OCTOBER 2017
TESTED: SMART Home security cameras T ech
» S cience » D R I V I N G » D I Y » L I F E
18 extra DIY pages In association with MICA
POPULAR MECHANICS
OCTOBER 2017 RSA: R38,90 Other countries: R34,12 excl VAT
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HOW-TO special > A clean, well-lit workshop > Completely cordless arsenal > Hassle-free home network > a concrete canoe > motorised chandelier
we take apart
a DIRT bikes! 1 302 piece
how to: make plutonium
making a BETTER SUV the two ways to cook meat
FOR KIDS: Lego boost VOLUME 16, NO. 3
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
The Gr
rt
epo udge R
We go hands-on with home appliances
PAGE 32 Underwater power tools? Drones for schoolkids TVs that hang like paintings
FROM THE EDITOR
THE ACT OF CREATION “THAT’S QUITE AMBITIOUS,” a colleague muttered as he sidled past while I was admiring the proof of this month’s cover, emblazoned with “How to make anything”. “It’s what we do,” I shot back. Hyperbole aside, members of the Popular Mechanics family are well acquainted with the act of creation. Even when we’re breaking stuff, it’s with the aim of finding out how it’s made (example: “Things come apart”, page 26) and, when we turn our hands to hobbies, we tend to make things more complicated than they need to be, just because we can (see Letters, page 7). To tap into that can-do approach, this month we’ve bumped up the usual page allocation to include more DIY. Some of it of the more traditional kind and some is a little more… uh… unconventional. What I mean is this: to many of us, DIY is all about tools and building stuff, but often these days it’s about dealing with things you can’t even see: making Wi-Fi networks work better and creating ways for smart tech to communicate, for instance. That’s why, in among the cordless drills, we’ve included a guide to the hassle-free home network. Try it – it’s easier than you think. Speaking of tech, in this issue we take our first tentative steps towards occasional coverage of a hitherto little explored area: home appliances. And no, I don’t mean making a dishwasher. (Although this may yet come; we’re debating whether to repair or replace, after a heating element failure in the family’s dishwasher.) The Grudge report comes as a direct result of our recent survey, which identified areas of particular interest to our readers. In the first instalment, we go hands-on with a washing machine that’s packed with cuttingedge tech that demands it be taken very seriously indeed. If you don’t believe me, you’ll have only yourself to blame when your whites turn out grey and your colours are terminally dull. Looking ahead, we’ve got some meaty content scheduled for the run-in towards summer. As the days get sunnier and longer, in November and December we will be taking an in-depth look at South Africa’s favourite outdoor cooking lifestyle and accessories, tell you everything you ever wanted to know about mountain bikes and get up close and personal with a local builder of bespoke wooden surfboards. On a more tech-oriented note, Lindsey Schutters will be visiting Germany to immerse himself in the details of a new SUV at more or less the same time I will be returning from the Frankfurt Motor Show, hopefully with insights into the connected world of
the new mobility. A month later, I return to Japan for the first time in a while, to the Tokyo Motor Show, where once again the emphasis is not just on cars, but on how the streetscapes of tomorrow will look. Best of all, our line-up for year-end includes how to make an ice cream maker (and how to make ice cream). Now that’s the kind of creation we really like.
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Make ice crea
m!
COMPETITION WINNERS Details online at www.popularmechanics.co.za OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 1
CONTENTS
OCTOBER 2017
VOL 16, NO 3
FEATURES
10 Underwater power tools
26 Things come apart
TESTED 32 Foscam smart security camera
32
I I
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS Water and electricity can mix Solar-powered drone Will it fly? Boosting Li-ions Does silicon hold the key? Bee tech Honey, i fexed the cable Easy rider High-tech bike saddle Tech industry, meet Donald What US industry leaders think of their new(ish) president Lessons from an assassin How a pro would do it I stink at email Communicating better The inflatable man Saving bikers with airbag jackets Me and my tech Jason Goliath on his must-have gadgets TVs that hang like paintings Tech updates Flights of fancy Going to drone school
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Disassembling a dirt bike
35 DIY Special (cover) How to make anything
56 Total Recall (Pt 2) Ford’s Kuga, revisited 70 How to make plutonium The stuff of war – and peace 74 How to stop the wind Building a house stronger than a tornado 80 The two ways to cook meat Testing tasty techniques 86 The Grudge Report Washday blues? Here’s the answer 90 The new lawn Drought-busting alternatives 92 Toy review: Lego Boost
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DRIVING 58 Launches: Audi Q5, Renault Captur, Honda CR-V Split decision: coil vs leaf spring The art and pitfalls of the smart SUV Drives: Toyota Fortuner, Range Rover Evoque convertible Your own monster truck
MONTHLY 1 From the editor 6 Letters 8 Time machine 9 Calendar 25 Ask Roy 28 Great New Stuff 104 Do it your way
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Cover caption: Our October issue comes packed with 18 DIY pages. Learn how to make anything from a paper plane to a bike light, discover the cordless tools to use for your DIY projects and separate fiction from fact when it comes to smart homes. Above: The Tentalux is an interactive chandelier. Find out how it was made in our DIY special.
