Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2016 i Popular Mechanics

TOUGH GUYS HERE AT POPULAR MECHANICS Headquarters, we spend a lot of time—as I’m sure you do—looking through old back issues of the magazine. There have been something like 1,400 issues, and kicking back with a few dozen for an afternoon and calling it “work” is mildly plausible. It’s how we connect with our heritage and remind ourselves of the magazine’s tradition of serving a dynamic, curious, active reader. It’s how associate editor Kevin Dupzyk finds priceless advice for our Shop Notes page, a feature the magazine started running during the Roosevelt administration. (Teddy Roosevelt.) It’s where we come across headlines that baffle us, like “Branch Out With Something Different In Leaf Wall Décor” (December 1960), “Mechanical Man Is Now Given the Gift of Speech” (August 1928), and “Congratulations On…

INSTAGRAM! The handle is @popularmechanics. The use of the Rise filter is kept to a minimum. And we’ve got a stream of gear, technology, projects, and tips to keep you constantly informed and entertained. WHAT YOU’RE MISSING: WHILE YOU’RE AT IT, CHECK OUT A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE FOLLOWS: @usinterior @humzadeas @gretadeparry @hawkeyehuey @therock REMEMBER You can always get our attention and share your photos of projects or the amazing things you find in your world with us on Instagram using #PopularMechanics. We’ll share the best of what’s shared with us. SAKE! After you learn all about sake on page 25, go to truesake.com/popularmechanics. There you can purchase one of three Sake 101 kits crafted exclusively for us by sake expert Beau Timken. The kits range in price from $19…

MODEL: FASTCORP EVOLUTION FS-04 PRODUCED: CHESTER, CONNECTICUT TIME TO DISASSEMBLE: 10 HOURS, 25 MIN NUMBER OF PARTS: 1,289 NOTES: Traditional vending machines—the ones with metal coils—don’t actually hold much food. The coils space out the goods so much that any given row has a fairly low Cheeto-to-air ratio. This is just one problem these machines create. To vend cold food, the air has to be refrigerated, which is expensive. Snacks on the top row fall so far that anything breakable is toast. All of this explains why, in 1980, Fastcorp released an alternative vending mechanism that uses a vacuum to delicately dispense goods that have been stacked directly on top of each other. Ninety-nine percent of these machines are equipped with a freezer, but the system can handle just about…

TIP! Editing video is one of the most demanding tasks you can ask of a computer. The big, dense files will punish slow hardware. If you plan on editing movies with some regularity, an external hard drive and a fast laptop (the MacBook Pro and the Dell XPS 15 are great for this) are essential. 1 Software Once you record your video, you’ll need to edit it, either on your computer or your phone. ON YOUR COMPUTER iMovie (free) All Macs come with iMovie, which offers limited options for transitions and titles, but lets you upload raw video, cut, and export with a relatively intuitive drag-and-drop interface. When you’re ready to share, you can upload directly to YouTube. YouTube Video Editor (free) Extremely basic. The few functions it does have—automatic…

A Ideal VoltAware 61-025 VOLTAGE RANGE, AC: 40 to 1,000 BATTERY: 2 AAA You can turn off the beeper with the press of a button on its translucent nose cone. When you get near an energized wire, the green nose flashes red. Its noslip grip is also great. $24 B Gardner Bender GVD-3504 VOLTAGE RANGE, AC: 50 to 600 BATTERY: 1 AAA Simple, inexpensive, and essential for homeowners. Hold down the little black button and the tip blinks bright red. The tool chirps when you get near the wire. $10 C Greenlee GT-16 VOLTAGE RANGE, AC: 5 to 1,000 BATTERY: 1 AAA Has dial-adjust sensitivity so that you can detect low voltage, or decrease its sensitivity to prevent nuisance detection from the electromagnetic field created by nearby energized wires that…

THE PERCUSSIONIST Manny Osoria started performing in Stomp in 2013. Turns out the clothes you make things in and the clothes you perform in aren’t so different. MANNY OSORIA makes a living out of the unexpected. Six nights a week he’s a percussionist for Stomp, the long-running show in New York’s East Village in which performers use everyday stuff—broomsticks, Zippo lighters, plastic bags—to create a breathtaking percussive experience. As the fabricator for Momentum Drums—a live-event percussion company he founded—he reconfigures drum sets, making them light up and move and create entirely new sounds. As a hobbyist furniture maker, he dreams up double-sided light fixtures and gravity-defying coffee tables. A couple of the people he’s met along the way have helped each pursuit inform and bleed into the others. Osoria met…

