Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i Popular Mechanics South Africa

I’ve been reading a lot about plastic recycling and the difficulties that surround it, so I was interested to come across the article in the March 2018 issue that talks about stopping waste at the entrance to harbours, before it reaches the open sea. Personally, I want to deal with the plastic that’s already in the ocean – the swirling mass comprising hundreds of thousands of tons of waste. I believe I have got a solution to this immense problem, one that happens on-site in the middle of the ocean. There are various ways of turning plastic – which is made using crude oil – back into fuel, be it liquid petroleum gas (LPD) or diesel. Essentially, boil the plastic in a vacuum at about 300 to 400°C, distil the…

1 DO YOUR STRETCHES Before trying to get everything else perfect, it’s good to get a fresh set of strings on and tuned up. If you don’t have a tuner app on your phone yet, get one. There are many free options available. Strings need some stretching before they settle in, though, so get them tuned up, then pull on each string till it’s out of tune, then tune up again. Don’t yank the strings, or they may break. Repeat till the tuning remains stable. 2 GET YOUR NECK STRAIGHT The guitar’s neck should be either dead straight, or slightly concave (up-bowed), but never convex (back-bowed). You can tell how straight the neck is by fretting the thick E string at the first fret and another fret where the neck…

Pitcher Cleveland Indians Frame Carbon fibre offers the best mix of strength, lightness, and durability. That’s great for when you’re starting out and crashing a lot. Buy a frame that uses 13 mm (5”) propellers from companies such as flyingrobot.co or quadcopter.co.za. Battery The industry standard is four-cell. Motors and propellers Electric motors are rated in KV, or rpm generated per volt. High-KV options will be more responsive, but they’ll burn through the battery faster. When starting out, you’ll want a less aggressive freestyle motor and propeller set. Stick to a thrust-to-weight ratio of around 4:1. So if your frame, the battery, the motors, and all the other major components weigh 500 g, you need motors that will give you 2 kg of thrust, or 500 g per motor. The…

DRY INGREDIENTS 1 cup self-rising flour1 level tbsp baking powder1 level tbsp cornmeal (polenta)You could eyeball this and it would still come out okay: a palm full of flour, a large pinch of baking powder, and a large pinch of cornmeal. WET INGREDIENTS 1 egg1 cup buttermilk (or 2% milk)1 capful oil (use the cap from the vegetable-oil container) MIXING INSTRUCTIONS 1. Mix the dry ingredients with a fork. 2. Mix the wet ingredients with a fork. 3. Mix together the wet and dry with a fork. 4. Thin the resulting batter with water until, when you pour it out of a spoon, it forms a thin, smooth ribbon on top of the batter. COOKING INSTRUCTIONS 1. Moisten a paper towel with vegetable oil and wipe a sheen on to…

MATERIALS • 10 saplings, approximately 25 mm thick at their base and 1.5 to 1.8 m long • Six sticks, 25 mm thick and 150 to 200 mm long • 7.5 m cordage: parachute cord, animal hide cut into strips, or a ripped-up Def Leppard T-shirt INSTRUCTIONS 1. Bundle and tie together the skinny ends of the five saplings. 2. 90 cm down from the tie, spread the saplings apart so that they span 150 to 200 mm. Place one of the sticks across the spread-out saplings as a crossbar, then tie each sapling to the crossbar using a transom knot (Figs A–D). The toe of your boot will eventually be lashed to this crossbar. 3. The tip of the snowshoe needs to curl up like an elf’s shoe. To…

POPULAR MECHANICS SENIOR HOME EDITOR SOLVES YOUR MOST PRESSING PROBLEMS One of the wheels came off my wheelie bin. No matter how hard I look, I can’t find a replacement anywhere. Do I have to buy a whole new bin? Nope. You just need to know what to ask for. These small plastic wheels are sometimes called push-cap wheels. The little hat-shaped oddity that secures them is called a push cap, a hat nut, or a cap-nut. Slide out the axle and remove the remaining wheel and take it to a hardware store, where a salesperson should be able to help you find another. You can also look online. Measure the diameter of the wheel first, to be sure you’re getting the right fit. Diameters of 150-, 175- and 200…

CAR SERVICING TOOLS A / BATTERY CHARGER // R2 725 The Noco GB40 jump-starter pack can get cars up to 6.0-litre petrol and 3.0-litre diesel going. Keep it charged and it’ll be your best friend (or at least give you the option of giving your battery a jump in really confined spaces). justlikepapa.com B / SHIFTING SPANNER Near-infinite flexibility. Just remember to always turn towards the movable jaw; that puts the least strain on it. Get a 200 mm spanner to start with, because it covers the full 18–22 range. C / CHROME VANADIUM SPANNERS 18–22 Vanadium is a grey metal used as an alloy to greatly increase the strength of steel. The more expensive the spanner, the more vanadium was used (typically about 0.15–0.25 per cent for hard-carbon tools).…

