure – but at the same time creating a “springy” material. The…

Editor’s Note: This is a guest article from Hubs. As we come to the end of 2019, the technologies behind mass-scale digitization aren’t slowing down at all. Within the next five years, 85% of industrial companies are expected to have implemented Industry 4.0 technologies in all important business divisions. As a result, the consolidation of…

Whenever a YouTube channel hits certain subscription milestones, they are awarded a YouTube Play Button. You get a silver one at 100,000 subscribers, a gold one at 1,000,000, a diamond one at 10,000,000, and a customized Play Button upon reaching the seemingly unreachable 50,000,000 subscribers. The only problem with these Play Buttons is they aren’t…

With the rise (fall, rise, plateau, small rise, little fall, and rise again) of 3D printing and its ability to let us create, basically, anything (except for money, which is illegal), it was only a matter of time before its close cousin, injection molding, got in on the accessible, mass part-producing action. Formlabs recently released…

Stratasys announced a new workflow system, GrabCAD Shop. GrabCAD GrabCAD is Stratasys’ main 3D model repository, having acquired it from independent owners way back in 2014. Stratasys bills it as: “The largest online community of professional designers, engineers, manufacturers, and students” And this is likely true, as they say there are currently over 6,550,000 members.…

As the old adage goes, “You either go big or go home.”; and in the case of the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, they DEFINITELY went big. Using their ginormous in-house 3D printer which has a printing space of 22 by 100 feet and 10 feet high, they were able to print…

3D printing is additive. CNC milling is subtractive. Vacuum forming is transformative. It transforms a sheet of formless flat plastic into extraordinary complex copies. It transforms preconceived limitations about functional part thinness — the interplay between “consumable goods” (foodstuff) and “durable goods”(not food) — and low-volume throughput speeds. It transforms endless eternities (hours) staring at…

Though LEGOs have been used to create lots of things such as robots and life-size vehicle models, they never really move as smoothly as you would want them too. It might be due to their blocky nature, but without the aid of outside parts from different manufacturers, LEGOs move in a clicky, clacky manner unique…

Why limit recycling to Earth when you can do it in outer space too? Space manufacturing company Made in Space recently teamed up with thermoplastic resin and polypropylene company Braskem to create a plastic recycler for astronauts stationed at the International Space Station. Using Braskem’s specialized Green Plastic (a sugarcane-based plastic made using thermoplastic resin)…

While exploded views can be traced all the way back to the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, it wasn’t until the manufacturing boom of the mid-twentieth century where the term “Exploded View Drawing” became an industry standard for engineering and manufacturing professionals. Today, fascination with exploded views has crossed over into the mainstream as these…

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…

Another day, another radical chair design. Instead of coming up with yet another ordinary chair, designer Peter Otto Vosding collaborated with cabinet maker Dirk Vosding to make a chair with as little materials as possible. The resulting piece of furniture is simply called the “Mµ” (pronounced “mm”). The chair is made from ash wood and…

Built to meet the needs of the full design process in a wide range of industries including consumer goods, consumer electronics, automotive, and even educational settings, the new Stratasys J850 3D printer from Stratasys puts a focus on both speed and quality—including full-color PANTONE® color validation and multi-material capabilities via a PolyJet system. Claiming to…

Have you ever loved something so much you would want to keep something on your person at all times to remind you of it? A memento from a loved one, perhaps. How about a tattoo of your favorite symbol? Or maybe… a ring made from a bowling ball? An avid bowler and ring maker, Patrick…