Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2015 i Popular Mechanics South Africa

A COACH IN YOUR RACKET THE FIRST TIME I SWUNG A TENNIS RACQUET, the ball got stuck in the V of the handle, and I got humiliated. More recently I lined up a sure backhand winner only to send it out of the court and into the windscreen of a passing car. I like tennis, but clearly finesse eludes me. So I was eager to try Sony’s new Smart Tennis Sensor, a device the size and weight of a large acorn that snaps into the bottom of your racquet and records data as you hit, then sends everything to a smartphone app for analysis – and a chance to improve. To set it up, you remove the racket’s end cap (currently Head, Prince, Wilson, and Yonex make compatible rackets), install…

The US Postal Service processes one billion letters, magazines and envelopes a month. And no matter the variety of chicken to scratch out the address, nearly all eventually get to their destination. How? An Optical Character Reader takes a snapshot of every address, picks out the city, state, street and house number, then compares those against a database to match the address with the post code. Ninety-seven per cent are read automatically. The other 3 per cent get a fluorescent tag and are sent to a plant in Utah to be examined by an actual person with what must be incredible patience.…

I’VE ALWAYS BEEN A TINKERER. It comes from my dad. Growing up, we lived in a house in Pasadena that had no driveway. You used an alley that ran through the middle of the block, behind all the houses, to get to your backyard or the garage. Well, the neighbour behind us had a U-Haul trailer up on car jacks and loaded with cinder block. One night my dad came home from a gig at three in the morning. He had a little heat going, he’d had a few drinks, so he says, “This thing is blocking me from getting in again.” So he got out of the car and tried to move it. As soon as he lifted the trailer, the jack fell over, and it chopped his finger…

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing. That’s a fact. At least, according to Katie Melua. But while the songbird was linking undying love to the two-wheeled lifestyle, did she notice how many of those bikes were actually being pedalled? Because China, prompted by government support, is where the E-bike boom began in the 1990s. It’s still the world’s biggest market for this mode of transport, with 85 per cent of global sales, according to a report by the International Lead and Zinc Study Group. Projecting on that report’s estimates, by now well over 200 million E-bikes should be running around there. (Why the study group is interested in E-bikes: the Chinese versions largely use leadacid batteries.) Because E-bikes in China tend to use lead-acid battery technology, they are cheap…

Nine fiercely competitive teams are squaring up in the 2015 Rugby World Cup. No, we’re not talking about the teams of internationals battling it out for the Webb Ellis Cup, of which there are 20. The nine we’re referring to are the official apparel suppliers. The bulk of the World Cup teams – albeit not the favourites – are being supplied by Australian company BLK (“Beyond Limits Known”). BLK’s roster of six includes the USA, Fiji, Tonga, Georgia, Samoa, and Romania. The reigning apparel champion, though, is adidas – by virtue of its 16-year link-up with New Zealand’s All Blacks. The company also sponsors France and Italy. Also sponsoring three is Canterbury, signed up to England, Japan and Ireland. A recent entrant clearly hoping to make the leap from the…

Some might argue that a laser cutter is not a conventional tool in the home workshop, but I will argue that the humble scroll saw was also not commonly available to makers until quite recently, either. The modern maker needs a new array of skills and tools in the form of Computer Aided Design, laser cutters and 3D printers to bring new ideas to life not possible before. Maker spaces all over the country and indeed the world are making it easy to get access to these tools. Like all woodworking designs should, this one started with a sketch. I played around with the design using Trimble (ex Google) Sketchup to draw the 3D model on my computer. The idea with 3D modelling is to draw the profiles in 2D…

LEARNING TOFLY BY THEN I WAS ABLE TO KEEP THE PLANE STEADY as we raced down the centreline. I was able to climb out in a coordinated and measured way, searching the sky for traffic, until I hit our cruising altitude. By then I could arrest our climb with forward pressure on the yoke – a modest achievement as piloting goes, but one that really pleased me. A climbing plane wants to keep climbing, you see, and a hard nudge on the stick implies a willful hand and a made-up mind. I acted with authority and know-how to keep the plane in line, and on that day I remember feeling that at last I had command over the single-prop Piper Cherokee we called Six-Two Romeo.   By then I also…

