Forget science t-shirts and obscure math formula tattoos; there is now a more fashionable way to get your geek on. Upcycling old circuit boards, the folks at Circuit Breaker Labs handcraft unique pieces of jewelry that show the miniature beauty of a PCB. If you ever take the time to look closely at a circuit board,…

What happens to skateboards after they’ve shredded their last bit of pavement? Some boards go to a wood chipper, where they are broken down to make new skateboard or *shudder* office supplies. A few lucky boards with sentimental owners get put on shelves or frames – a reminder of the person’s glory days. But the…

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…

Over the past couple of years, China has had a major boom in the bike-sharing industry. By renting bicycles out to the public for a fee, companies earn money from cyclists who use the same docking system. Now this is all well and good if there are a handful of competitors in the market, but…

The Olympics may be where the world’s best athletes showcase their skills, but it’s also a chance for hosting countries to show off the best of their culture and hopes of what the world could become. Next year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo is no different. In preparation for the event, many of Japan’s residents partook…

Just about every kid (or kid at heart) has wanted to try riding a skateboard. Maybe it’s the thrill of using your momentum as a driving force or the fact that the darn thing comes without brakes; the bottom line is anyone who gets on a skateboard is in for a good time (or at…

If you have access to a shop, it makes perfect sense to jump at the opportunity to upcycle discarded materials into entirely new designs when creativity strikes. For woodworker Alex Fang, this came in the form of creating a sleek paper tray using scrap wood from his past projects. After picking out the scraps that…

Despite it being used often in manufacturing, carbon isn’t the most biodegradable material; meaning, it will take years to decompose that excessive carbon fiber waste from a multitude of design projects these days. Further, recycling carbon fiber isn’t necessarily an easy process either. Because the mixture of resin and carbon is so stiff, it becomes…

Not as many self-sufficient folks live off the grid like they used to, but the way of living is still as self-gratifying as it has ever been. How cool would it be to say you got your food from your backyard or your new leather shoes from last year’s cowhide? Living on a farm still…

Take one look at an empty soda can, and you may think “trash,” but to sculptor Noah Deledda, he sees an aluminum canvas ripe for setting his hands on to create something truly unique. Though Noah is a sculptor by profession, he doesn’t work with just any sort of wood, rock, or conventional metal. Neither…

Now I personally don’t carry around a portable speaker. Not because they’re heavy and totally inferior to headphones (though those are pretty valid points), but because I rarely come across a mini speaker which doesn’t sound like it’s blasting five layers of static along with what it’s supposed to be playing. Long story short: there…

Not everybody sees a chainsaw and immediately thinks “wood cutting tool”. Thanks to pop culture, some are more likely to bring up images of Jason from Friday the 13th than a lumberjack doing his job. Well, YouTube creator ThisOldTony has the same problem – only instead of seeing fictional serial killers, he sees the ideal…

It seems like just about everyone these days runs on a steady stream of either coffee or cola. When the world turns at such a blistering pace, it only makes sense for you to be able to keep up, right? Well, YouTube user The Q may have taken the expression a biiiiit too seriously… Instead…

If the smell of coffee can’t wake you up in the morning, there is one more thing you can try: engine oil. Okay, it may be a stretch, but Italian YouTube creator Rulof Maker has taken these two strong scents and mixed them together. How? By making an espresso machine out of an old piston…

Deadly objects crafted by and from molten metal are nothing new here on Solidsmack, but it isn’t every day you see an old hardware material get repurposed into a Southeast Asian curved knife. This is precisely what Australian knifemaker Steve has done with an old drill bit he found in one of his drawers. With…

Back before having a car, having a bike meant you were the coolest kid on the block; it said you could go anywhere, do anything, and cause untold bodily harm to yourself when you fell flat on your face. As you get older though, having a car becomes way more chill than owning a bike.…

