Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2018 i Popular Mechanics South Africa

Tings have moved fast since my last ed’s letter. To condense a long story, the place we’ve been renting for the past three-and-a-half years came up for sale, and after giving it some thorough-yet-rapid thought, I decided to buy it. Skip forward a couple of weeks and my offer has been accepted, my finance is just about arranged (just as soon as I’ve signed over my firstborn, given DNA samples for safekeeping in a vault somewhere, and promised the bank my undying love for 20 years), and we’re now thinking about how we’ll improve the place once it’s properly ours. But when you get down to doing that, and you start scouring the web, Pinterest, home-improvement magazines and talking to people with more design acumen than you, it all becomes…

Not too long ago I bought an issue of Popular Mechanics because I was interested in the article ‘Money is coming back into local manufacturing; this is where it’s going’. I was interested to learn about Selwyn van Aarde and his challenge of manufacturing shoes in that declining industry. Even the editor touched on why South African manufacturers are still continuing, despite the numerous challenges. I feel that this is a very interesting topic that could definitely be expanded on. Like Selwyn, I am trying to resurrect an almost dead industry (lingerie manufacturing) as I find it ridiculous that our country should lose this valuable skill set, especially when we have such a high unemployment rate. South Africans are incredibly creative and talented people, and it makes sense that we…

FEATURE GRILLE-LESS FACE Model X Although the 2015 Model X’s general design recalled a four-door car, it had radical details – and its mouth was missing. After a few years of distance, the decision is akin to the MacBook Pro losing the DVD drive. Losing the unnecessary allusions to the combustion past is how Von Holzhausen and crew earned those Falcon Wing doors. FEATURE POP-OUT DOOR HANDLES Model S In most modern luxury cars, you can approach the vehicle, key in pocket, and tug on the door handle to open it. Approach a new Model S, and its flush-to-the-door handles extend out in invitation. The idea is functional, too. Sunken door handles benefit aerodynamic efficiency. FEATURE WRAPAROUND WINDSHIELD Model X The glass sweeps back past the crown of the driver’s…

IT’S DIFFICULT TO imagine life without Instagram, Snapchat or the ability to quickly snap a picture of something on your phone, but two decades ago, this wasn’t the case. When Sony Ericsson launched its T68i phone with a camera attachment in South Africa in the early 2000s, I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to take photographs with their phone. ‘This will never catch on; I mean why wouldn’t you just use a regular camera?’ is what I thought. Clearly, I was wrong. The T68i by no means had the best camera. Its biggest images were 640 × 480 pixels, but it was the beginning of a shift in the way that we interacted with our most personal devices. Instead of using our phones to just communicate, we were starting…

‘Coding isn’t just for computer whizzes, it’s for everyone.’ – Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab. Bits and Bricks is a cute online coding game by LEGO. Originally part of Hour of Code (a worldwide campaign to get kids into coding), the toy company has kept Bit the Bot’s adventure playable online, constantly releasing new levels. But there’s more: LEGO Boost is a new programmable robot kit that contains 847 bricks (and more) for kids aged seven and up. It lets you build five different types of robots that vary in difficulty. All you need is a tablet, the accompanying Boost app and some patience. Boost is not LEGO’s first STEM adventure – the company also makes a high-tech robot range called Mindstorm…

The door is sticking. Check the top corner, where the free-swinging edge (not the hinged edge) meets the jamb. Examine the jamb to look for scrapes that indicate the sticking point. Look for other obvious problems such as a loose hinge. Put down a tarp to catch wood shavings, paint scrapings, sawdust. Scrape away paint from the doorjamb, then sand the scraped area smooth, or tighten a hinge. Lubricate the door-hinge pins while you’re at it. Also: It swings open by itself. If some genius over-planed or sawed the door, leaving a monstrous gap between it and the jamb, screw a small, thin wood block to the upper corner of the jamb to fill up the gap. Adjust the thickness of this shim by sawing it on a table saw,…

Make use of a pickup magnet Everyone has used a magnet to pick up an errant ferrous object. If you find yourself doing this a lot, consider getting a pickup: a broad, flat magnet designed specifically for this purpose. Some come with long telescoping handles, others with releases that eject the items that have been picked up. In either case, make it even more useful: If you’re picking up items that you want to recover – say, fasteners, and not metal shavings to go in the trash – invert a ziplock bag over the end of the pickup before getting to work. When you’ve gathered all the metallic items, simply turn the bag right-side out, and you’ll have them gathered in a secure container. FROM —THE—ARCHIVES (1944!) Inverted saucer prevents…

Like most car manufacturers, the Tesla factory uses a piece of equipment called a servo press, a line of machines that moulds metal into parts for the car. Tesla bought the best one it could find, from a company called Schuler. There are 35 like it in use around Europe, but Tesla has the first one in the United States. The machine started out exactly the same as the other 35 – it was capable of moving 12 sheets per minute. Pretty quick. But not quick enough for Musk. First, his engineers at the Tesla factory in Fremont made the machine fit in a smaller space by shortening the conveyor belts at the end of the press and added two additional belts. Then they increased the speed at which the…

