By Steven Johnson - Aug 16 New

Steven M. Johnson's Bizarre Invention #169: Bomb Blast Benches

Take a load off

Steven M. Johnson's "Patent Depending" series of inventions range from social commentary to plain ol' bizarre, and they always give us a laugh. So we've contracted him to let us publish one every week.

By Rain Noe - Aug 16 New

The Cubiio: A Portable Laser Engraver!

Bring the tool to the work

This is so cool. Shop tools come in two varieties: Bring the work to the tool (i.e. table saw, bandsaw) or bring the tool to the work (circular saw, jigsaw). A laser engraver has always been in the first category, but now a Taiwan-based startup called Muherz has created one

By Joel Moskowitz - Aug 16 New

Tools & Craft #60: Do You Really Need an Adjustable Mouth on a Handplane?

Here's the case against

For the past couple of decades, the adjustable mouth has always been on the laundry list of features a plane should have. For example, in an article in Fine Woodworking #171 by Chris Gochnour on shoulder planes, one big complaint he had about the Clifton shoulder planes is that they

By David Frane - Aug 16 New

How to Hand Drill Holes in Stone and Concrete

The star drill passed through some odd and humorous intermediate stages on its way to becoming the electric rotary hammer.

A star drill is a specialized chisel used to make holes in stone, concrete, and masonry. Drilling holes with this tool involves hitting it with a hand-held sledge, slightly rotating it, and then hitting it again. Do this enough times, and you will eventually create a hole. How to

By Rain Noe - Aug 16 New

You Have Less Than 3 Days Left to Get a Discounted Lifetime Membership to Public Goods

Middleman-free discounted household goods. (Some math required)

Public Goods is the tiny company hoping to make a huge impact on our personal finances. Entrepreneur Morgan Hirsh's mission is to manufacture common household consumables—shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, cleaning products, et cetera—and sell them directly to the consumer at cost. By eliminating middlemen and retailers they can sell,

By Core Jr - Aug 15

Currently Crowdfunding: Our Favorite Kickstarter Projects of the Week

This week's short but sweet list ranges from camping utensils to VR bodysuits

A roundup of our favorite Kickstarter projects currently crowdfunding for your viewing (and spending!) pleasure. Go ahead, free your disposable income.

By Rain Noe - Aug 15

Prince Posthumously Gets His Own Pantone Color

It's called "Love Symbol #2" and comes from a custom piano

Yesterday Pantone announced they've collaborated with Prince's estate to give the late artist his own official color. Unsurprisingly, it's a shade of purple. It's called "Love Symbol #2," in reference to the symbol Prince temporarily went by in the '90s following a contract dispute. Writes Pantone, The (naturally) purple hue,

By Rain Noe - Aug 15

The Sewbot, a Fully Automated Sewing Machine, is Cool. It's Also Bad News for Garment Workers

CNC finally comes to a sector that it previously couldn't

This is one of those things that's technologically impressive and socially terrifying. CNC technology has spread into most areas of manufacture. One large component with CNC operations is "hold-down," or affixing the material firmly in place so that the business end of the tool can work it precisely. Hold-down has

By Rain Noe - Aug 15

After "Game of Thrones" Capes Revealed to Be Ikea Rugs, Ikea Releases How-To Instructions

Here's a 10-second clip of "Game of Thrones" costume designer Michele Clapton revealing where the capes of the Night's Watch come from: Apparently folks were titillated that Ikea rugs were the source material. So too was someone at Ikea, who then had whomever's in charge of producing Ikea's

By Rain Noe - Aug 15

The Ripple Rug: Carpet + Velcro = Successful Product Design for Cats

This "pet enrichment toy" is a good example of creative design with minimal materials

To non-pet-owners this may seem like a silly application, but this is actually a very clever use of materials. It's got the simplicity of a student design project but the business brilliance of a shrewd marketer. The Ripple Rug is simply two pieces of carpet, one filled with random holes

By David Frane - Aug 15

Makita LS1019L Miter Saw

A high-end machine with two dust collection inlets, a clever slide mechanism, and a front-mounted bevel lock.