Nobody likes walking on the pavement during a hot summer day to discover they’ve just come across—and stepped upon—somebody’s soft discarded bubble gum. Aside from the embarrassment, scrapping the discarded sugar-chew is no easy task. But what if said bubble or chewing gum could be scraped from the streets and converted into an actual shoe?…

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…

Of all the places you’d expect the sad remnants of a wrecked automobile to show up, on a wrist as a high-end watch likely isn’t at the top of that list. Yet. designers Christian Mygh and Jonathan Kamstrup of REC Watches have done just that with their P-51 Timepiece; a luxury watch made from discarded…

It’s easy to overlook the cultural significance of the original 2001 Apple iPod these days due to a smorgasbord of mobile devices and streaming music services. Apart from being a design marvel, it allowed millions of music lovers to lug their favorite tunes around without having to carry a clunky Sony Walkman or bulky boombox—not…

When it comes to upcycling, it’s not always easy to create something new out of discarded waste that doesn’t appear as repurposed…discarded waste. Yet, Czech artist Veronika Richterová seems to have pulled it off. For her recent PET Luminaries series, the artist sliced and diced dozens of discarded plastic PET bottles to create a collection…

A huge bonus for any manufacturer is the ability to upcycle any wasted material from the manufacturing process into entirely new products. We’ve seen this before with discarded cardboard upcycled into surfboards and even sawdust as a result of pencil manufacturing upcycled into Duraflame logs. More recently, tequila brand Jose Cuervo has been to getting…

Few things are as enticing to young engineering students as the opportunity to build their own go-karts from scratch, and 18-year-old engineering student Jasper Edwards is living the dream. The UK-based engineer, who works out of his own garage, creates his karts starting with shopping carts and wheelchairs scavenged from local junkyards. Using the existing…

While Apple may be spending millions on advanced recycling robots that can disassemble iPhones and recover valuable metals for reuse, those who are motivated enough can recover their own metals from e-waste in their own backyard – provided they have some patience for the process and a whole lot of junk electronics. Starting with four and…

As one of the most memorable parts of Mike Judge’s 1999 film Office Space, the infamous “Printer Scene” gave an honest look at how some of us really feel about our office equipment when it fails to work as intended. While it may not reach the same level of badassery as seen in the film,…

As a professional carpenter who has worked in commercial construction for over 30 years, Ontario-based woodworker John Heisz is no stranger to making use of old and rusty saw blades that he comes across. As a matter of fact, he has an entire YouTube channel where – among other projects – he injects new life…

Since introducing their Futurecraft initiative late last year, Adidas has shown no signs of slowing down their exploration – and intention – of incorporating additive manufacturing and other next generation digital fabrication techniques into their supply chain in the not-too-distant future. Tomorrow, in honor of World Oceans Day, Adidas and ocean conservation group Parley for…

Like our favorite woodworking YouTuber Frank Howarth (AKA Frank Makes), blacksmith Niels Provos has an uncanny ability to balance the craft of videography with working in the shop. The results – which are almost always narrated step-by-step – offer a peek over the shoulder of a master at work. Unlike Howarth – who focuses solely on wood-related…

For some, the sight of a school lunch tray might bring memories of rubbery fish sticks, generic ketchup and grape juice with strong notes of cardboard – but for artist and furniture maker Kim Markel, the sight of a school lunch tray means one thing only: tasteful opportunity. The late-blooming furniture designer, who left a…

When it comes to upcycling, old bicycle tires and discarded biscuit tins often come to mind – yet one of modern society’s most commonly disposed of objects just might be living in your back pocket right now. With an average lifespan of 18 months, bank notes around the world are decommissioned and destroyed about as…

For most of us, a dropped ceramic mug or plate might mean a one-way ticket for the broken vessel to the trash bin. For Tokyo-based designer Yusuke Seki however, they would likely be added to his collection of ‘shinikiji’ – the Japanese term for flawed pieces. Recently, the Japanese designer – who has worked with…

If you’ve been paying any attention to Japan’s Olympic stadium woes in preparation for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 games, then you’ll know that the situation has become a complete mess. The original design of the $2 billion stadium by Zaha Hadid was met with fury by many of the country’s own architects who said it…