BIG QUESTIONS. ANSWERS YOU CAN’T FIND ON THE INTERNET. YOU’RE PROBABLY ABLE to ascertain someone’s nationality a bit better by what they laugh at than by the way they laugh. Norwegians laugh at Swedes. Swedes laugh at Norwegians. The French laugh at Jerry Lewis. And Americans have learnt to laugh at everything, because it’s the only way they’re going to get out of bed these days. Disa Sauter, a professor of social psychology at the University of Amsterdam, devised a quiz in which 800 subjects listened to laughs from six different cultural backgrounds – Dutch, French, English, American, Japanese, and a Namibian group called the Himba – and tried to match the chortling to its country of origin. ‘We found that people are terrible at this,’ says Sauter. In a…

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND? WRITE TO US popularmechanics@ramsaymedia.co.za In December, my husband and I came across a piece of furniture a member of his family was giving away: a thirty-year-old vanity table that had belonged to his mother. It had certainly seen better days – the larger surfaces were perished and stained – but the wood was still solid. It seemed a shame to let go of the piece, so we decided to restore it. Given its relatively small size, we figured the restoration wouldn’t be too difficult and we’d get it done in the last few days of our holiday… Oh, how wrong we were! First we disassembled it, separating mirror panels, uprights and drawers from the main structure. Then the real work began! We stripped the perished varnish…

ISSUE: Incomplete insulation allows heat to be conducted and radiated through walls and roofs. SOLUTION: Look at condensation patterns or rain-drying patterns on the walls and roof. If one part dries more quickly than the rest, typically a sign that heat’s escaping there, you may be missing some insulation. You can also buy a thermal camera from Seek or FLIR. Both companies make attachments for smartphones that cost much less than a stand-alone camera, since they use your phone’s screen and memory. I find the blackand- white setting easier to grasp than the colour. On mine, the darker the image appears, the colder the surface. Hold it up to an area inside your house and the dark spots (in my case) will reveal any air leaks or missing insulation. SHOULD…

And receive a FREE MobiMag! SAVE 25% The MobiMag is a magnetic air-vent holder for your mobile device. Now you can drive safely while using your mobile phone hands-free with MobiMag. Easily mount your phone on to your air vent and let the strong magnetic attraction hold your device securely in place. Your MobiMag comes with a magnetic air-vent mount and two metal plates — one with adhesive to stick to your phone or cover, and one to slot in-between your phone and cover.…

DISPATCHES FROM THE NEW SPACE AGE WHAT A SPACE KINDLE COULD DO Imagine a CubeSat with an e-ink panel that can toggle its pixels between black and white. White pixels, which reflect light, get a small amount of momentum when hit by sunlight. Black pixels, which absorb light, get some momentum, but less. Therefore, a panel split vertically between white and black gets greater force pushing its top (F1) than its bottom (F2), rotating it about its center of gravity (COG) and reorienting it in orbit – without using thrusters or fuel. Once it is reoriented (and farther from the sun) the panel could be turned black to absorb more heat and keep its instruments in their operable temperature range. I HAVE A WEIRD IDEA. I want to put an…

1 / Find a nice straight piece of 19 × 140 mm white pine, 2.4 m long, and then use a circular saw to crosscut a 1.2 m piece from it. Rip the piece to 100 mm on a table saw. 2 / Square one end of the piece to 90° on a mitre saw. Starting from that end, crosscut the two sides (A) to 300 mm long. Cut the bottom (C) to 267 mm. 3 / Set the fence on the table saw to 82 mm from the blade. The odd dimension gives the ends (B) the clearance they need to allow the lid to slide over them. Rip the last 300 mm or so of the 100 mm-wide piece of pine to this width. Then crosscut two 100…

Teddie’s Peanut Butter Dream, named for the Teddie’s Peanut Butter brand, was invented by Alexandra Koblan at Bully Boy Distillers in Boston. You can order it at the Bully Boy tasting room, but you can also make it at home. The key is fat washing. You soak the peanut butter in rum to impart the peanut-butter flavour in the spirit without adding the slickness of the fat itself. And since you have to use an entire bottle of rum for the fat washing, it’s more than just an everyday drink. It’s a drink for entertaining. Invite some friends over and serve. TEDDIE’S PEANUT-BUTTER DREAM 45 ml peanut-butter fat-washed rum*15 ml heavy cream15 ml white rum22 ml simple syrup1 egg white1 heaped scoop all-natural peanut butter Combine ingredients in a cocktail…