Picture it. End of times, man. DEFCON 1’s come and gone. Now, only scorched earth. All that’s left are mutant rats, cockroaches, and, somewhere lurking in the radioactive rubble, Paul “The Mauler” Lazenby. The toughest sumbitch to walk the planet. Have you heard about the Mauler? Probably not. He’s the Kwai Chang Caine of tough guys, ghosting down dark alleyways and shying away from the light, just doing what he does. And what is it he does? Whatever pays the bills. You need an MMA fighter? He’s fought in Japan’s Pancrase organization, tangling with world-class fighters like Ryūshi Yanagisawa. How about a professional wrestler? Lazenby has competed around the world, grappling in high school gymnasiums in scratch-ass rust-belt towns or under the bright lights of the Tokyo Bay NK Hall.…

MON 5/9 LESSONS IN DAYLIGHT ASTRONOMY Mercury becomes visible from Earth once every few years, and because of its positioning between us and the sun, it can only be seen during daylight hours. The last time it was visible was 2006, and we won’t see it again until 2019. Once you’ve fitted your telescope with a solar filter— you can go blind without one—point it toward the sun. The little planet will appear as a black dot moving across the face and will be distinctly darker from other dots you’ll see, which are sunspots. In the U.S. you’ll be able to see it during or just after sunrise. THU 5/12 SMOKERLESS SMOKING A little rigging of your Weber can have you smoking ribs like a barbecue champ. Soak hickory chips…

The latest in the U.S. Navy’s main set of warships, the $682 million Arleigh Burke–class destroyer John Finn, sets sail on its first sea trial late this spring after more than three years under construction at Ingalls Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Here are the types of trade workers who have reason to be proud. 1 SHIPFITTERS: These are the puzzle makers who figure out which piece of the ship, called an individual assembly, goes where. Shipfitters also begin connecting the assemblies with plasma cutters, plate rollers, drills, and welding machines. 2 RIGGERS: Individual assemblies are constructed upside down by many of the trades, including 3 INSIDE MACHINISTS, who build pieces using such tools as lathes, drill presses, and CNC machines, and 4 BOILERMAKERS, who…

A ENTRY-LEVEL Husky 878357 JAW OPENING: 1 5/8" WEIGHT: 0.8 lb A durable, decent pair of pliers with good workmanship and smooth action. For homeowners, it’s more than enough tool. $10 B MID-RANGE ReadyMax Lighted JAW OPENING: 2" WEIGHT: 1.2 lb It’s not American-made, but the ReadyMax is a stout plier with thickly padded grips and a waterproof LED light burrowed into the upper jaw—a gimmick, sure, but with occasional application. $20 C MID-RANGE Ideal 35-430 AE JAW OPENING: 2 3/16" WEIGHT: 1 lb An impeccably made tool with sophisticated jaw geometry, nicely beveled edges (good for working in tight spaces without scratching surfaces), and a flush jaw rivet that won’t catch on your back pocket. American-made. $20 D PROFESSIONAL Knipex Cobra Quickset 87 22 250 JAW OPENING: 3 3/16"…

On his last flight home, three months before his death, Joshua Wheeler tore through a copy of D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. It was the only book he could find in English at a store where he was stationed, near Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Wheeler was a master sergeant in the Army, a former Ranger, and a member of Delta Force since 2004. He was the recipient of eleven Bronze Star medals—four of them with the letter V, signifying valor in combat. This was his fourteenth deployment to either Iraq or Afghanistan. As he sat on the plane back to North Carolina, he read a hundred-year-old novel about a struggling London artist. It was one of the things his wife, Ashley, loved most about Josh—his appetite for knowledge.…

She never talked about it, but my mom, a German immigrant, had a tough childhood. An early surgery left her with a pinned hip and a permanent limp. When she was in her teens, she was conscripted by the Nazis. They sent her to Hamburg to care for displaced children who had fled the advancing Russian army. Once, she’d tell me, she was shot at by a low-flying Spitfire. The plane came so close that she could clearly see the pilot’s white scarf as he banked and flew away. Later she would survive three days in a collapsed bomb shelter. Despite all that, she remained positive. In fact, the best meal she ever ate, she said, was served to her by the occupying forces. As my mother was led to…