1 / Rhino Camera Black LED 14 MP // R5 748.85 Paired with the RikRhino smartphone application, this camera provides a motion-sensitive early-warning system that can be hidden away from view at strategic locations. Video resolution of 1 280 × 720p, 8/32 GB SD card, full colour in the day and infrared at night. rikrhino.co.za 2 / Solar Panel 2 000 MAh 6 V // R1 437.50 This waterproof solar charger is designed specifically to be coupled with the Rhino Camera for outdoor use. It’s easy to mount in direct sunlight, and ensures that a long-term, reliable power supply is provided to the Rhino Camera. rikrhino.co.za 3 / Ring Video Doorbell 2 // R3 999 This smart video doorbell might not be as fancy as the Nest Hello or Amazon…

A / Mous Limitless 2.0 LIKES: The most crowdfunded smartphone case is finally in South Africa. The new Limitless 2.0 iPhone cases are slim and durable. They’re super protective thanks to the AiroShock technology, which is made up of tiny air pockets and crosslinking polymer chains that work together to absorb the energy of an impact and disperse it. Made from a mix of polycarbonate and TPU, they have a lowered lip so that it doesn’t impede your edge-to-edge swiping on your iPhone X. DISLIKES: We’re not sure how to pronounce the name. R799 at iStore B / Xqisit Mitico Bumper Case LIKES: Unlike most durable cases, this one is flexible, which makes putting it on to your phone just a little bit easier. It also means that the buttons…

1/ Daisy the Dinosaur (Free, iOS) With two play modes, this ad-free app will teach kids the basics of visual coding using a simple drag-and-drop method. When you move an action command, Daisy does tricks. Fun and rewarding, the game gets harder as you progress. 2/ Tynker (Free, Web) By connecting blocks, Tynker gives kids who can read the ability to build both apps and games. It contains different themed courses (from space to haunted houses) with basic programming concepts such as loops, conditionals and events. Tynker’s vision is to enable kids to make anything they imagine.…

FOLDING E-SCOOTER: MOMAS CARBON ($ 399*) A scooter’s learning curve is basically flat, and this one actually weighs less than a Boosted Stealth – which means, if you’ve never done the LEV thing before, it won’t get any easier 2. ENCLOSED BIKE: ORGANIC TRANSIT ELF SOLO ($8 895*) Technically a bike – you can use it in the slow lane 3 – the fact that the ELF is enclosed and has three wheels means protection from weather and cargo capacity for bigger errands, such as the week’s grocery trip. SKATEBOARD: BOOS TED STEALTH ($1 599*) Not as light as a real skateboard, but about as unobtrusive as it gets. If you take public transit to work, this is the easiest LEV to carry without hassling other passengers. E-BIKE: ELBY S1…

RULES, TIPS, SECRETS, AND TOOLS OF THE EXTREMELY CAPABLE What handiness is EVEN WELL-MADE THINGS ARE, from the moment they’re created, heading towards oblivion. Handiness arrests that process and makes those things right again, putting to work a well-stocked toolbox and giving you the readiness to use it on small repairs and projects. But suppose you’re already handy. How do you go to the next level? First, you have to identify what you need to get there. The next level of handiness (which we’re just going to call handiness from here on out) requires a broad swath of mechanical knowledge and the ability to apply it skilfully in repairs, assembly, and small construction projects. Icing on the cake: It’s the ability to do this work on short notice and, much…

Is it okay to lean a ladder against a gutter when cleaning it out? I saw a roofer do that, but I thought it was verboten. Ralph B It’s not exactly verboten, but it is definitely nicht eine gute Idee. (As the son of German immigrants, I couldn’t help it.) The ladder can dent the gutter, scratch it, or bend it, especially if the ladder is placed between gutter brackets. And the skimpier the brackets, the greater the risk. Most people who take this risk lack the proper equipment. The best tool for this situation is a ladder stabiliser – a wing-like contraption that bolts to the ladder and spreads out the load while holding the top away from the wall. On older houses with extremely large soffits, sometimes even…

Tying tips These diagrams are easiest to follow if you tie the knots with the rope in the exact orientation as each picture. For some, lying the rope flat on a table is helpful. Also, all of these can be tied with rope or string of different sizes, but larger, stiffer rope is generally the easiest to handle. BOWLINE First up, one you’ve probably heard of: the bowline, also sometimes referred to as the ‘king of knots’. It is one of the standard go-to knots used in sailing and mountaineering because of its simplicity and versatility, and can be tweaked in many ways for specific functions. A basic bowline, diagrammed above, tightens under load to form a secure loop at the end of a rope. Perhaps its biggest virtue is…

WINNING TIP LAZY POP-UP TOASTER FIX My pop-up toaster (pic 1) slowed right down, until it was more of a crawl-up toaster. Also, after it finally did pop, the heating element didn’t switch off, so we were burning our toast regularly. When trying to disassemble it (after unplugging it!), I discovered it has those funny screws with triangular recesses in the head (pic 2). Fortunately, my jeweller’s screwdrivers (pic 3) fitted nicely, and I was able to remove all the screws (pic 4). Next, I gently pulled off the depressor handle (pics 5 and 6). I found that the pop-up mechanism slides up and down a small vertical shaft (pics 7 and 8). This was all gunged up with burnt grease and toast crumbs, so I cleaned it and added…