MEASURING INSTRUMENTS 1. RYOBI ULTRASONIC DISTANCE MEASURE // R540 USER LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE This device uses sound to accurately measure distance. The laser-beam guide ensures you aim it at precisely the right spot, and the LCD shows the measurement – accurate to ±0.5% of the reading. It’s ideal for measuring interior dimensions for carpeting, for carpentry, electrical and plumbing work, and for large painting projects (where knowing the area’s square metreage is important). 2. WALDO COMBINATION SQUARE AND CENTRE HEAD // R145 USER LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE Mostly used in woodworking, masonry and metalworking, the combination square has a ruled blade and one or more interchangeable heads. It’s great for measuring corners. Some models, such as this one, boast a built-in level. 3. WORKSMAN 5 m TAPE MEASURE // R128 USER LEVEL: BEGINNER…

1 / GERBER DOWNRANGE TOMAHAWK // R6 060 Three tools in one makes for exceptionally good value. The head has a cutting edge and a hammer head welded on the other side; the cut-out area is moulded to serve as the handle for the pry-tool on the end of the tang. Forged from heat-treated high-carbon steel, this tomahawk will last a long time and the nifty sheath clips on to almost any gear. 2 / WETTERLINGS SPLITTING AXE // R2 125 This is probably what you were expecting when we said ‘axes’. Splitting axes are the most common form of domestic axe and are very well designed for chopping up firewood. You want the force of the swing to get the wedge to split the fibres of the wood along…

Every year, the Michelin tyre company gathers the smartest minds in transportation for Movin’On, three days of expert panels, presentations, and people wearing lanyard ID tags. It’s a tyre convention – and it’s fascinating. This year, engineers at Michelin showed off a plan to make new tyres from 80 per cent renewable materials such as wood, straw, or beets (yes, seriously). Why does Michelin spend more than $800 million (R11.3 billion) every single year researching sustainability so it can make tyres out of root vegetables? Because the modern tyre – more specifically, its disposal – is a filthy business. Each year, automobiles produce 246 million waste tyres in the United States alone. How to reduce that astonishing number is a huge challenge, so pressing that it has created its own…

Write to us, engage in debate, and you could win an exciting prize. The writer of this month’s winning letter has won a Makita Impact Driver Drill valued at R5 199! Like all the tools in Makita’s 18 V cordless range, the 13 mm DHP482Z Impact Driver Drill has been engineered using the latest technology. It is both lightweight and compact, with variable speed delivering up to 28 500 impacts per minute. It has an electric brake, reverse drill mode and 21 torque settings with a maximum fastening torque of 62 Nm. The single- sleeve keyless chuck allows for easy bit installation and removal. Charging time for the 3 Ah battery is 22 minutes. The kit includes a Cordless DHP482Z Impact Driver Drill, two 3 Ah 18 V batteries, and…

1 If you wouldn’t wear it to the shopping centre, don’t wear it in the work space. 2 I once saw a guy take off his wet socks, tuck them in-between the couch cushions, then put his bare feet on the coffee table. Don’t do that. 3 Chew with your mouth closed. This has nothing specifically to do with co-working spaces, but it is a rule we should all live by. 4 No, not the bike shorts. 5 To estimate the amount of space you should take up at a shared table, imagine 15 cm beyond the width of your body on either side, extending no more than 50 cm in front of you. 6 Why are there wet jeans draped over an architectural feature? Are you wearing other pants?…

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF HEALTH AND WELLNESS UPDATE Jacqueline Detwiler also reported on the state of cancer research in our September 2018 issue. CASE STUDY 1 The sharing project THREE YEARS AGO, Dr Jinghui Zhang, chair of the department of computational biology at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, tried to download a set of 1 547 samples from a government database so she could run an experiment on it. The download took a year and a half. Every time Zhang’s team thought it had the complete set of data, they then performed a statistical check that was supposed to catch any transmission errors. Seven times, the check failed. Seven times, the team started working only to realise that part of the set was missing, and they’d have…

Beer has been around for thousands of years, and the basic ingredients have stayed more or less the same: water, grain (such as barley), flavouring (such as hops), and yeast. That’s it. And if people were brewing it in the Stone Age, you can brew it now. It’s like baking or cooking: If you can read, you can brew. That’s because beer is made following recipes, of which there are thousands on the internet. And you can take it as seriously as you want, whether that means growing your own barley and hops, cultivating your own yeast and drawing water from a well, or buying a brew-in-a-bucket kit on the internet. Either way, a few hours’ work and a few weeks of waiting – the hard part – and you’ll…