Back when I was a kid, my buddy Andrew had a G.I. Joe action figure. (Don’t you dare call him a doll.) Ole Joe was a mid-’70s model, the twelve-incher with the demilitarized “Adventure Team” trappings, the monolithic buzz-cut/beard combo, and, of course, the spectacularly awesome and fully essential Kung Fu Grip. Joe was one bad mother, in the parlance of his times. A straight-up survivor. And the older Andrew and I got, the more Joe was forced to survive. Joe first joined us around third or fourth grade. He had it easy then. He was still a shiny, new, much-beloved toy, and we were innocents, relatively speaking. Sure, he’d white-water raft his way down the creek behind my house, or suffer the occasional dune buggy rollover in Andrew’s yard.…

I TOOK MY DRIVER’S LICENSE test in my stepdad’s AMC Javelin. The pedal box on the driver’s side was so rusted out that you could see the road going by underneath you. The gas pedal had a wooden block attached with a drywall screw so my mother could reach it with her foot. In an older car like that, traction control was your right foot. ABS was your right foot. There weren’t modern aids. To get around quickly in an older car, it took skill. Any red-blooded American boy likes speed, right? You go fast because you haven’t been hurt yet. You don’t understand the consequences. You keep the throttle wide open until you get bit. Then you think, Well, maybe if I close the throttle a little bit in…

FORD’S Adaptive Cruise Control Unlike other ACC systems, Ford’s radar and software can stay on target through hills or corners that would confuse other vehicles. Ford also lets you select a following distance that’s close enough to discourage lane-poachers from sneaking in front of you. INFINITI’S Steer by Wire Simple idea: You turn the steering wheel, sensors read how far it rotates, and that signal tells actuators to move the wheels. No vibrations from the road, faster response to your inputs, easier maintenance. This is the future. Get used to it. BMW ’S Key Fob Self-Parking Available now in Europe, coming soon to the United States (we hope), a camera feeds video to the display on your key while you tell it which tight parking space to shimmy into. Its…

Chris Madsen had been searching for an elusive sensation for more than 20 years, and now, as he stepped through twinkling dust particles in an abandoned hallway, he sensed he was close. Madsen, a virtual-reality expert for consumer news site Road to VR, stepped through an open door and found himself balanced precariously on the edge of a cliff. Inching forward, he peered over the precipice. Hundreds of feet below, crags jutted through an olive-green haze. His jacket snapped in a wind that, in an almost consciously benevolent act, pushed him back from certain doom. Weak-kneed, Madsen flipped up his virtual-reality headset, instantly returning to a 30-by-30-foot soundstage in the Void, a real-life VR playground about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City. Short for the Vision of Infinite Dimensions,…

Q: Sah-key or sah-kay? A: Sah-kay. Q: What is sake made from? A: Water, rice, koji (mold that helps break up the starch and allows it to become glucose), and yeast. The balance of these ingredients creates different flavors. In its final form, sake is about 80 percent water. Historically, brewing locations were selected for their natural supply of “good” water, a mystical quality known only by taste. Eventually it was discovered to be caused by potassium, magnesium, and phosphoric acid, which promote fermentation. Favorable composition can now be achieved by filtering. Unlike table rice, brown brewing rice has a large starch component concentrated in the center of the grain. It’s surrounded by the bran, which contains proteins, fats, and amino acids. Large machines with vertically pivoted rollers scrape away…

Listen to The Most Useful Podcast Ever for essential DIY advice on tech, cars, home repair, and more! Available at popularmechanics.com/podcasts, on iTunes, and wherever podcasts are sold. 1 RESEAL THE DRIVEWAY IF YOU HAVE an asphalt driveway, you also have a responsibility to reseal it. Some companies, usually door-to-door operations, offer the service for less than $150. But theirs is a temporary solution: a thin layer of tar that sits on top of the driveway. It doesn’t fill deep cracks. Worse, it doesn’t last. For around the same price, depending on the size of your driveway, you can buy a good, thick sealant, like Rust-Oleum’s EpoxyShield Blacktop Filler Sealer ($77 for 3.5 gallons), that will have your driveway looking close to new, and that can last for as long…

Q A section of new vinyl siding on our house has buckled. Can it be repaired, or should it be replaced? ROBBY R., MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE A Once buckled, vinyl siding is done. Fortunately, buckling is a relatively rare problem, especially considering the countless acres of vinyl siding that cover America’s homes, including my own. You want to figure out why it buckled to avoid having it happen again. Leaving out an obvious cause, like heat from a grill that’s too close, there are three things that cause vinyl siding to buckle. Usually, the siding was nailed too tightly. Vinyl siding expands significantly as it’s heated. That’s why it has oval-shaped nailing slots that allow it to slide back and forth under the nailhead. Nail it too tightly and you prevent…

