Few scents truly bring back the golden age of my childhood. Chocolate pudding, fruit roll-ups, and scented markers are high up on that list, but few can meet the powerhouse that is Play-Doh. To this day, if I ever catch a whiff of the colorful fun stuff I am instantly and without warning thrown into…

After having raised over $8 million on Kickstarter ($8,596,474 to be exact) from the original goal of $950,000, the wildly successful OUYA open-source video game console will be launching with a bang from San Francisco this week. In celebration of the launch, OUYA teamed up with MakerBot and Thingiverse to offer the option to 3D…

For those in the greater London area, get ready to see a whole lot more 3D printing buzz. Today, iMakr announced that it will be opening a two-story, 2500 square-foot 3D printing retail store in Farringdon in Central London. Could this be the ‘office supply store’ of the future? Take off your Google Glass at…

This week we have the great pleasure to speak with the one and only Conor MacCormack, CEO and Co-founder of MCor Technologies, makers of the paper-based 3D printer currently in use at Staples locations around Europe. We’ll talk with Conor about what led him into the 3D printing industry and how he even thought to…

It seems like only a couple days ago SolidSmack was reporting on Cody Wilson and his move to ‘revolutionize’ 3D Printing with DEFCAD.com. Well, the resilient 3D printing poster boy for 3D printed firearms is back in the news again after having recently received his Type 7 Federal Firearms License granting him the ability to…

Invisible Light Network, an NYC-based creative studio specializing in interactive and experience design presented a 3D printing project at this year’s SXSW festival’s #FEED event. The #FEED event featured a number of artists and designer-types who combine the best of music and interactive art into a showcase of incredible experiences and innovative products. We had…

This week we have the great pleasure to speak with Max Bogue. Max is a co-founder of Wobbleworks and he, as well as fellow co-founder Peter Dillworth have created the 3Doodler, the world’s first 3D printed pen. They have a fully-funded Kickstarter project and there’s still time to get in on it. Now, these guys…

Law student, gun owner, and 3D printing fan Cody Wilson has spent much of the last year working on 3d printed gun parts and setting up Defense Distributed, a sharing platform setup to help himself and others manufacture and share these printable gun parts. The result of 3D printed gun parts being usable in otherwise…

Previously, explaining the concept of 3D printing to those at dinner parties who are perhaps two steps behind with technology may have involved awkwardly moving your hands around the air to mimic a print head squirting out fresh ABS juice. Perhaps you can save those skillz for another time and just pass along this perfect…

In a collaboration between 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys’ Education and R&D Departments and MIT’s new Self-Assembly Lab, a new printing technique centered around self-assembling, ‘smart’ materials is being used right now. Hold onto your pants ladies and gentlemen, 4D Printing is here.

Having recently been voted as Fast Company’s Most Innovative Company of 2013, Nike is keeping the bar raised high with the announcement of their (SLS) 3D printed football cleat today. 3D printers have been used for years in the development of various components of performance athletic shoes, but in terms of 3D printing as a…

Airbnb has been one of the more famous startups in recent memory with their original ‘Air Bed and Breakfast’ idea: connecting empty bedrooms and guest houses to travelers and offering extra cash for those opening their homes to strangers. Many who have opened their homes to travelers have found so much success with Airbnb that…

148 brains have been drained of their futuristic spacecraft-inventing potential over the last month. Who is to blame? Makerbot and GrabCAD. The Makerbot Replicator 2 Design Challenge just finished up at GrabCAD and the winners have been selected. The challenge was to create a 2040 vehicle design. Most of the entries are fabulous designs and…

Mcor’s unique paper-based 3D print technology has been holding up strong at their select Staples locations in Europe. I had the opportunity to talk with Mcor’s CMO Deirdre MacCormack at SolidWorks World 2013 where she walked me through how their Iris 3D printer works (the one being used at Staples), as well as some updates…

On par with the recent trend of 3D head scanning and printing, Shibuya’s FabCafe in Tokyo is offering a new service for those needing to get more personal than your typical box-of-chocolates-fare this Valentine’s Day by allowing new makers to scan their lovely mugs to be used as molds for chocolate delectables. Who knew my…

3D Printing has been lauded as the next way to bring jobs back to America and the rest of the West by the Economist and other intellectual luminaries like Glenn Beck (cough cough). CAD-to-Print technologies combined with geographic proximity to the buyer has been summed up as the solution to what some call “the China…

