Indholdsfortegnelse for July - August 2022 i Popular Mechanics South Africa

IF IT WASN’T FOR my bank balance, I’d be a tool addict. But resisting the urge to acquire more and more tools has become rather difficult lately, ever since toolmakers have become so innovative in what they’re creating. I was fortunate enough to spend a day recently with the folks at Vermont Sales, at their Midrand headquarters. They’re one of the largest, if not the largest, tool and accessory wholesalers in Southern Africa. And I hadn’t quite realised how big and efficient their set-up was until I visited their premises. In the last few years they’ve converted what was their original office block into a permanent expo centre, at which they’re constantly showcasing the exciting brands that they work with, including the high-quality in-house products they’ve created and tested themselves.…

INDIA PALE ALES DOMINATE TODAY’S CRAFT beer landscape, with 10 or so styles laying claim to the name. Now there’s one more: the ‘clear hazy’ IPA. San Diego’s Ballast Point Brewing Co pioneered the category, which upset plenty of beer nerds and confused others, with the February 2021 release of Big Gus. ‘IPA is a familiar acronym to beer drinkers, regardless if you’re a novice or a total nerd,’ says Dan Lamonaca, owner of Beer Karma Bottle Shop in Brooklyn, New York. That’s why so many brewers (and their marketing departments) label beers with these three letters, even if they don’t really fit the IPA mould. For example, Lamonaca says people who come in looking for sour IPAs are ‘not really looking for something that mirrors an IPA but definitely…

Losing one sense can heighten others. It’s a phenomenon known as neural reuse or neural repurposing, in which the brain adapts and heightens remaining senses, and it has helped some people who are blind develop the ability to use two-dimensional echolocation by making clicking sounds with their mouths. Research shows that a portion of the brain – the primary visual cortex located in the occipital lobe – involved with visual processing can restructure itself to treat the echoes resulting from the clicks as visual stimuli. In essence, the brain can ‘see’ the echoes as they bounce back and use the sound to help a person reconstruct the space and objects around them. This has given some echolocators the ability to draw a room and its contents by merely walking around…

QUAGGA LAST SEEN: 1883 The South Africa-based Quagga Project is working to revive the extinct quagga, a striped plains zebra subspecies. In 1983, scientists mapped the Quagga’s genome, the world’s first mapped genome of an extinct species. THYLACINE (TASMANIAN TIGER) LAST SEEN: 1936 The Thylacine Cloning Project replicated some Tasmanian tiger DNA in 2002, but couldn’t complete a genetic picture of the animal. In 2017, scientists finally sequenced the species’ entire genome. WOOLLY MAMMOTH LAST SEEN: 1650 BC Revive & Restore believes that by tweaking the genome of the Asian elephant – the closest living relative of the woolly mammoth – they could create a hybridised ‘mammophant’. But it’s estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars and is reliant on degraded DNA samples.…

Marti Head, PhD, had a bad feeling. It was mid-February of 2020. She’d just returned to her home in Tennessee from a work trip. Somewhere, probably in an airport, she’d picked up what she thought was just a cold. Sure, physically she felt crappy. But the bad feeling, which she described as ‘itchy’, came from the news coming out of China. A career spent working with infectious diseases had given Head all the info she needed on what, exactly, the novel coronavirus might be capable of. And so, when her nose started running and her throat got scratchy, Head quarantined herself and her husband. Instead of watching trashy TV in bed to recover, she tucked into her quarantine cocoon of a home office – with tissues and tea at hand…

Recipe 01 CORN AND WHITE-BEAN FRITTERS, WITH TZATZIKI Prep time: 20 min Cooking time: 20 min Serves: 4 What you’ll need FOR THE FRITTERS ■1 tin cannellini beans, rinsed, drained and mashed■¾ cup frozen sweetcorn, cooked■⅓cup Cheddar, grated■1 tbsp parsley, chopped■1 egg, beaten■1 tbsp milk■½ cup Nutty Wheat flour■1½ tsp baking powder FOR THE TZATZIKI ■½ cucumber, grated■¾ cup plain yoghurt■1 tbsp mint, finely chopped■2 tsp dill, finely chopped■1 tbsp olive oil■1 tbsp lemon juice TO SERVE 4 handfuls almonds4 baby marrows, cut into matchsticks12 slices ham, rolled Steps to success FOR THE FRITTERS: 1 Line a baking tray, and preheat the oven to 200°C. 2 In a large bowl, mix the mashed beans, sweetcorn, cheese, parsley, egg and milk together. Season with salt and pepper. 3 In a separate…