Dr. Lawrence C. Goodwyn was not a large man. In another life, he had been an Army captain, a beat reporter for The Texas Observer, and a civil-rights organizer, but by the time I met him during my freshman year of college he was a seventy-one-year-old history professor who seemed to subsist entirely on coffee, cold beer, and peanut-butter crackers, the orange crumbs of which often collected in snowdrifts on the lapels of his battered tweed sport coats. Goodwyn preached a gospel of radical self-worth and what he called democratic social relations, whose main components were intimacy and candor. The worst sin you could commit against him was saying what you thought he wanted to hear, or entertaining what he called the hustle of day-to-day life. “Dickey, stop smiling all…

The sergeant showed up to relieve me from CQ duty nearly five hours late, full of apologies and holding out a $100 bill. I didn’t take the money, just handed him the keys to the building I was guarding and walked to my car. I was annoyed—enough that, when my roommate asked me what happened, I told him, but I also swore him to secrecy. Three days later, my platoon sergeant, SFC Lloyd Williams, called and told me to report to his office immediately. Williams had a reputation among the MPs of Fort Bragg, most of whom were thrilled not to be under his command. He embodied the Army corps values with great rigidity and held his platoon to what felt like an impossible standard of perfection. He was unwavering…

The bullet struck Doc Kirby on Christmas afternoon. A U.S. Navy corpsman assigned to a Marine Corps infantry company, he was on a rooftop post in Karma, Iraq, keeping watch. As he stood to leave, a sole shot—apparently from a sniper hiding near the building—smacked him in the side of his head, tore through his mouth, and passed out the other cheek. By most any reasonable measure, as Doc waited for a medevac helicopter, blood soaking his uniform, his lap, and his chest, he seemed soon to die. That he survived the shot at all was pure chance. (Move the path of a bullet a few degrees either way and he would have been killed outright.) Each passing minute his prospects for survival dimmed. After arriving at a military hospital,…

RANGE ROVER Td6 • HIGHWAY MILAGE: 28 mpg • BASE PRICE: $87,445 • IDIOT-PROOF FEATURE: fuel-filler neck that won’t accept gasoline nozzles In the wake of Volkswagen’s dieselemissions-cheating scandal, many people (including us) have wondered aloud whether diesel has much of a future in America. Well, the new Range Rover diesels are so compelling that Rover buyers ought to consider this the default choice. The 3.0-liter diesel V-6 drives a lot like the standard 3.0-liter gas V-6 but returns superior fuel economy—go light on the throttle and it’s easy to get more than 30 miles per gallon on the highway. (We saw 33 mpg during a stingy 20-mile stint.) The diesel’s monstrous 440 lb-ft of torque pours forth just off idle, the kind of relaxed power delivery that’s perfectly suited…

FORD GT Just look at the thing. On styling alone, this is the hottest car of 2016. Even better, it’s the basis for Ford’s return to Le Mans racing. ▸ Don’t worry, there are plenty more gorgeous, fast, desktop-wallpaper-worthy cars a-coming. ALFA ROMEO GIULIA QUADRIFOGLIO The car that’ll prove Alfa’s for real about its U.S. comeback. The Giulia is a 191-mph Italian sedan that, Alfa says, delivers la meccanica delle emozioni—“the mechanics of emotion.” Oh Alfa, keep talking. CHEVROLET BOLT Perhaps Bolt sounds too similar to Volt, but if you ignore this car then you’re kind of a dolt. Two hundred miles of range for about $30K: This is the electric car that makes dollar-per-kilowatt-hour sexy. MERCEDES - BENZ S - CLASS CABRIOLET Whether you wanna be a baller and/or…

Eben Horton slides open the door of his workshop’s furnace. He is greeted with a low roar and a blast of dry heat to his face as he pushes a fifty-fourinch stainless-steel blowpipe into the waiting crucible. Working at a seemingly casual pace that accompanies his familiarity with an ancient trade, he sweeps the pipe through the barrel-deep reservoir and scoops up several ounces of liquefied glass. At just shy of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, this lemon-size dollop of molten glass, known as a gather, emanates orange light. At his workstation, Horton rests the blowpipe’s midsection on a metal arm. With his left hand he slowly spins the pipe, causing the molten gob at its end to rotate within a wet, wooden shaping tool, called a block, which he holds in…