3Dlt.com, a sort of stock photo-like site for 3D printing templates has created a marketplace for professional designers, students, companies, and consumers–however their mission is rooted in crowdsourcing solutions for solving some of the ‘world’s biggest problems’. Their current initiative? An Innovation Challenge using 3D Printing to improve gun safety with the finalists winning a…

Researchers at the State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University have been experimenting with 3D printing since 1995. And just recently they announced that they had printed a huge 3 meter wingspar out of titanium, strong enough to meet standards for aerospace use. Colour us impressed – to my knowledge, no one has created…

The Replicator 2 has been screaming around the 3D printing industry’s racetrack as a go-to solution for both professionals and consumer hobbyists alike. MakerBot has capitalized on profiling the MakerBot users who are using their Replicator 2’s to do something outside of the box and have found success in doing so. Here’s an inspiring story…

Advertised as ‘Miniature Mountain Majesties’ on their Shapeways site, TinyMtn probably couldn’t describe their product any better even if they were offered a contract with NASA to 3D print mars as the prize. By using USGS (United States Geological Survey) public data, the creators have produced a striking 3D print library that begs the question…why…

Low and behold! The free modeling app from Autodesk that makes many quake with 3D modeling delight has received a point release and upgrade to a lot of the basic fucntionality. The new features are indeed a delight, but the deeper significance of the activity revolving around Autodesk and 123D is the evolution of the…

3D Systems isn’t messing around in 2013. Despite some new products having lackluster performance, they have managed to prove that an arsenal of ‘whipped cream pies in your face’ is the best strategy for developing hype and getting your attention. Somehow amongst promoting their new product releases at CES 2013, they managed to earn the…

While you may or may not necessarily be a fan of his show, Glenn Beck welcomed a MakerBot Replicator 2 on his show recently and proclaimed the device “The latest, greatest technology…Jobs will come back to America.” Conservative radio isn’t necessarily known for insights on radical technology…but Glenn seems to be a 3D printing believer.

While you were enjoying your tuna fish sandwich at lunch, Panasonic unveiled one of their latest products at their keynote at CES in Las Vegas today–a freakin’ 3D printed TV.

Filed under awwww, Crayon Creatures mixes Elmer-glued 3D Printing and the drawings of your young ones, allowing you to figure their scribbles out and genuinly exclaim, “OHHH, it is a Giraffe!” But, there is a challenge – how does one stick it to the fridge? Magnets and more Elmer’s glue, but really, there’s no need as…

Hark! 2013 is upon us! In many ways, the previous year seemed a turning point for where we’re going while simultaneously lacking any sort of drastic, earth-shattering changes. However, there’s plenty of fat, tech-laden fodder on which to speculate for 2013 and that’s exactly what we’re going to dish out for you folks. In recent…

Amanda Ghassaei, a DIY audio geek and editor at Instructables, succeeded in 3D printing 12-inch records containing the music of Nirvana, The Pixies, and Daft Punk. Using an Objet Connex500, she printed the records at one of the highest 3d print resolutions available, but how does that resolution really sound?

As 3D Printing inches off the ground in mainstream culture more and more each day, it can be difficult for a new user to navigate the wide plethora of online 3D printing options. Perhaps it’s just me, but I see 3D Printing 2.0 as, among other improvements, involving more application-specific design and printing services. Twikit…

While the politics of uploading and sharing gun components for 3D printing is still a murky topic both in design circles and political circles, MakerBot’s Thingiverse has taken it upon themselves to do their part by dropping guns from their 3D print file sharing site.

In what sounds like a scene out of a Star Trek movie, medical professionals will soon be working in an interface similar to Inventor, Revit, and Maya to design and produce tissue and organs. According to Organovo CEO Keith Murphy, “This could give us the power to recreate human tissues and organs outside of the…

Starting as a thesis project at Parsons in NYC, Evan Roth collaborated with four NYC based graffiti writers (HELL, AVONE, JESUS SAVES, and KATSU) to further understand the motion of graffiti. Eight years later, Roth is capturing that data and producing it in 3D printed, chrome-plated ABS bliss.

