Those wood parts won’t smooth themselves! But how often do you spend wrestling a piece of sandpaper around weird edges—only to be left with a half-crooked and totally botched result? There’s a remedy for that — and we can’t recommend it enough. The Preppin’ Weapon sanding block is a workshop necessity that lets users load…

Fans of inflatable bouncy castles and comfy car seats have reason to rejoice because 3D-printed inflatables are now a thing! Created by the minds at the Self-Assemble Lab of MIT and BMW, these inflatables adapt and transform by themselves to suit your comfy needs. Dubbed “Liquid Printed Pneumatics,” these silicone materials take on different shapes…

While the mission behind Kickstarter is great for “small guy” entrepreneurs with a good idea and enough chutzpah to launch it into the world via the internet, the ending result isn’t always so great for some project backers. Although the company doesn’t report an official number (nor would they), one only needs to do a…

The massively popular first-person shooter Overwatch is two-years-old! To show their appreciation to fans who have played the game over the past 730 days, Blizzard Entertainment has cooked up a little stop-motion video featuring three main characters – Tracer, Reaper, and a massive Overwatch cake. But making this two-minute stop-motion celebration took a lot more…

Although many of industrial designer Eric Strebel’s take on prototyping projects are of his methods, he isn’t above sticking to the book every once in a while. In his newest video, he shows how he works with a design brief for a wireless charger. The brief comes with a couple of specifics: it must be…

Few shop tools—yes, we’ll call it a “tool”—are as indispensable as a reliable work apron. While not a “tool” in the traditional sense, a good, durable apron can serve many purposes ranging from tool organization to even psychologically making yourself ‘present’ in the workshop. But no two aprons are alike—and striking the balance between functional…

Rejoice, creators of instructables.com! For if you ever wanted to learn how to use a table saw, manual lathe, CNC mill, or a certain crafting machine, Autodesk’s Pier 9 technology centers have heard your plea and made a slew of workshops to help you get your bearings without losing any important body parts. In total,…

Don your favorite bathrobe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this week’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. The Weekend Reader features a handful of the most interesting articles featured on the ‘Smack over the past week ranging from tips and tricks to inspirational designs, processes, and more. So lay back, relax and take a load off…

M3D is well known for their inexpensive desktop 3D printers, but now they’ve added a very different machine to their product line. The new “Crane Quad” system is a full-color desktop 3D printer with a price said to be less than USD$500. Previously the company marketed single or dual extrusion machines that proved very popular,…

Those wood parts won’t smooth themselves! But how often do you spend wrestling a piece of sandpaper around weird edges—only to be left with a half-crooked and totally botched result? There’s a remedy for that — and we can’t recommend it enough. The Preppin’ Weapon sanding block is a workshop necessity that lets users load…

Repurposing old materials and using them to create something new—also known as Upcycling— is a great idea. Rather than throwing out those used materials, they can be utilized for many ingenious projects if you’re willing to stretch that creative muscle enough. Many upcycled projects have to deal with reclaimed wood—such as using an old barn…

For some strange reason, humans sure love to knock themselves on the head with countless mind puzzles. The Rubik’s Cube, Chess—heck, even Candy Crush are all examples of how we have a penchant for exercising our minds in different ways. This wooden dowel puzzle by Instructables user mtairymd is no different. It may sound easy…

Before fidget cubes and fidget spinners were even a thing, man’s best cure for anxiety was the ordinary pen. Ever present in school and work, these cheap writing materials could be spun, flicked, clicked, and in some cases even chewed on to get rid of pent-up energy. Designer Shin Feng has the same fidgeting problem;…

Your product design is ready, your prototype works and you want to hit the store shelves as soon as possible. But how? Manufacturing looks easy on “How it’s made”, whether it’s a Ferrari FF or Jawbreakers, everything sold to consumers has been manufactured to some degree. While things run smoothly in established factories across the…

FoldStar provides a very unusual 3D model generation system. The New Jersey-based company’s product, by the same name, is a generative system to dynamically create 3D models of folded geometry. Here’s how it works, in their words: Doubly-Periodic Folding Tessellations are a versatile family of deployable materials that repeat a pattern in “row” and “column”…

Don your favorite bathrobe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this week’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. The Weekend Reader features a handful of the most interesting articles featured on the ‘Smack over the past week ranging from tips and tricks to inspirational designs, processes, and more. So lay back, relax and take a load off…

When working on a project for a client, designer Eric Strebel likes to help out his fellow man by dropping some of his own modelling tips and tricks along the way. He’s already showed us how to create casting boxes, approximately a hundred cast parts from scratch, and his personal process for low volume manufacturing.…

