Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i Popular Mechanics

CANCER IS Cancer is fear. Cancer is a waiting room full of orange chairs with worn wooden armrests and a doctor with a white beard mouthing words that sound distant and muffled until you feel so hot and so cold that you run to the bathroom, where you kneel over the toilet. Cancer is pain in your bones and your eyes, pain so intense it makes you cry out. Cancer is the metronomic, mechanical grind of the small machine that pumps liquid food through a tube into your stomach. Cancer is watching the blue number on the heart-rate monitor, and checking the color of the urine, and wincing at the needle, and waiting for the results, and the incessant ringing of a phone at the nurses’ station in the hallway.…

01 MINIATURE AIRLAUNCHED DECOY (MALD) • MALD is a trailblazer. In the mid-1990s DARPA started researching this small jet-engine-powered craft, fired from a warplane’s wing, that could fly along GPS waypoints and emit signals to mimic a fullsize aircraft. Hidden air-defense systems shoot at MALD and expose themselves to counterattack. After a stutter-step start, the technology caught up with the idea and in 2009 Raytheon delivered the first MALD to the Air Force. Recent upgrades include a carbon-composite fuselage that lightens the airframe. An upcoming datalink ability will enable pilots to reprogram MALD’s flight path after launch. • STATUS: Currently deployed. 02 COYOTE • Dropped from an airplane, these disposable drones are launched from a six-inch tube and unfold in flight. They are currently launched from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric…

DISASSEMBLY REPORT AIR CONDITIONER MODEL: FRIGIDAIRE GALLERY 8,000 BTU PRODUCED: WUHU CITY, CHINA TIME TO DISASSEMBLE: 2 HOURS, 27 MINUTES, 0 SECONDS NUMBER OF PARTS: 250 NOTES: If you grew up with central air conditioning, what you likely called “the air conditioner” was a loud, hulking fan assembly on a concrete pad in your backyard. But that was only half the story. That part of the air conditioner dissipated heat from inside the house into outside air. The other part of the air conditioner, which absorbed that heat in the first place, was somewhere inside your home, at the heart of all the ductwork. A window a/c unit has those same parts, shrunk small enough to fit in a window—but still large enough that mounting it on a high floor…

Q My home’s ultraviolet water purifier gives off a steady buzzing noise. What can I do to stop it? JASON G., ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN A Water purifiers use ultraviolet lamps to zap germs. As with fluorescent bulbs, it’s normal for a purifier light to give off a low hum. That said, sometimes a hum is created by the failure of the bulb or its ballast, which regulates power. To determine if your noise is a problem— and to avoid replacing parts that might not need replacing—check the owner’s manual for the longevity of the system components. If the bulb or ballast is nearing the end of its life span, go ahead and replace it. The other culprit could be loose components. Tighten any screws on the purifier or any apparatus…

THE JOB: Fire management officer at The Nature Conservancy LOCATION: Eugene, Oregon “I get excited about fire, whether it brings people together, or how it takes care of our ecosystem. It’s a high level of responsibility to intentionally set things on fire for a living. I think about that.”…

Interior work gets expensive in a hurry. Restoring all that upholstery, carpet, and trim can rival the cost of an engine rebuild—or a trip to St. Barts—by the time you’re done. Which is why auto parts stores are filled with products promising to bring new-car look (and smell) back to your cruddy cabin on the cheap. And so, with a modest budget, I decided to see how far back I could turn back the clock on my 1993 Bronco’s shabby interior. STEP 1 Cover the Seats: ProElite 500 Series Seat Covers ($30) The Bronco’s seats look like they tried to break up a fight between two rabid wolverines, too far gone for any leather spray to save. Time for seat covers. Options included Hawaiian motifs, wetsuit neoprene, or that old…

PING G IRONS In its quest for distance and forgiveness, Ping has created a mainline performance club with four times the face flex, higher shot flight, and increased MOI. BIION GOLF SHOES Great shoes. These are golf shoes, boat shoes, and classy street shoes rolled into one. No spikes, no laces. A lazy man’s dream. OCTOBER GOLF GEAR BAG I can never find my keys in the four pockets in my pants. So the typical golf bag, with its menagerie of zippers and storage, presents a particular nightmare of lost essentials. Using military technology, October offers the ability to modularize the layout of your bag—one pocket or fifteen—depending on how you most prefer to lose your wallet. ARCCOS You put a subtle sensor in the end of your club, you…