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EDITOR: Anthony Doman
GROUP PUBLISHER: Neil Piper
EDITORial Senior associate editor Lindsey Schutters Journalist Lumka Nofemele Digital content manager Nikky Knijf Proofreader Margy Beves-Gibson
OCTOBER 2017
TESTED: SMART HOME SECURITY CAMERAS TECH
» SCIENCE » DRIVING » DIY » LIFE
18
extra DIY pages In association with MICA
POPULAR MECHANICS
OCTOBER 2017 RSA: R38,90 Other countries: R34,12 excl VAT
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HOW-TO SPECIAL > A CLEAN, WELL-LIT WORKSHOP > COMPLETELY CORDLESS ARSENAL > HASSLE-FREE HOME NETWORK > A CONCRETE CANOE > MOTORISED CHANDELIER
WE TAKE APART
A DIRT BIKE ! 1 302 pieces
HOW TO: MAKE PLUTONIUM
MAKING A BETTER SUV THE TWO WAYS TO COOK MEAT
FOR KIDS: LEGO BOOST VOLUME 16, NO. 3
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
THE GR
PORT
UDGE RE
We go hands-on with home appliances
PAGE 32 UNDERWATER POWER TOOLS? DRONES FOR SCHOOLKIDS TVs THAT HANG LIKE PAINTINGS
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IN YOUR PYJAMAS? LOOKING GOOD!
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DRIVING AROUND
WRITE TO US, ENGAGE IN DEBATE
L ETTER S
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WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
WINNING LETTER
WATER CONSERVATION: HELP OR HAZARD? Thanks for a fabulous magazine that truly raises the bar with every issue, bringing its readers the best and most relevant content, ensuring we always stay interested. I am writing after reading From The Editor (July 2017) regarding the terrible drought you are having in the south. It’s refreshing to read of all the things people and households do and attempt to do in order to alleviate the stress on an already strained water system. Ever since primary school, all my science teachers would repeat the same environmentally conscious rhetoric of reusing, reducing and recycling. The use of grey water in veg gardens, buckets in the showers, bricks/soda bottles in the toilet cistern and such were always explained to us as ways in which we could help conserve water. More and more I am seeing advertised grey water systems, rainwater capture systems and the like, which will make the whole act of conserving water as easy as spending a couple of thousand rand. I do try not to be cynical in life, but I have always wondered about the actual benefit that these products and practices bring to the table. Apart from actually using less,how much do these systems actually help? From a purely financial point of view it will surely take a while (if ever) for them to pay for themselves. But from an environmental/ conservation point of view, I am not so sure any more. By reusing grey water, we capture
THE CHANGING FACE OF WARFARE North Korea: How big a threat? (August 2017) warrants a response. Should the north ever use nuclear weapons,against the south, it is almost certain that the USA will retaliate with nuclear weapons, obliterating North Korea from the face of this planet. The looming clash between North Korea and the USA has the potential to escalate into a geo-strategic clash with China and could result in a nuclear clash, a possibility
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water before it goes to the sewer system and to the wastewater treatment plant. What actually happens to water being treated there? Does it re-enter the clean water system, or is the treated water returned to the area’s main water supply such as the Vaal Dam (for us) or similar? In such a case I would argue that we are actually doing the opposite of saving, because watering a garden (regardless of where the water comes from) actively removes water from the potable store. When it comes to capturing rain from gutters, I wonder similar things. We are removing water that would otherwise either end up in the garden by itself or end up in the drain system of the city. Are we not denying some other system downstream its water by using it for ourselves? It needs to be emphasised that I do not question the effectiveness of plainly using less water. Showers over baths, quicker showers or even military showers in the extreme all have markedly big differences. However, it feels to me like many people are adopting a fad without really understanding the effect and/or the effectiveness. I would like to one day open up a similar debate on the use of geyser blankets. My opinion is that a geyser that needs a blanket is severely faulty and a simple blanket will not help. But that’s a topic for another time.
