How can you use rainwater? To grow veggies, raise a clutter of Ocelots, or fill your kiddie pool to name a few. While you may have turned the kiddie pool into a giant margarita to make it through the rest of 2020, there are plenty of ways to collect and use rainwater, granted you don’t…

It’s days like these where you’re in your speedboat zipping from port to port with bags of frozen melon balls ready to hand out and bless everyone’s day with sweet, icy goodness. Yet, how do you keep those melon balls from getting drenched by the mad wakes you’re frothing up in the bay? I know…

Ah! The early days of flight! Experimental flights, experimental aircraft and, most interesting of all, experimental engines. Since 1903 there have been all matter of engines from air-cooled to liquid-cooled, inline, v-type, rotary, piston, turbine, and more. A bump in the 100+ year history of the aircraft engine is the Curtiss Number 3, a V-8…

With all the quarantining and disease spread lately, you’ve probably thought, “When’s the next flight off this crazy planet?!” Alien abduction volunteers? “Take Wuhan!” Hey now! The virus has already spread. “Blow the planet!” Calm thyself. “I’m outta here!” Ok, granted you’ll take all your bacteria and viruses with you, but should you be planning…

We recently spied the Travel Tripod by Peak Design, and one reason why it’s doing so well – has raised over $9,900,000 already! – is that they’ve addressed the key issue of travel tripods – They’re DANG BULKY. I agree. Travel tripods should be easy to carry, lightweight and, if you can’t tuck two away…

C-Clamps are great for two things: 1) holding stuff together and 2) everything else. You can use them to support a slab of wood for a tabletop, fasten a tarp around… that thing that needs a tarp around it, grab your friend by the ear, make spaghetti. As a matter of fact, outside of a…

You know how tough it can be without a stylin’ set of headphones bakin’ up sweet sounds in your earholes, aaaaand how handy they can be to avoid talking to people. Either way you use them, you need a place to store them and the bottom drawer next to that stale pile of Cheez-It’s ain’t…

I bet you a bag of plush porglets you’ve had dreams of owning, building or transferring your conscience into your very own BB-8. If you also happen to have a Google Home device (or not), I may just have found you the perfect excuse for 3D printing the adorable spherical droid. Manchester’s own Steve Wagg…

Just look at that desk. Where are you going to put all of those dismantled 1990’s sit-com action figure parts? Jennifer Aniston would be ashamed. I know what you’re thinking though–No ordinary storage box will do. You need a special type of storage box worthy of iconic plastic leg and arm parts. Why you took…

How many boats does one need? WRONG QUESTION. How many boats can you 3D print, stick in your mouth, and say ‘Bathtub Boat’. Me? 27. But they were small boats and I choked when I realize one could come shooting out my nose at any moment – can you imagine the pain a PLA print squeezed…

From simple song requests to complicated trivia questions (not to mention painlessly ordering new bubble gum), the Amazon Echo Dot is undoubtedly a fun little gadget to have around. But for some, the minimalist Roomba-like puck design could use a little work in the TLC department. Baard Fleistad has always wanted a gramophone of his…

#896 on the list of things you’ve never thought about? What type of planter you plant your toe roots in if you were a chubby little succulent. Let me answer that question for you. Because they’re the same planter, but different, but THE SAME. How? They all use the same shape made from the same, super…

How can something be ancient? And 3D printed? Because we’re IN THE FUTURE. It’s like the answer to why it smells like beer and cigarettes in here. Because WE HAVE CATS. (Name the reference!) But really, it’s not like you’re going to walk downtown and find an ancient skull artifact unburying itself from the sidewalk.…

If you were not paying attention to AstroPrint, the startup that changed the pains of makin’ with their 3D printing software and wireless capability, then you’ll want to take notice of what they’ve been up to lately. AstroPrint has had a string of product launches this month. AstroPrint Mobile First, they announced the public unveiling of AstroPrint Mobile, their…