MATERIALS LIST • 1-inch x 3-inch x 4-foot poplar project board • two 3-volt electric motors (Lowe’s item #364310, model #884477) • push-button on-off switch (RadioShack part #2750617) • holder for two AAA batteries (RadioShack part #2700398) • two Solarbotics small rubber wheels with 2-mm shaft (bananarobotics.com part #BR010266) • 3/8-inch x 2-inch carriage bolt, washer, wing nut • 4-foot 20-gauge bell wire TOOLS • miter saw • drill press • 15/16-inch spade drill bit • cordless drill • ½-, 3/8-inch drill bits • wood glue • hot-glue gun • soldering gun • wire strippers • pliers DIRECTIONS KID PARENT PARENT AND KID 1 Use a miter saw to cut two 9-inch lengths and two 2-inch lengths from the poplar. 2 On one of the 9-inch boards, mark the position…

ONLINE! When one of your two jet engines fails over the Atlantic Ocean on your way from Zurich to Los Angeles, what do you do? In the case of Swiss Flight LX40, pilots made an emergency landing on the tiny airstrip on Baffin Island, Canada. And then it got worse. The world’s largest jet engine had to be replaced. In nearly minus-40-degree temperatures. Read about the amazing mechanical feat exclusively at popularmechanics.com/engineswap. INSTAGRAM! Confused about the difference between a hammer drill and a rotary drill? Looking for the best cutting pliers? Senior home editor Roy Berendsohn has started posting quick and helpful videos on Instagram, so you can get DIY tricks anytime you need them. Check him out @AskRoyPM or at Instagram.com/AskRoyPM. PODCAST! The Most Useful Podcast Ever just got…

“Every category of spirits has been through a revolution in the last decade, from vodka to bourbon. I thought it was time to consider traditional liqueurs found on the bottom shelf of every bar. I decided to be the guy who starts with coffee liqueur, turning it from that overly sweetened syrup we all know into a deeply rich spirit in which the sugar takes a backseat to the coffee flavor.” That’s Jeff Kessinger, founder of a tiny operation called Firelit Spirits in Napa Valley, California. He set out to find a flavor you can’t achieve by dropping a shot of whiskey into a mug of hot coffee. “The coffee’s temperature is already opening up your taste buds, and the heat makes the alcohol so volatile it becomes overpowering,” says…

EGO LM2101 56 volts DECK: 21 inches LIKES: The EGO cuts with ease and precision. It was one of only two mowers (the other was the Worx) that easily powered through our 8-inch weed and grass test. It’s quiet, and its powerful headlight isn’t a gimmick. You could actually cut in the dark with this thing. DISLIKES: By cordless-mower standards (and gas-engine machines’, too), the EGO is heavy at 68 pounds. That weight makes for good noise damping, but it’s more to push. $450 Echo CLM-58V4AH DECK: 21 inches LIKES: The Echo gives you a reliably smooth cut in both typical and tough mowing conditions. It’s easy to maneuver, too, with a design that allows the blades to reach very close to the side edges and front of the mower.…

THE MAKER KEVIN WOLFSON HIS COMPANY FIREFLY BICYCLES Firefly was born because we had a clear vision of a connection between riders and their bikes. We include our customers in the design process, initialed after weeks of conversations to determine geometry and tubing. Although we’re not reinventing the wheel, the improvements we do make add up to a bike that looks as special as it functions, fits, and handles. Every frame is aligned (in every dimension) to within ten thousandths of an inch from the center line— thinner than a Post-it. When you buy a Firefly bike, you get a USB drive with a visual record of the build that brings you closer to the process and demonstrates the care and attention we give our work. THE MAKER IAN SCHON…

The first meeting of the club wasn’t really a meeting. It was a group of friends sitting around Will Sutherland’s backyard fire ring in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, talking about the love they had in common: adapting large vehicles for big adventures on the open road. There was no call for members on Facebook or meetup.com. Sutherland mentioned the idea to someone, who mentioned it to someone, and one night his driveway was filled with homemade recreational vehicles. Fueled by burning ash logs and cold beer, the gatherers came up with a name that played off the panhandle region of the state. They called themselves the Vanhandlers. It’s more than an auto club. Every vehicle in the Vanhandlers is a home-built conversion and an exercise in making the most of what…

I was doing errands with my daughter one afternoon when I ran into the father of a girl I’d gone to high school with. He said that his daughter and her husband had just bought a house, and when I got back to our apartment I called my wife, Ann, in a panic—she was at work—and told her that we’d fallen behind our friends. Two weeks later, I went house-shopping for us, in a town a couple of hours away, and signed a binder for the second place the real-estate agent showed me. The agent asked whether I thought my wife ought to have a look first, and I said, Oh, no, I’m sure she’ll love it. Ann hadn’t come along because we hadn’t wanted to subject our daughter, who…