WINNING LETTER POWER DOWN THE DRAIN Stormwater and groundwater flowing into the sewer system can have serious consequences for load shedding. I speak from experience; in the sanitation department of a big municipality, it became clear to me how widespread and serious a problem this is. Readers – even municipal officials – may ask,”But what has this to do with load shedding?” Design of sewer reticulation systems and sewer pump stations makes a nominal provision for stormwater inflow (normally around 15 per cent). Property owners are often not aware that allowing stormwater to enter the sewer reticulation is illegal and may lead to prosecution. As properties develop, larger areas are covered by building extensions and paving. Often the easy (“cheaper”) solution is to allow the stormwater run-off to drain into…

DO WE REALLY WANT SMART appliances able to share their innermost feelings? And just how safe are they in a world where cybercrime lurks in every Wi-Fi hotspot? Of course we’re right to be concerned. Manufacturers of everything from cars to coffee makers are falling over themselves to embrace connectivity. In the quest for a competitive advantage, they’ve clearly realised, there are only so many ways you can reinvent the acts of washing, drying, vacuum cleaning and refrigerating. So they have had to move beyond efficiency and reliability to an area that’s becoming more important in today’s crowded lifestyles: convenience. And if that means being able to check what’s in your fridge without opening the door – perhaps even at a distance, using a smartphone app – they’re finding more…

You know when you get your bike back from the workshop, brightwork glinting like new, frame tubing buffed to a lustre deep enough to dive into, and hovering over it all a heady perfume of polish mingled with chain lube – plus a mysterious sweet scent you could swear is lip gloss? Liqui Moly’s new range of DIY bike products aims to give you a pro-style finish with the minimum of hassle. In a one-litre bottle, the Bike Cleaner is a simple spray on/leave for two to three minutes/ rinse off operation. There’s also a chain cleaner aerosol spray that cuts the crud alarmingly effectively, which explains the prominent warning signs. Lubricants in the range include a universal aerosol chain spray, two specialist chain oils (one for dry, dusty conditions…

WHEN THE FREEDOM HIGH SCHOOL Auto Club in Freedom, Wisconsin, finally installed new engines in the 1974 Oldsmobile Delta 88 and a 1981 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 we’ve been watching them restore, Ryan Lucier, a 17-year-old junior, worked with three other students to mount a fuel line to the Camaro’s underside (see instructions, right). Lucier, now in his third automotive class, took his first class last semester and realised he loved it within the first week. He immediately dropped his art elective and added another auto-shop course to his schedule. Next year he plans to sign up for at least one more. “It gives me something to look forward to in the day,” he says. There are far worse things to say about high school. THE ESSENTIAL SUMMER BUG REMOVER My…

PROJECT NOTES OUR WATER CANNON is modelled after a version on the amazing website Instructables.com. The abuse-tolerant design means the cannon can be dropped, stepped on, and left outside. You’d have to try hard to break it. Working with PVC pipe is straightforward. We used a mitre saw and an 80-tooth blade that cuts plastic and non-ferrous metal, but if you don’t have that, you can just as easily use a simple backsaw and a plastic mitre box, a R200 hardware-store item. We experimented a bit with the O-rings, too. Our first attempt was too small, so we moved up. For lubricant we used WD-40, but you could also use waterproof silicone grease or even Vaseline. After the first build, the spray was wide and wasn’t shooting as far as…

Q We have a nice cedar picnic table and bench set, but the tabletop is weathered and there are food and beer stains. The benches also need to be refinished. Can you give us some tips? A This is pretty straightforward. Begin with an application of an exterior wood cleaner that contains oxalic acid (bleach), such as Woodoc Wood Reviver. Scrub the tabletop and benches with a coarse synthetic brush, being careful not to score the surfaces. You can use a putty knife or a painter’s 5-in-1 tool (a hookshaped putty knife) to remove any junk that’s built up between boards. Now rinse everything and let it all dry.   Next, sand off splinters and flatten dents with 120-grit sandpaper. Brush off any dust and gently wipe the surface with…

1973 The cover story was compiled by the doyen of American cycling literature, Eugene A Sloane. (The bike pictured incidentally, is one of the crowning glories of the USA’s bike boom, the Schwinn Paramount.) Sloane started cycling rather late, in middle age, as a way of getting fit. That got the former public relations exec into writing, starting with the legendary Complete Book of Bicycling. 1954 Motorists behind were given due warning of a cyclist’s actions by the red, amber and green signals from this miniature battery-operated traffic light mounted on a bike’s rear mudguard. Pedalling lit up the green, coasting the amber and braking the red. Given motorists’ typical response to amber, perhaps this wasn’t such a great idea. Parking your bicycle neatly was made a lot easier with…