MAY 2002 Musk founds Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). APRIL 2004 Musk invests $6.3 million in electric-car company Tesla Motors and joins the board of directors. JULY 2006 SpaceX lands a NASA contract to deliver cargo to the ISS. AUGUST 2006 Musk invests in SolarCity, a solar-panel company. MARCH 2008 Tesla introduces its first vehicle, the Roadster. SEPTEMBER 2008 The Falcon 1 becomes the first privately-built liquid-fuel vehicle to reach orbit. OCTOBER 2008 Musk becomes CEO of Tesla. DECEMBER 2008 SpaceX lands a NASA contract for 12 flights for $1.6 billion. MAY 2012 SpaceX’s Dragon supply vessel docks with the ISS. APRIL 2015 Tesla announces Power wall batteries, a home system that stores energy generated from solar or other renewable sources. AUGUST 2015 The Tesla Model S P85D scores a 103…

The low-slung building on Evans Avenue with the greenhouse roof blends into the surroundings in an uninspiring stretch of Denver, all nondescript retail and pockets of ranch homes. It’s a hydroponic farm, run by partners Jake Olson and Lauren Brettschneider. The produce is all on tables at waist height, and the plumbing is subtle and minimalist. There is no soil anywhere. From the street, it’s easy to miss Rebel Farm; inside, it looks like an Apple Store hosting a farmer’s market. One afternoon this summer, Kimbal Musk, a tall, lanky man in a cowboy hat, ducked in through the front door. He was here about the produce for his Denver-area restaurants. Unlike, perhaps, the average restaurateur, he’d brought a couple of assistants, who used smartphones to photograph his entrance, and…

STAND A CHANCE OF WINNING A HUAWEI MATE 20 PRO Head over to popularmechanics.co.za to find out how to enter. HUAWEI MATE 20 PRO It’s that time of year when smartphone manufacturers unveil their best devices and everyone asks, ‘Which is the best phone?’ or ‘Which one do I get?’ If you’re an Android fan, then there is really only one device you should be eyeing – the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. It has a 6.39-inch 2K OLED display, 3D Face Unlock, a fingerprint scanner under the display, 40 W Supercharge (which can charge your battery to 70 per cent in 30 minutes), 15 W wireless fast charge, as well as reverse wireless charge. Despite having the same size display as the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, the phone itself is…

(4) I was a teacher for ten years at the James Rumsey Technical Institute in Martinsburg, West Virginia. I taught materials, distribution, and warehousing. We were very involved in a programme called SkillsUSA that encourages education of a skilled workforce. (5) We had the opportunity to go to Washington, DC, to petition our legislators not to cut funding for trade schools. Money was really hard to come by then, and still is now. At a reception for SkillsUSA participants, the keynote speaker was a disabled veteran. His Humvee had hit an IED and blown his legs off. His message for the students was, ‘You’re young, you’re the future, and we need you to think outside the box so that people like me can work side by side with you’. One…

1 Preparedness Your local fire department is the perfect example of preparedness. When a call comes in, no one rummages around to find the truck key, nor does the squad roar out only for the truck to run out of fuel. There are only a few key things to know for preparedness: Think through every job beforehand and try to make one run for supplies. Make an inventory of your bits and blades before beginning. If anything is dulled, damaged, dirty, or disappeared, deal with it now, not mid-project. 2 Execution Keep tools, hardware, and materials off the floor as you work. I use a couple of sawhorses spanned by a piece of plywood for nearly every job I do, from construction to replacing a sink. I’ve written before about…

RECREATIONAL- OR hobby woodworking is growing at an astounding rate in Southern Africa. But what is the basic set of quality tools you need to get started? We’re talking about good products that will last, but not break the bank. The guys at BPM Toolcraft (toolcraft.co.za) helped us to answer this all-important question. Assuming you already have a tape measure, a sharp pencil, and a partner with a long list of projects, we suggest you start with ten items: (1) Table saw (small and portable), (2) random orbit sander (125 mm diameter disc), (3) compound mitre saw (also small and portable), (4) router, (5) jigsaw, (6) simple joinery system, (7) accurate square, (8) basic set of four bench chisels, (9) workbench, (10) general hand saw. With this comprehensive collection of…

YOU, JUST LIKE many others, probably wonder sometimes about the wildly optimistic fuel-consumption figures manufacturers claim. They say their new model will average 3.3 l/100 km; you buy it and its consumption is most likely closer to double that. You complain to the manufacturer and they respond by saying: a) Your driving is wrong, and b) The figures are achieved in a controlled environment that’s not meant to reflect what you’ll actually achieve yourself. I’ve long since questioned the point in that. For the past decade, the consumption test on new vehicles in South Africa has been conducted independently by NAAMSA on a rolling road dynamometer. The combined cycle test consists of an urban cycle of 4 km, incorporating vehicle stops, at an average speed of 20 km/h, reaching a…

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