It has advanced radar, forward-looking infrared cameras, and laser rangefinders—all used to help the 13-man crew direct a barrage of lethal fire to the ground from 12,000 feet. But for all of this advanced technology, the vision of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command gunships can be thwarted by the threatening adversary known as a cloudy sky. The Air Force has a solution: Launch a small unmanned aircraft from the gunship to drop below the cloud cover and serve as the eyes of the AC-130’s crew. Special Operations officials last year spoke publicly about using a drone called the Coyote—the wings of the Coyote unfold as the drone launches from a sixinch- wide tube. A higher-endurance version is in development. Weapons are getting smarter and drones are getting smaller,…

When I’m running to a volunteer job or helping out a friend, I can’t take everything with me. And since I don’t always know exactly what we’ll be doing, I have to improvise. I need tools that can handle wood, metal, and plastic. PVC and sheet metal. I prefer cordless tools, because you never know what the power supply will be, but my heavyduty tools are corded. After decades of refinement, this is the most versatile group of tools I’ve discovered. The real trick is getting it all to fit in the car. TRUNK EDGES Sawhorses • No matter the job, you’ll always need to get something off the ground, whether it’s for cutting or painting. Slide them along either side of the trunk. Hand Truck • For demolition or…

Craftsman 45094 Simple and compact. $24 Channellock 369CB High-leverage with a slim head and reaming nose. $26 Klein J213-9NECRN A powerful cutter with built-in wire strippers and a crimper. Very comfortable handles. $45 Ideal 30-3430 Built-in crimper. Tremendous leverage, flawless workmanship, and the fish-tape pullers provide an excellent grip. $45 Knipex 09 12 240 Built-in crimper. Has a longer cutting surface— 7/8 inch—and a large cable recess, allowing it to easily snip big bundles of wires. $52…

The fish was holding maybe 40 feet upstream, rising every 30 seconds to feed. When small fish eat flies that way, they make little splashes as they break the surface. Big fish push the water in slow, silent ripples. I saw ripples. I had already cast to this particular target twice, but my fly landed wide the first time and a few feet short the second. On my third attempt, I managed to put the thing a few inches from my quarry’s nose and...he took it. He ran, and I played him for a minute or two before bringing him alongside the boat. Twenty inches is a benchmark of size for a German brown trout, one of the sport’s most prized species. This fella was easily 21. After I netted…

The Precision Diesel Nobody tinkers with internal combustion like Mazda does. Over the past two decades, it’s produced a Miller-cycle engine, rotaries, and a tiny 1.8-liter V-6. Now, it’s made a 2.0-liter fourcylinder diesel that runs so clean it doesn’t even require an exhaust aftertreatment. And unlike the German TDIs, it comes by that distinction through technical innovation rather than devious software. With a low compression ratio— 14.4 to 1—the fuel–air mixture ignites when the piston is at top dead center rather than on its way back down, maximizing the energy achieved by each combustion event. That ratio also allows for explosions at lower temperatures, creating less nitrogen oxide and soot—that is, pollution. The combustions are also less violent, so Mazda can make the engine block out of aluminum and…

M y father ran a huge mall and office complex called Midtown Plaza in downtown Rochester, New York, when I was young, so my friends and I always had summer jobs. Because he did not want to show me favoritism (and I was a lippy know-it-all), I always got the worst jobs. I crawled belly down through ancient puddles of coolant and rainwater, under a twenty-ton roof chiller while dragging a fire hose to blow out the stray gravel. Painted the underside of forty-foot-long HVAC units with a three-inch brush taped to a broom handle. Tended the thirty-yard dumpsters. Disposed of fluorescent lightbulbs, used toilets, office partitions, cables, chains, buckets, wire, lead pipes, broken PVC, wet Sheetrock, shredded ceiling tiles, vermiculite, broken glass, and obsolete grease traps. So, not great…

Make Your Camera a Tool A few years ago, several friends and I went for a boat ride off the coast of Maine. We wanted to explore an interesting-looking island, but we needed permission to land. There was a sign onshore with visiting instructions, but we couldn’t get close enough in the boat to make out what it said. So I took a picture with my camera, then zoomed in until I could read it. I often use the same trick at home. I broke the glass globe of the light fixture on the ceiling in our laundry room, and in order to replace it I needed to know the model number of the fixture. I was too lazy to go downstairs for a step stool, so I held my…

BIG QUESTIONS. ANSWERS YOU CAN’T FIND ON THE INTERNET. Shhh! They’re watching us. Over there. Don’t look! Bloody amateur. Listen, I’m leaving now. Wait nine minutes and follow me out. Make three right turns around the block to see if you’re being tailed, then head to the park, by the carousel. Ask the vendor for a blue cotton candy “with extra gravy.” In the paper cone, you will find the answer to your question, which will be: Nobody knows for sure, but educated estimators put the number in the low thousands. Government agencies, including the FBI, CIA, and NSA, declined to hazard a guess, or, indeed, to offer any comment at all. But figure it thusly: There are many different types of “spies” working to ferret out our secrets. Most…