When people first stopped felling trees with axes and turned to chainsaws, they kept using the same technique: basically, making a 45° notch on the side of the tree towards which they wanted it to fall, then making a level cut from the back of the tree. Called the back cut, this is 2.5–5cm up from the point of the felling notch (see diagram). The wood that’s left between the 45° felling notch and where the back cut ends is called the hinge, and it helps guide the tree safely to the earth. But this method can still be dangerous, with the potential for the butt of the tree (the part closest to the ground) to launch up backwards, injuring or even killing an unwary tree feller. So a few…

Master Lock Mini Safe: Set your own combination and keep your keys safe, without having to carry them with you. Solid zinc body withstands hammering and sawing. Master Lock Tower Combination Lock: Set your own combination on this sturdy padlock featuring a 37 mm-wide zinc body. Master Lock Excell Discus Padlock: The Tough-Cut octagonal boron-carbide shackle is 50 per cent harder than normal hardened steel. Master Lock Keyed Locking Cable: The 1.8 m-long self-coiling braided-steel cable is designed for maximum strength. The vinyl coating prevents scratches and protects the cable. Master Lock M1 Excell Padlock: The boron-alloy body is 50 per cent stronger than standard padlocks, and the octagonal boron-carbide shackle provides maximum cut resistance. Send your tips to popularmechanics@ramsaymedia.co.za with the subject line: ‘Do It Your Way’. Regrettably, only…

WINNING LETTER Hot desk It’s been two years now that my husband, who’s an IT business unit manager, has been working from our home in Durban because of the coronavirus pandemic. This proved to be challenging, especially with four young sons who are constantly playing with a bat, ball or bicycle and making a noise. After one year of working on a trestle table in the garage (for some peace and quiet), my husband had a Wendy-house office put up in the back garden. But he continued working on the trestle table. Earlier this year, in January, he ordered a simple chipboard L-desk online. After waiting four weeks for the delivery, the company informed us that the desk had arrived from overseas all damaged. It was at this point that…

PLANTS ARE TRULY extraordinary. Some more so than others. Take the opium poppy – while its seeds are commonly used in cakes, the flower pod contains natural quantities of morphine, codeine and thebaine (which is also why poppy pods have been cultivated for more than 130 years by pharmaceutical companies). Michael Pollan’s This Is Your Mind On Plants explains that as humans, we’re always looking for ways to alter or extend our consciousness, and that we’ve discovered molecules in nature that enable us to do so. This book is made up of three essays on three plant drugs – morphine, caffeine and mescaline – all of which are known to be psychoactive substances. From drinking that non-negotiable cup of coffee every morning, to using opioids to relieve pain, we depend…

1 / Always smell hops before using them. A cheesy or sour odour is a sign they’re too old; if used, those flavours will end up in the beer. 2 / For the brightest hop flavour punch, try using Cryo Hops. This hop powder is created by freezing hops with liquid nitrogen, then separating the lupulin – a waxy, yellow substance containing both alpha acids and ultra-flavourful essential oils – from the plant matter. Tropical, fruity, and herbal notes from hop oils are clean and intense without being weighed down by grassy, vegetal flavours. 3 / Add hops late in the boil to simulate a pro brewer’s whirlpool addition. Hops can sit in a whirlpool for an hour, while a home brew can be knocked out in 10 to 20…

SMART SCOPES The US Army recently tested the Israeli-made SMASH scope, the infantryman’s version of the targeting computer built into main battle tanks. The scope mounts on top of a rifle or carbine and includes night vision and a ballistic computer. A soldier equipped with the scope can simply place crosshairs on the target and pull the trigger, but the weapon will only fire when the scope determines that a round will hit the target. JETPACKS The Pentagon is holding a competition to develop a ‘portable personal air mobility system’ that would allow a soldier to conduct scouting, search and rescue, infiltration and exfiltration of a combat zone, and special-operations missions. Think jetpacks, gliders, wingsuits, and parafoils, possibly powered by electricity, hydrogen cells, and traditional jet fuel. The system should…