Nylon, it’s wonderful stuff. A silky fabric when weaved or a flexible polymer when moulded. Reach out with your hands and chances are you will touch something Nylon (Warning: Solidsmack is not responsible for any injury, due to electric fan or angry, nylon-collered Wombats). Oh, you have a 3D Printer next to your computer? And…

The Objet 1000 is a seriously killer machine if you want ultra-high res large-scale 3D prints. No doubt about it. So why, Lord of mercy, did they want to associate it with an 80’s action cartoon jingle? Studies show that the Objet 1000 jingle reduces life expectancy to exactly 00:01:51. It is believed that no…

Depending on your ability to understand Japanese, this recent ten-minute segment on 3D Printing from the Japanese TV Show NHK El Mundo is a rather fun way of seeing some 3D print industry folks a la Bill Murray in Lost in Translation style. The show managed to snag some prominent guests including the Founders of…

If canned goods and homemade sweaters don’t seem to suit the bill for your relatives anymore, and you happen to be in the NYC area in the next few weeks, consider stopping by this mega-cluster of 3D printed goodness. Created by Openhouse and Launched in collaboration with Shapeways, UP!, and Ultimaker, the shop features many…

In this painfully long (almost 20 minute) video released by ‘Staples Office Centre’, we are given a glimpse into the future of how using Staples’ new 3D Print Service can dramatically change our lives…or in this case, replace a missing chess piece.

What’s a 3D Printing revolution if companies go around suing each other for alleged patent infringement? Not much of one at all. This is the sentiment Joshua Harker is passing along in a recent letter to backers. You saw his new Anatomica di Revolutis Kickstarter campaign wherein a video compilation featured the “Top Brass” of…

Defense Distributed, the infamous 3D Printing Gun Slingers who describe their mission as “…facilitating global access to, and the collaborative production of, information and knowledge related to the 3D printing of arms; and to publish and distribute, at no cost to the public, such information and knowledge in promotion of the public interest….” had an…

Shashinkan is Japanese for ‘photobooth’, and Japanese creative agency PARTY has created the ultimate in Shashinkans with the Omote 3D. The project will allow customers to buy models of themselves (at parties, presumably) in three sizes: small (10cm high), medium (15cm) and large (20cm). Prices start at a fairly steep $250, but depending on how…

2D Copy Centres are sooooo 2011. 3D Copy Centres – now that’s something I need. You know that feeling when you drafting a CAD model and you need it in your hand? And it’s 3am? And no one’s given you the new code to the Stratasys because you kept on 3D Printing what your boss…

Because we’re sitting around looking at food all day today, why don’t we take a moment to not only reflect on what we are thankful for, but also reflect on what our food might look like a few Thanksgivings from now. Prost!

Shapeways designer Kimotion has come up with an ingenious way to market himself during the holidays: post modern snowflake tree ornament designs resembling the likes of Psy, Superheroes, Stormtroopers, and a lucky Ninja Turtle.

Objet’s Connex 3D Printer creates a ship in a bottle by jetting transparent and black materials within the same print session—I can’t possibly think of a cooler way to put a ship in a bottle.

In the last few days, 3D Systems lost over 15% of its value. Additionally, Stratasys Inc. shares fell around 5%. According to Shapeways’ Peter Weijmarshausen, “We’re still living in a bubble a little bit.” Has 3D printing reached it’s industrial potential already? Where is the consumer boost?

With all the news and headlines regarding 3D printing these days, it’s a topic of conversation that’s bound to come up during at least a few family gatherings as the holidays approach us. Being the design and engineering-saavy individual that you are, you will probably be the one expected to do the explaining…or you could…

Norwegian software developers Uformia have developed “a volume-based modeling extension for the creation of both organic and mechanical objects that are always watertight and ideal for 3D printing” and have 3 days left to Kickstart. Is it worth adding to your toolbox?

While it may at first appear to be a colorized version of Joris Laarman’s bone furniture, the Multithread collection of 3D printed furniture is anything but. Design duo Kram/Weisshaar developed a software application that automatically modifies joints to support asymmetric force loads–followed by painting the units to show where the force is being distributed in…

As the media bombards us with cringe-worthy images of flooded subways and cranes dangling from skyscrapers from this week’s Hurricane Sandy, the Shapeways Tumblr has been reporting inspiring updates since their site went down due to the power outages. Needless to say…you cannot stop Makers!

Britain’s Big Innovation Centre (could the name be any more self-explanatory?) recently released a report on “Why Britain Needs a Policy Framework for 3D Printing” (pdf). Is Britain the first to get over the hype of ‘thing-making’ already and move on to create a mass-market industry template for others to follow?

In the latest twist of the long-running 3D Printed gun debate, Stratasys revoked the lease on a printer that a company called “Defence Distributed” got. Defense Distributed is run by Cody Wilson, a student at the “University of Texas School of Law in Austin. He is a student of Bastiat, Locke, Hoppe, and Anthony de…