If someone has ever asked you to build something out of plywood and the first thing you thought of is giant robot, you will love this. What? You’ve never thought that? You need to reconsider your priorities. At the top of that ‘Things to build with plywood’ list should be a robot. Our model this…

I’m scared to look back in our ‘Model of the Week’ archive. Wait a minute! I know for certain that (almost) all of the 3D prints we feature are in the upper echelon of the most useful things for human beings EVER. For the one (or two) that slipped by, the proper shaming will ensue.…

I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess you probably don’t have much LEGO paraphernalia in your bathroom… unless your a LEGO minifig yourself or have five children under the age of ten. If that’s the case you have LEGOs everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Scratch, aka The Scratch,  knows the human race lacks the proper implements to…

If any of your hobbies involve turtles and/or squishing things with your fingers while giggling like a schoolchild hopped up on oatmeal pies, you’re going to love our model this week. Jacob Stanton, also known as ‘jakejake’, has created a small turtle toy that squishes down and bounces around on its springy little legs. They’re…

What do you do with your pennies? Do I even need to ask? Look, I know everyone loves blasting a few penny out their nose, but like your grade school financial planner told you, “Your nose is gushing blood! You should be saving those pennies!” Maybe saving pennies would be easier if we could do…

There are cities inside the massive head of a rotted out celestial being (name it!) but cities inside the partial shell of a small planet? …I dunno, I can’t think of one of those. Maybe that’s why our model of the week is so cool. Jukka Seppänen recalls a concept drawing of a city inside…

Like most somewhat avid outdoorsmen, I’ve gone rappelling once or thrice. After ending upside-down thinking I saw mountain lion preparing to devour me, I did the only thing you can do in that situation… scream while trying to cut yourself free from the carabiner holding you safely 50 feet over jagged rocks. Now, I’m not…

You know when you’re comfy as a lark in your castle and all of a sudden AN ARMY OF THE UNDEAD ATTACK. I agree, kids in this generation just don’t know how to defend against an occurrence of that sort. Your not gonna text your way out of that one! Oh, yeah, get a selfie…

I don’t know when you last played Super Mario Bros. 3 for 87 hours straight… what’s that? Last week? Well, after that you probably had that nightmare where you’re running through Mushroom Kingdom being repeatedly pummeled by massive concrete THWOMP blocks, right? No? Ok, just me. Still, those were one of my favorite obstacles and…

Think about it. What are you suppose to do with your fingers when you’re not CAD’ing about or peeling through the pages on SolidSmack? You could eat… or make stuff… or give your co-worker a very awkward massage, OR you could fidget. Fidget, fidGET, FIDGET. I’m a pen spinner myself, but Francesco Pantaleone has just…

Well, THIS is timely. Why it wasn’t but four days ago that Simon, Adam and I were talking about how many tiny, 3D printed, low poly pumpkins we could hold in our mouth and still discernibly say ‘low poly pumpkin’– think ‘chubby bunny’ but with 3D printed pumpkins instead of marshmallows. Sadly, our guesses were…

You know how it goes. You make one Archimedes screw and it goes missing. You make another Archimedes screw, it goes missing and you discover a small band of pygmy gopher people have been stealing them for their underground rhubarb growing racket. You want to deal with it, but… THEY’RE JUST SO DANG CUTE and…

“Ello Pip!” Why hello yourself! I’m glad you showed up because I need to talk to someone about storage. I have 397 Mason jars filled with nuts, screws, stamps, snail shells, dried shellac, dry lint… well, you get the idea. I need a better storage solution. “Did you see this splendid, stackable, sensational set of…

Store those spare cables in your cheek bags no longer *all SolidSmack readers simultaneously spit cords out of their mouths*, there are other means of keeping those cords, cables and wires organized and out of the way. Sure, you could buy cable wraps, cable ties, or hire a butler to keep all that in order…