PACEMAKERS, DRUG DELIVERY PUMPS, Fitbits, and other wearable devices could soon run on a new kind of renewable energy: you. A tiny new wearable gadget called a thermoelectric generator (TEG) directly turns your body’s heat into electrical energy. TEGs use a difference in temperature – such as your body’s temperature versus the surrounding air – to turn that energy into power. To establish equilibrium, heat automatically dissipates into cooler locations, and TEGs harness the electric current produced when energised particles move from hot to cold along a chip. That’s convenient, since body heat is a pretty stable resource. To maintain a constant temperature of about 37°C (98.6°F), your body must regulate a tight balance between heat gain and heat loss. And because your body isn’t actually that efficient, you lose…

In July 2012, researchers announced that they had observed the elusive Higgs boson at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Scientists working independently on the ATLAS and CMS particle detectors both measured a new subatomic particle that was similar in makeup to the theorised Higgs boson particle. After nearly a year of further analysis, scientists confirmed the ‘measured interactions of the new particle with other particles’ strongly indicated it was indeed a Higgs boson particle. The discovery validated decades of work and furthered our understanding of the Standard Model, a group of theories explaining how the building-block particles for everything in the universe interact with each other.…

UNTIL RECENTLY, Prosoeca peringueyi – an otherworldly creature with a needle-like tongue twice the length of its body (in other words, more than an inch long) – was thought to play a vital role in the reproduction of around 28 Namaqualand plant species whose tubular flowers could But ongoing research by French botanist Florent Grenier and South African entomologist Genevieve Theron has shown the number of plant species to be at least 42 – a conservative estimate suggests no fewer than nine of which are at risk of extinction. Hesperantha oligantha, for example, is critically endangered, with a single known population in the Hantamsberg of about 30 individuals. This dainty little pink flower’s only hope of survival lies in the long-tongued flies. POLLINATION 101 Most _ owers have both male and…

THE TERM ‘GARBAGE disposal’ is in fact a bit of a misnomer. They aren’t too common in South Africa, but if you’ve ever had one, you already know that you can’t run random trash through it. It’s really designed to grind up and dispose of food waste – leftovers that would be otherwise compostable, with the exception of bones. What makes a good disposal, which features should you look for, and how much should you spend? We’ve put together this explainer to share what we’ve learnt through our years of testing disposals to help answer these questions about this sometimes overlooked (but extremely handy) appliance.…

60: Great for paint stripping and removing marks left by planers or saws, but leaves a rough surface. 80: Same attributes as 60 grit, just doesn’t work as quickly. Good for getting a smoother surface after you’ve finished with 60 grit. 100: Not an effective stripper but will nicely smooth out scratches from the previous, rougher grits. 120: Levels out brush marks and surface imperfections in paint. You can start with 120-grit on softwood and hardwood when the surface is already reasonably smooth and there are no machine marks to remove. 150: Use this for removing gloss from painted surfaces. It’s gentler than 120, so it’s particularly effective if you have to sand a surface around a carved area that you don’t want to disturb or potentially mar. 220: A…

Watch the complete MADE HERE video series on YouTube: youtube.com/popmechshow MY GREAT-GRAND father founded Victorinox in 1884. He chose his mother’s name, Victoria, for the company, adding ‘inox’, the stainless steel from which our knives are made, after its invention. In 1897, we patented the little red knife, the Schweizer Offiziers-und Sportmesser, which American soldiers shortened to ‘Swiss Army Knife’. Victorinox produces 45 000 Swiss Army Knives per day, with 100 per cent recycled steel. The approximately 500 tons of grinding sludge that’s generated during manufacturing is recycled at the steel plant; the water in the sludge is absorbed; and the steel particles are pressed into briquettes. It’s fantastic to hear people share their adventures with their little red knife, like Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. In his book, An Astronaut’s Guide…

