By Rain Noe - Aug 18 New

What Are the Practical Differences Between Different Tire/Rim Sizes?

Noise, performance, comfort, safety and fun

I learned to drive on a five-speed Datsun 280ZX that had 195/70 R14 tires. Yes, 14-inch wheels sporting tires with high sidewalls. This was normal in the '80s, but nowadays the rage is to have beefier rims with low-profile tires, a trend that I suspect was advanced by car renderings. Every automotive renderer seems to draw rims that threaten to bottom out inside the wheel wells, with only the faintest sliver of black to indicate there's any rubber on them.

By Rain Noe - Aug 17 New

Interactive Map Shows You the Exact Opposite End of the Globe From You

The Antipodes Map shows you where you'd wind up if you dug straight down

This is one of my dogs, Betsy, right before she starts furiously digging. She does it every time I take her to the beach and I joke that she's trying to get back to Japan, where her breed, the Shiba Inu, originates from. But assuming Betsy tunneled straight down from

By Rain Noe - Aug 17 New

Yea or Nay? Instead of the Selfie, the "Bothie"

Nokia's hoping their new smartphone trick will attract new buyers

Now that the Nokia brand has been resurrected, we're starting to see licensee HMD Global Oy take creative strides to make them competitive again. First they relaunched the 3310, essentially a vintage cell phone design that's 17 years old. Now they've moving into smartphone territory with their Nokia 8, and

By Core Jr - Aug 17 New

3M's Precision Standing Desk Gives You the Option Between Sitting and Standing in an Effortless Package

Quickly transform your existing desk into a sit-stand workstation to help boost productivity at work

As our work environments evolve from stagnant cubicles to spaces that demand adaptability for the sake of efficiency and creative thinking, the objects around us should do the same. A need for flexible workspaces has led to the normalization of products in the workplace like the standing desk. The productivity

By Rain Noe - Aug 17

Another Crazy Optical Illusion: There are 16 Circles in This Image

…and there's an interesting explanation for why you can't see them at first

This tricky visual is called "The Coffer Illusion." What do you see? There are in fact 16 circles sitting right there in plain sight. Keep staring and eventually you'll see them, resulting in an odd feeling of satisfaction and/or a splitting

By Steven Johnson - Aug 16

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

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

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

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

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: Notable 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.