From quick repairs to form exploration studies, few materials are as useful around the design engineer’s workshop as good old Bondo. Featuring a resin-based filler and a hardening solution, the hardener is blended together with the filler to create a chemical reaction which cures the creamy and spreadable product into a solid body. Originally created…

It’s always nice to see well-designed creations built from relatively cheap materials. With a little ingenuity and (in some cases) a lot of hard work, you don’t need a fortune to craft something worthy of a showroom floor. Among others, master builder Mike Clifford recently proved this with his homemade white glass-fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC)…

YouTube user kiwami japan has a bit of an odd obsession with making homemade blades and other weapons from obscure and unusual materials. Case in point. This knife wasn’t made from a hard-to-find metal, but from a roll of aluminum foil you likely have stashed in your cupboard to wrap a sandwich or make tin…

You know what’s more satisfying to watch than a thousand soda cans being crushed? Seeing them get turned into solid blocks of pure aluminum bliss. After consuming an unhealthy amount of soda products, Ben from PressTube decides to crush and melt the cans into reusable aluminum ingots (which can be used as bricks for a…

Fasten your eye-buckles kiddos. Now, you know Onshape kicked off the year announcing Parametric Modeling 2.0. They got a two-for-one deal on 2.0 names apparently, announcing today Data Management 2.0. They also got a two-for-one on kickin’ design problems IN THE ASS since, like configurations, multi-part and in-context design in their Parametric Modeling methodology, the features…

From batch automation to Cloud-based folder sharing, the designer’s digital toolkit has never been as opulent as it is today. But despite sped-up workflows and AI-assisted features, the one thing that will never change is how those designs translate in the physical world. From a CMF (Colors, Materials, & Finishes) standpoint, the newly-launched Swatchbook aims…

A French company, Bombyx Prod, has devised a different way to provide 3D print services to manufacturers. The problem being attacked here is the low-volume production market. This market exists because there are those who require smaller volumes of products than would otherwise justify the expense of setting up a traditional manufacturing line. Several 3D print…

This could be a very big idea: 3D Hybrid Solutions announced a system to convert everyday CNC machines into powerful 3D metal printers. The startup company, based in Los Angeles, offers add-on hardware that could become a tool in a multi-tool metal CNC machine. Typical competent metal CNC machines today offer the ability to mill…

If you’re involved in the engineering of products manufactured globally, chances are you’ve been personally affected by SNAFU’s on an epic scale. Despite your best efforts, you probably had to sacrifice some weekends, or late nights, or quality time with your kiddos, or at the very least, your blood pressure. Hey, it happens to the…

As plastic continues to pollute our oceans and overtake our landfills at an all-time high, it’s clear that to reverse the effects of a potentially unlivable planet; it’s up to consumer product manufacturers to take matters into their own hands. Along with Nike and Apple—both of whom are spending billions to try to reverse the…

SolidWorks unveiled two new certification exams at SolidWorks World 2018, which celebrated 20 years since their certification program began back in 1998. At the 16-year mark, the program only certified 100,000 users, but since the demand for programmers, engineers, and CAD professionals has risen over the last few years, that number has doubled to over…

If you’re someone who has the energy to exercise after sitting at a desk for 12 hours… well, of course you should. If you don’t wear your exercise clothes at work, you probably tote around your work bag along with an exercise bag. Shoes, clothes, soap, rubber ducky– the essentials. One person dared to imagine eliminating one…

Welcome to a new series called ‘Shop Talk’, where Dan Slaski interviews people in the thick of product development business, who make the magic happen and turn their ideas into reality. Have an interview suggestion? Send it in. Cory Sokolowski is the owner and operator of Crossline Creations, a 7,000 square foot northern Virginia based wood…

Back when I was a kid, I built a model of the Tardis Console from season 13 using my parent’s cable spool coffee table and a healthy supply of cardboard. Although I could travel anywhere I wanted to in my mind (Calvin & Hobbes style), I wasn’t able to leave the confines of my yard.…

Technology dominates our lives in just about every facet, and coding is on the fast-track to becoming the new Blue Collar job prospect in the near future. Coding skills have dominated STEM curriculums just about everywhere. But school isn’t the only place where kids—and their curious parents—can learn how to write an app. In fact,…

Don your favorite bathrobe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this week’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. The Weekend Reader features a handful of the most interesting articles featured on the ‘Smack over the past week ranging from tips and tricks to inspirational designs, processes, and more. So lay back, relax and take a load off…