You don’t have to wait around for Matsumoto’s high-tech knitting machine to construct heavy-duty, unyielding sweaters, blankets, and socks. ‘Our research has [shown] that when you have two stitches of the same type (for example, knit-knit or purl-purl) next to each other (either laterally or vertically), the fabric will be stiffer than fabric with opposite stitch types next to each other (for example, knitpurl),’ Matsumoto says. But stiffness also depends on the specific yarn you use. In comparing stockinette, garter, rib, and seed fabrics, Matsumoto found stockinette is the stiffest both laterally and vertically.…

When it comes to wearables, body heat isn’t the only human by-product that scientists are interested in. Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a wearable prototype that uses your sweat to provide an overall picture of your health. Using a replaceable test strip embedded with chemical sensors, the device can measure the amounts of certain metabolites present in your sweat to analyse your body’s glucose, lactate, pH, and temperature levels. One day, that could tip off your doc to underlying health conditions. ‘We’re optimistic that this hardware could enable new technologies to reduce casualties during military or athletic training, by spotting health problems before they become critical,’ says Michael Daniele, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State who was involved in the work. –…

The FRUIT-GROWING SECTOR is a key player in South Africa’s agricultural sphere. High-quality fresh fruit is always widely available locally, but did you know that vast quantities are also exported overseas, making it a crucial contributor to our GDP? While things might always look rosy to the consumer, who buys apples at their local supermarket, the fruit industry is constantly facing challenges. To overcome these, role players are always innovating, striving for technical solutions to complex problems. ORIGINS In 1652 the Dutch East India Company founded the Cape of Good Hope as a refreshment outpost for its passing ships. Deciduous fruit trees were planted to supply ships with fresh fruit. Ten years later, in April 1662, the first two ripe apples were picked at the Cape – these were Witte…

Continuous vs batch feed The former kind of disposal can take food waste passing through the drain and into the grinding chamber continuously, as the name says. Their operation is controlled solely by a remote switch. Batch-feed disposals will operate only with the drain cover in place. You can’t put additional waste in unless the drain cover is removed and the disposal is off. While these may be less convenient and slower, the safety advantages of not being able to reach in while the disposal is running are clear. Power Disposals are typically available with 185–750 W (¼-, ½-, ¾-, and 1-HP) motors. More power generally indicates more robust grinding. Some manufacturers suggest power that corresponds to the number of people in the family and how much action the disposal…

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TOOL-FREE CHAIN TIGHTENING DEWALT DCCS670X1 Volts: 60 | Number of discs cut: 43 DeWalt fans will not be disappointed with this saw. It’s a powerful cutter, and the cookie count doesn’t convey how enthusiastically it goes about its work, thanks to the great big motor and an equally massive battery. It’s an easy saw to use, with excellent battery access and visibility. The tool-free chain tightening further improves our opinion of it. Our only dislike is the thumb-activated safety switch, which is too stiff. SLIM AND POWERFUL STIHL MSA 220 C-B Volts: 36 | Number of discs cut: 96 The Stihl is power tool excellence and one of the best we’ve ever used. To put that into perspective, consider that in the more than 30 collective years our test editors…

A CUTLERY TRAY is an essential braai-side accessory. The period style heirloom cutlery tray we chose for this project, made from classic black walnut, incorporates through-dovetail joinery. If you’re late to the woodworking joint series, get your hands on the May/June issue, to learn the steps to making this traditional joint. The heirloom cutlery tray is a small yet versatile project that will challenge you and help to grow your skill set. WHAT YOU’LL NEED CUTTING LIST CONSUMABLES » Template material (white hardboard or stiff artist’s board) » Thin double-sided adhesive tape » 3M blue painter’s tape » Adhesive » Finish of your choice TOOL LIST » Marking knife » Blue painter’s tape » 0.5mm mechanical pencil » Black ballpoint pen » Mallet » Fret or coping saw » Fine…

THROW IN THE DOWEL I needed to put a concentric 19 mm ‘button’ on the end of a 12 mm dowel to help my daughter to make marimba sticks. And so my project began… The jig: Using a Forstner bit in a drill press, I drilled a 19 mm hole in a 25 mm piece of board, to the depth of the button required. Then, using the same centre, I drilled all the way through the board with a smaller bit (size not critical) to enable the removal of the button once drilled. This formed a ‘round rebate’. The process: The 19 mm dowel stock was cut off square on the mitre saw, then inserted into the 19 mm hole in the board and pressed down to the stop in…