Makers, Hackers and Geeks
A new kind of industrial revolution is taking hold in cities and towns all over the world. It’s a grassroots movement, empowered by individuals freely sharing knowledge and using the tools of digital manufacturing. Locally based but connected by the World Wide Web, it may be the best hope yet for revitalizing manufacturing economies and […]
Inventor’s Toolkit: 7 Tips For Inventing Products
Every day we talk to inventors, entrepreneurs and product designers who need help making a physical prototype. For these people to be successful inventors, they need to be armed with knowledge to avoid the many pitfalls they may face in the development process. Here are 7 tips to help make the journey easier. 1. Research […]
Getting a Beautiful Finish on Painted Parts
The process of painting beautiful parts There are some unique challenges that present themselves when trying to achieve the perfect paint finish for prototypes or low-volume production. High volume batch production can be automated to produce large runs of identical parts, but small batches must be carefully handled on a case-by-case basis. Let’s take a closer look […]
The Engineer’s Bookshelf: Machinery’s Handbook
Although it’s now digitized on CD-ROM, Machinery’s Handbook still remains The Book to turn to for a vast amount of information relevant not only to machinists but also product designers, tool makers, engineers, inventors and hobbyists who want definitive information about how things are made with machine tools. Let’s take a closer look at its […]
Advanced Methods For Making Better Mold Tools
Recent innovations in tooling construction with conformal heating and cooling channels open up exciting new possibilities for part designs with improved throughput and lower costs. Product developers and engineers now have access to new techniques made possible by additive manufacturing which promise enormous benefits in productivity, cost savings and finished part quality. Let’s take a look […]
Why Must We Make Things So Complicated?
A brief look at watches, clocks and other timepieces, and our timeless fascination with spinning gears. What Is A Complication? A watch complication is essentially any movement that displays more than the mere hour, minute or second. This is the face of the world’s most complicated watch, by Vacheron Constantin. Dubbed rather unimaginatively as Ref. […]