LAY A MAT-SIZE piece of bluestone, limestone, or sandstone (a concrete paver also works, but you won’t end up with the same clean lines) across a pair of sawhorses, and mark your pattern on it using a rafter square and a carpenter’s pencil. Now use a masonry saw to cut all the grooves to 3.5 mm deep in a single pass, then lower the blade and make two more passes, extending the depth by an additional 3.5 mm each time. For a more professional look, rock the edges by holding a mason’s chisel at a 45° angle to the mat’s surface, 12.5 mm in from the edge and angled out, and hitting it with a hand sledge around the perimeter of the stone. A final note: be sure to hose…

Michael Solomonov is the chef of Philadelphia’s Zahav restaurant. This recipe is from his upcoming book, Israeli Soul. He suggests serving the hummus in a bowl, carving out a well in the middle and filling it with crispy burnt ends of brisket or pastrami, caramelised onions, and chickpeas, and then topping it with tahini. MAKES ABOUT 4 CUPS (4 SERVINGS) NGREDIENTS 1 garlic clove juice of 1 lemon1 × 400 g jar tahini (typically found in supermarkets’ international aisles)1 tbsp kosher salt1 tsp ground cumin1½ cups ice water2 × 410 g cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed INSTRUCTIONS 1. Nick off a piece of the garlic (about a quarter of the clove) and drop it into a food processor. 2. Squeeze the lemon juice into the food processor. Pour the tahini…

KITCHEN COUNTERTOP? Lamp base? Courtyard slab? You could save yourself a bit of money by mixing your own concrete for a range of DIY projects. To mix general-purpose concrete, you’ll need 1 part cement to 2.5 parts sand and 2.5 parts stone. So that would be a plastic ice-cream tub of cement to two-and-a-half tubs of sand and two-and-a-half tubs of stone, if you were thinking of making a chunky lamp base. If you’re making something bigger, then scale up the quantities accordingly. The 1:2.5:2.5 ratio should yield a volume of four times your starting measure – so you’d end up with concrete that would fill four icecream- tub-sized containers if you were mixing the quantities listed above correctly. You’ll need a trowel or spade, and a sturdy container (an…

It’s a lot more convenient to pop something in the microwave or fry it on the stove, but cooking over fire has a certain sense of occasion to it. Our palaeolithic ancestors were the first to start formalising the braai spot in the camp, and archeological discoveries date this cooking method back almost two million years. Cooking food is like having a stomach outside of your body to process the food and unlock the full nutritional potential. As far as we’re concerned, the braai should be the focal point of outdoor activities, and this is what you’ll need to build a great one that’ll last a long time and keep any smoke from stinking up the place. OBEY THE LAW There’s a useful golden ratio when it comes to extracting…

Hands, eyes, toes, ears, lungs – if you care about a body part, you’ll want to protect it while you’re working. Here’s the best gear to keep you safe, no matter what’s on your to-do list. WHERE YOU ARE In the garden WHAT YOU MIGHT BE DOING Mowing, gardening, chopping, running the chainsaw A / Hearing protection doesn’t have to be bulky or expensive. Clicks’s house-brand corded ear plugs are washable and fit in your shirt pocket. R27.99 B / Fine dust can be a real danger to your lungs. The RZ M2 mask has replaceable carbon filters and a Velcro strap, so it’s simple to put on and take off. Plus, it’s actually comfortable. R550 C / Mechanix Wear’s ORHD Knit CR3A3 gloves have an industrial A3 cut-resistance rating,…

ALUMINIUM WINDOW LATCH REPAIR If your house has older aluminium windows, then you may have some where the handle has broken loose from the base. This is an inconvenience, but all is not lost. 1. As long as the centre pivot stub has remained intact, here’s how to repair your latch. A missing centre stub is another story entirely. 2. Drill the hole out to 4 mm. 3. Tap the hole using an M5 × 0.8 plug tap. 4. Don’t take the tap all the way; just tap until the tip is level with the base. This will ensure that the capscrew sits tight in the tapped hole. 5. Drill the retaining washer out to 5 mm. 6. Assemble, using an M5 × 15 or longer capscrew. Tighten it until…

Write to us with your tip and you could win a Master Lock hamper worth R2 000. Master Lock One Lock has a 55 mm body with a 7 mm hardened-steel shackle for improved cut resistance. It also has a directional combination padlock that allows for up/down/left/right directional movements to open the padlock and is more secure than a standard combination lock. The One Lock code is resettable to any number of movements in any sequence. Master Lock products carry a limited lifetime warranty. Master Lock Indoor Bluetooth Padlock gives you the freedom to monitor access and control who is able to open the lock via the Master Lock Vault eLocks app on your smartphone. You’ll also be able to track the history of when the lock was opened and…