SMAKO SHARKS DON’T MAKE THINGS EASY on scientists. They’re pelagic, for one thing, which means they live in the open sea. And they’re fast. Faster than any other shark, believed to hit burst speeds of 100 kilometres per hour. Those factors have kept the mako largely unstudied, so much so that no one had seen live footage of a mako in its natural habitat. Paul Matusheski changed that. Matusheski is the executive producer of Monster Mako: Lightning of the Deep, a show that was due to premiere as part of Discovery Channel’s cult phenomenon, Shark Week (starting July 5). To capture footage of the makos, he knew he needed a better version of the fin-mounted camera and tracking systems used in the past. He wanted a device with forward and…

MICHELANGELO COULD HAVE SAVED a team of experts a lot of time if he’d signed his work. Instead, earlier this year in England, those experts spent months studying two bronze statues of men riding panthers. The works were previously credited to a 16th-century Dutch sculptor, but last year a Cambridge University professor discovered a drawing of a similar panther and rider by one of Michelangelo’s apprentices, which would indicate that he used one of his master’s works as a model. It seemed like more than just coincidence, and upon further investigation, enough evidence was found to make a compelling case that the statues had been done by the most famous ceiling painter ever to live. That conclusion was due to be defended at a conference on 6 July. In case…

HUAWEI TALKBAND B1 Get fit and communicate Wearable fitness trackers that monitor activity levels, calories burnt, sleep patterns and the like are nothing new. Huawei’s Talkband B1 goes further, though, by adding Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC connectivity. This allows you to not only pair it with your smartphone to download and manage captured data, but also to take and make calls using a headset. Its modest 90-mAh battery provides enough juice for around six days of regular use, seven hours of talk time and 14 days on standby. It also comes with an IP57 waterproof rating and is dust-protected. Price: about R1 600. Contact distributors DCC on 011 201 8927 or visit www.drivecon.net Editor’s choice THULE LEGEND FOR GOPRO Safe and secure Based on feedback from professional athletes and GoPro…

Smart BEDDING CLEANER This cordless hygienic bedding cleaner is said to effectively reduce the number of dust mites and harmful allergens in beds and mattresses. With powerful suction and three distinct levels of cleaning plus the built-in UV sterilisation station, it ensures a more hygienic bed and the cleaner itself, reducing the chance of secondary contamination. With the growth of the Internet of Things, what is LG’s strategy when it comes to security? What if somebody hacks my fridge? We are conducting a very in-depth study globally regarding security-related compliance issues. A security system is being created to prevent any kind of hacking from occurring; currently we are adopting a very strong firewall for our appliance server and implementing a security solution for our smart appliances. The idea is to…

We put our bodies on the line for some pretty arbitrary achievements. But staying fit and healthy while participating in an activity is not entirely your responsibility, though. Preventing injury depends on your actions and preparation, the quality of your equipment and facilities, and how well the organisers have done their job. The rest is a complicated matrix of techniques and strategies to maximise the positive effects of your training and staying competitive, but within yourself or the boundaries of your training. If that’s a confusing, don’t fret. Science has the answer. What’s the safest exercise to do? Sports Science guru Dr Ross Tucker says it’s complicated. “Nobody has studied injury risk (among commercial training programmes) in a systematic way. It’s not like for soccer, rugby or running where scientists…

STEP ONE Find the leak Find the leakIf a rainbow-coloured spot appears on the driveway, you’ve got a fuel-line leak. To find it, jack up the vehicle and scan the steel fuel line that runs from your fuel tank to the engine for holes. There will be multiple sections: for example, between the fuel tank and the fuel filter and between the filter and the pump. Note, however, that fuel-line damage is usually caused by rust, so it is often found near the fittings that attach the line to the tank or the fuel filter. Use the location of the spot on the pavement to help you locate the damage. STEP TWO Remove the line Detach the damaged section by unlatching the clasps that hold the line to the underside…

Giving up all your worldly possessions is one way of cutting down on clutter. For one thing, there are plenty of things that most people would really rather keep. But where to store your junk… er, stuff? Smart storage means finding a variety of solutions for stacking stuff. You need to hide items that are seldom used or messy-looking, perhaps putting on display others that are more aesthetically pleasing. And then there’s the question of size. Cubi, described by its designer Retief Krige of Stellenbosch, is a modular concept that makes a virtue of the one-size-fits-all approach. Ostensibly yet another on those seemingly endless variations on the humble box, it uses a novel, locally designed and patented fastening mechanism. If you detect something familiar about it, the inspiration for this…