From face-scanning smartphones to always-listening voice interfaces, we’ve come a long way since using dials and knobs to control the world around us. As a natural side effect, we’ve also created a much larger arena to play with interface design. The Pour Reception radio from interaction designer Tore Knudsen is one such project that aims…

3D printing in color can be costly. Given how much time and resources spent upfront, having a failed print isn’t exactly as easy to deal with as printing a 2D color picture incorrectly. MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)’s new ColorFab method (not to be confused with printing filament company ColorFabb) doesn’t aim…

Don your favorite bathrobe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this week’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. The Weekend Reader features a handful of the most interesting articles featured on the ‘Smack over the past week ranging from tips and tricks to inspirational designs, processes, and more. So lay back, relax and take a load off…

While the term “3D Printing” has become synonymous with creating physical objects, the underlying method of manufacture—additive manufacturing—is a diverse and complex concept spanning multiple materials and design constraints. From ABS to SLS, there are a number of different pros and cons when picking the best methods or materials to get the job done. For…

We’ve heard a lot about “personal” 3D printing in the past, but perhaps it’s time for “personalized” 3D printing. By “personal” 3D printing, I mean the ownership of a 3D printer and production of objects for personal use. This was, and probably still is, the vision for consumer-based 3D printing. While there was a great…

While nearly any tech or mechanical junkie can appreciate a hulking giant robot, one should always leave room to admire its smaller brethren. Sure, bigger may be better, but giant robots don’t always have the level of precision that many smaller robots come equipped with. Delta robots consist of three individually controlled arms connected to…

At this year’s CES, IBM unveiled their 50-Qubit Quantum Computer prototype, which looks more at home in the Steam Punk world instead of an exhibition room at The Venetian Hotel and Casino. What makes the machine an incredible piece of technology is in the way it processes data. Rather than strictly using digital binary (1’s…

The LighterSaber, as its name implies, is a lighter which looks like those wonderful laser swords from that one movie, whatsit? Ah yes…. Star Wars. Instead of spending years in Jedi training, running around Dagoba with small greet creature attached to your back, Iqbal Ameer and Singapore-based Expedio Design are bringing you the next best thing in…

The rotary tool (Dremel) is the ubiquitous hand tool for low skill prototyping. The magic wand of the prototyping world. And by that, I mean it can make sparks, dust, and smoke. The real magic is how all those theatrics can produce such a small cut (and leave such a razor-sharp edge). It is time…

Few shop tools—yes, we’ll call it a “tool”—are as indispensable as a reliable work apron. While not a “tool” in the traditional sense, a good, durable apron can serve many purposes ranging from tool organization to even psychologically making yourself ‘present’ in the workshop. But no two aprons are alike—and striking the balance between functional…

Few shop tools—yes, we’ll call it a “tool”—are as indispensable as a reliable work apron. While not a “tool” in the traditional sense, a good, durable apron can serve many purposes ranging from tool organization to even psychologically making yourself ‘present’ in the workshop. But no two aprons are alike—and striking the balance between functional…

Count this one under one of the coolest engineering class projects, ever. JetX, an aerospace student team founded by University of Glasgow President Chris Triantafyllou, is currently working with Rolls Royce (yes, THAT Rolls Royce) to make the world’s first COMPLETE 3D printed scale jet engine model. Aptly named the X-Plorer 1, the engine measures…

Glassblowing is a fascinating artform. For those of us in the product development world it’s akin to blow-molding. Yet, the process of blowing glass holds more intrigue and an element of danger. Also as a medium, it more eloquently showcases the human touch. Instead of yielding myriads of homogeneous end products, hand-blown glass enables artisans…

It may look like a simple block of wood, but Nissha’s Mui does much more than sit on your wall as an aesthetically pleasing living room decoration; underneath that warm earthy texture is a touch-based internet-connected interactive display capable of displaying information and controlling IoT devices. The display is designed to match to your environment…

At first glance, the Velux Cabrio looks like an absurdly large window. It could even pass as a solar panel. But see it in action, and you’ll soon realize why its size seems so ridiculous. Just take a look at this video: Simply put, the Velux Cabrio is an ingenious window design that converts into…

When 3D printing arrived, the public waited to see how it would change the world. While no major changes can be noted yet, as the cost of 3D printing drops and it slowly enters the mainstream market, businesses revolving around the technology are beginning to appear. By blurring the line between producers and consumers, and…

Before you get to work on the final product of your design, it’s in your best interests to make a prototype first, right? Of course. You’ll have a physical sample to test and abuse, plus you can adjust the aesthetics of the design without worrying about the cost. We’ve covered plenty about 3D printing, but…