Makita recently announced the LS1019L, a new10-inch sliding compound miter saw with cutting capacity similar to that of many 12-inch models. Among its more notable features are a dual inlet dust collection system, a bevel lock that can be accessed from the front, and a slide mechanism that allows the

By Rain Noe - Aug 14

Game of Thrones Recap: "Eastwatch"

The details you missed because the picture was too dark

[Spoilers.] In last night's episode of GoT we were treated to this rather epic shot of Daenarys and Drogon presiding over a defeated army. Since dragons are not large and intimidating enough, Daenarys has placed Drogon up on a hill, to give him that couple of extra feet that make

By Fictiv Inc. - Aug 14

How to Set Up Your Files for Multimaterial 3D Printing

When you're ready to get with Polyjet

One of the major benefits of printing in Polyjet is the ability to print in multiple materials for a single part. This allows you to simulate overmolds, create soft touch applications, and build living hinges among many other applications. We get a lot of questions about how to prepare files

By Rain Noe - Aug 14

This Retro-Future Auto Design Exercise Turned Out So Well, Infiniti Decided to Build It

The Prototype 9 was meant to be a barn find

Alfonso Albaisa is Nissan's Senior Vice President for Global Design, and he recently received a rather interesting assignment. According to Motor Trend, Infiniti's U.S. marketing team asked him "Imagine you are somewhere in the Japan countryside and came across a car, sheltered in a barn, hidden away for decades. Not

By Rain Noe - Aug 14

Hilarious Stop-Motion Animation of "Evil Legos" Violently Dismantling a Laptop

Design for disassembly?

This looks like a scene from The Lego Movie—if it were rated R for violence. Animator Reto Hochstrasser armed a bunch of Lego figures with pickaxes, machine guns and explosives to give this laptop the business:

By Core Jr - Aug 14

A' Design Award and Competition Results

20 of our favorite award-winning projects

What's better than the thrill of designing a good product? Actually getting recognized for it. On that note, the results of this year's A' Design Award & Competition, one of the most well-known international annual juried competitions for design, have recently been announced. The A' Design Awards cover a wide

By David Frane - Aug 14

How Thick is the Line from a Sharpie?

Not line width or weight, but measuring the actual thickness of the ink that's laid down

How do you even measure such a thing and why would you bother? Machinist Tom Lipton shows how and then explains why it might be useful to know the thickness of various colors and types of ink. Different colors have different thicknesses? That's right—red, blue, and black Sharpie lines are not equally thick.

By Rain Noe - Aug 11

How to Make a Custom Molded Leather Camera Holster, Fill Wood Voids with Molten Metal, Create a Domino Machine & More

Weekly Makers Roundup

Weekly Maker’s Roundup is a weekly list of our favorite builds, tips and tricks for makers. Ranging from classic to novel, practical to outrageous, these projects represent what making is all about—problem solving and having fun.

By Core Jr - Aug 11

Detailed Infographics of Every Transportation Mode in 24 Cities & Hanna-Barbara's 1959 Animated Steel Documentary

A weekly selection of great links hand-picked by Core77 editors. Get 'em while they're hot.

The Core77 team spends time combing through the news so you don't have to. Here's a weekly roundup of our favorite finds from the World Wide Web:

By Mid Century Mobler - Aug 11

Mid Century Modern Find of the Week: Hundevad & Co. Brazilian Rosewood Credenza

This credenza in Brazilian rosewood was manufactured by Hundevad & Co. in the 1960s. These pieces are commonly confused with the designer Poul Hundevad, who bears the same last name. The majority of these credenzas were originally designed as the bottom portion of bookcases. Most of these pieces originally

By Rain Noe - Aug 11

A Fun "Eye Test" for Designers, Part 2

Spot the visual inconsistencies

As designers, we're supposed to have sharper visual acuity than most of the population. I'm guessing most of you aced the previous two visual tests we posted about, Matthias Wandel's "Eyeballing Game" and the popular "Which color doesn't fit?" test. Well, here's another one, branded an "OCD Test," and

By Elizabeth Johansen - Aug 11

Design Experience That Matters: What to Do When FDA Approval Doesn't Mean Equipment is Safe

For low-resource settings, you need to go above and beyond

Does United States FDA regulatory approval mean a medical device is safe and effective in low resource settings? The short answer is no. In developing countries, 95% of western medical equipment is broken within 5 years. In fact,only 30% of this donated equipment is ever even turned on. To enable

By Core Jr - Aug 11

How to Tackle Logo Designs

This useful resource from a few years back will help you get started

Reader tinycc6 recently posted an interesting challenge-slash-inquiry on the Core77 discussion boards, writing, "Is there any way to learn about logo design in one week? This question reminded us of a helpful video we came across from a few years back via LinkedIn's Learning Solutions YouTube channel. The personality