While there are plenty of upcycled designs that can be made from discarded skateboard decks, a custom handmade guitar isn’t necessarily the first possibility that comes to mind. Yet for 22 year old self-taught woodworker and industrial design student Nick Pourfard, combining his passions for both music and skateboarding was a no-brainer. Based out of…

As electronic manufacturers including Apple and Samsung race to produce the next great consumer electronics product with each season, its no surprise that over 152 million mobile devices – including smartphones and tablets – are disposed of each year (that’s over 416,000 per day) worldwide. So, while Moore’s Law has previously encouraged us to adopt…

While a broken shovel and a broken piece of concrete aren’t likely to generate a lot of of inspiration for most people, trained carpenter-turned paleolithic weapon craftsman John Heisz isn’t your average Joe. The Ontario, Canada-based Heisz operates a website and a YouTube channel that feature hundreds of made-from-scratch projects ranging from push brooms to…

Last time we checked in with self-described “Stuffmaker” Mac Premo, the Brooklyn-based multimedia artist, videographer and designer was waxing philosophical about why he creates and why “(being) the arbiter of good stories is to live forever”. Since then, the 7-time New York Emmy® Award-winning Promo has been focusing on a different kind of project that…

When it comes to YouTube stars who want to bless the world with their obscure (but usable!) knowledge, Grant Thompson (AKA The King of Random) ranks up there among the best of them. Initially inspired to produce videos as a way to give back to the tutorial-rich YouTube community, his YouTube channel now includes over…

Every so often a project comes along on Instructables that really, truly is useful…if for nothing but creating great conversations. The ‘EWaste 60$ 3DPrinter’ from first-time Instructables author mikelllc is one of those projects. To begin with, this is the perfect project for anybody that wants to learn more about how a standard CNC system…

As more people get hip to streaming their music from various Cloud-based music services, the market for connected (and wireless) speakers has seen a huge surge in the past few years. While you could go out and get any number of connected speakers ranging from portable bluetooth options to more high-end kits made for serious…

Call them the Devo of upcycling…an Illinois music group by the name of Electric Waste Orchestra has been turning old and discarded hardware into new musical instruments. Born out of Makerspace Urbana in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (135 miles south of Chicago), the group creates fully-functional musical equipment that not only keeps e-waste out of landfills but…

With both an impressive knowledge base of how industrial plastic manufacturing machines work as well as his desire to repurpose plastic waste, Dutch designer Dave Hakkens has created an open source microfactory concept that he hopes will change the way we produce everyday plastic goods. Precious Plastic explores how plastic waste can be shredded and…

Already ranked number 43 of the 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, Coca Cola has been working relentlessly to improve their image in the realm of recycling plastic bottles. While one could argue that doing away with plastic bottles would be the end-all solution, the fact of the matter is that plastic bottles aren’t…

It comes with little surprise that with the rise of Kickstarter videos and ‘launch campaigns’ there is a growing trend in creating ‘start-up parodies’. Perhaps the most well-known is HBO’s Silicon Valley tv show in which the main character navigates the weird and wild terrain of the California start-up scene. Similar to the essence of…

When it comes to choosing people who you might want to be hanging out with during an apocalypse, leave it to those who are masters of upcycling…especially those who are also skilled in making crude weapons. Knife maker Trollsky of Poland recently uploaded a video to YouTube that shows his process of turning a leaf…

Each month, tons of fire hoses from the thousands of fire departments around the world end up in landfills. Oakland, California-based startup Oxgut (sweet name BTW, inspired by what firehoses used to be made of) is aiming to re-route at least a few of those through their network of designers and artisans where the hoses…

If there’s one outlet that 3D printing really shines, its in finding new ways to upcycle existing products that would otherwise end up as waste. Take the Sprout for example: through a simple design and 3D print, an otherwise disposable item becomes something a heck of a lot more useful…and in some cases, better than…