You know a mask of light that shoots out 50 million lumens whenever someone looks at you tends to cause temporary blindness and bouts of projectile vomit, so something at your desk that is still 1) eye-catching and 2) unique, is a must. Janis Jakaitis has a solution that will keep your 3D printer busy…

If you weren’t obsessively clipping your toenails last week and saw the ‘Ambiguous Cylinder Illusion’ by Kokichi Sugihara of Meiji University, Japan, then your brain likely squeezed its way out your ear canal, grabbed your jowls, looked you in the face and said, ‘YOU’RE MAKING MY BRAIN HURT!” (Yes, your brain just told you that…

You remember that dream of your fists being replaced by portals to one world with unlimited meat cannon buffets and the other to a world of candy dinosaur rides? Yeah, this Venus Box is exactly what those portals looked like. What’s even weirder is how you ALL had that same dream and wrote me about…

You know what you need on your fireplace mantle? Two deer skulls, a He-man action figure and some old books. Next to all of that, you need a 3D printed jet engine. After that, no one will question you when you lean against the fireplace with a seductive look in your eye whilst making jet…

Why would you need a procedurally generated 3d printed tree? Why wouldn’t you?! Really, think about the possibilities here. You could print a bunch of small ones and glue them to yourself. You could shave a cat and glue them to the cat. You could glue one to your spouses forehead and wake them up…

You know what that mop of yours is missing? Nope, not a 3D printed hat. A 3D printed LOW POLY hat, sucka! No funky floral patterns or flare on this icon of 3D printed fashion. It’s pure, triagular, ear chafing discomfort, ready for a night out on the town.

Ever since I was a kid, blowing Play-Doh through letter shaped cookie cutters, I’ve had an interest in typefaces. I like to think I’m the one who confronted my second-grade teacher about the font choice and kerning on that awful “Mister Seahorse’ bulletin board. I imagine Loren Kulesus, a Brooklyn-based designer, has had a similar…

It’s no use. You can’t convince me there’s anything more practical to have on your desktop than a 3D printed SkullBot. Somehow, this bot finagled a human skull to use as it’s body. That makes for one creepy ass blade-wielding machine… or a practical use of spare skulls laying about. Don’t worry, this is just…

It’s not surprising that using additive manufacturing to create large-scale objects – such as chairs – hasn’t really taken off; between the size of a 3D printer needed combined with the cost of filament, you may as well truck over to your nearest Design Within Reach and pick up your favorite Herman Miller or Eames.…

As MakerBot announced that they were unrolling new features and products into their expanding ecosystem during CES 2015, one of the biggest gaping holes in their platform was making the entire 3D printing experience more social. Between the legions of new 3D printing enthusiasts to existing user groups and Makerspaces, the social activity has been…

I swore I would never buy a Replicator 2 — I don’t trust companies led with charisma. Then the sleepless nights began. I couldn’t get the beautiful black metal chassis out of my head. Three point leveling. That squirrel cage extrusion cooling fan…yowzahs. Finally, after many a late night sneaking out of bed and into the study…

It’s no surprise that among those who are the most excited about the near-future of additive manufacturing possibilities are those in the medical field. Whether it’s a neurosurgeon who is experimenting with on-demand customized skull implants or a five-year old who is suffering from Amniotic Band Syndrome, the power that a $2,000 mini-factory yields is…

For those who aren’t cranking out 3D prints in full-rotation 24/7, there is another money-making opportunity on the block on par with MakeXYZ. As previously reported by SolidSmack, MakeXYZ is a sort of ‘AirBnB’ concept for your 3D printer. Similar to the concept of renting out a spare room in your house to travelers that…

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…

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.

So iPhones. Good for 2D imagery. How about 3D imagery? That’s a difficult one. Yet somehow, we can say with some confidence, there’s an app for that! Trimensional is completing the digital to physical process with a new iPhone app that takes scans produced by the app via your camera to 3D printed part on…