Write to us, engage us in debate and you could win a cool prize. Our winning letter earns a Makita GA9020K Angle Grinder. Featuring a powerful 2200W motor and a 230mm wheel diameter, the GA9020K provides outstanding durability and can be positioned at every 90-degree angle to suit most cutting and grinding applications. An automatic brush cut-out system comes standard and the large rubber tool rest protects the work piece from scratches. This model is supplied with a side handle, wheel guard, lock nut wrench and a carry case. All discs are sold separately. To find out more about Makita power tools, visit www.makita.co.za Send your letter to: Popular Mechanics, PO Box 180, Howard Place 7450, or e-mail popular [emailprotected] Please keep it short and to the point. Regrettably, prizes can be awarded only to South African residents.
DANIËL LOUW PRETORIA
that could set the Korean Peninsula aflame. Some time ago, two high-ranking Russian generals revealed that North Korea had tested and perfected a super electromagnetic weapon disguised as a hydrogen bomb test. In orbit, at an altitude of about 500 kilometres, is a North Korean satellite dubbed KMS-3, which could possibly carry the EMP weapon. When war erupts, the Koreans and the Americans will resort to electronic warfare to gain political and military supremacy. Undeniably, the face of warfare is chang-
ing. Reducing vulnerability to asymmetric threats is vital for any country’s survival and dominance in future operations. Throughout the past quarter century, the asymmetric threat has become a common form of warfare throughout the world. Electronic warfare and electromagnetic weapons will be the deciding factor between the victor and the vanquished.
FAROUK ARAIE BENONI
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
RUB-A-DUB-DUB IN MINIATURE After seeing a small replica of a doll’s washing machine, my three-year-old daughter said that we needed one of those, so I obliged by making a bigger version for her dolls. At first I was going to make a simple box with no moving parts, but then got carried away and produced what you see in the photos. The box is common plywood and pine. I mounted a geared motor inside and attached a bucket to create the drum. The whole system is controlled by a pic microcontroller including cycle selection, forward/reverse motion, cycle timeout, emergency stop if the door gets opened during a cycle and of course flashing LEDs. It looks very realistic when running. She has hours of entertainment “washing” her dolls’ clothes.
RODGER D’ALTON FISH HOEK
GET SMART WITH LICENCE DISCS For nearly half a century, 48 years to be exact, I have been dutifully standing in queues to renew my annual vehicle licence discs. When I think of the time wasted standing in queues and the mountains of paperwork that the motor vehicle registration system has to chomp through, I conclude that there must be a better way. I think we now have a better way, technologically. Imagine a SIM card-driven cellphone chip, solar-powered, complete with liquid crystal display, fitted with a radio frequency chip anti-theft protector; all, in turn, fitted in a unit affixed to your windscreen. The device would be linked to eNaTIS and send you a request for renewal payment. A simple press of a button at your auto bank or Internet banking terminal would effect payment and the licensing system would send a coded signal to your licence disc on the car, automatically updating the liquid crystal display. Maybe there is someone out there who can make it happen, if such a thing is not already in the works? I would rush to queue for such a gadget.
NIGEL APSEY CENTURION
Before electron
LIFE BEFORE GADGETS? OH, YES When one reads through the present day Popular Mechanics (and for that matter, any technical publication) one soon realises how much life has advanced since the ’60s when I was a young boy. Today’s approach to any problem or challenge automatically leads to the thought, “Which, computer, program or gadget will I be able to use to solve my problem or complete my project?” When I retired in 2012, I soon realised that I would need some kind of hobby, not only to keep myself busy, but also to keep my mind active. Yes, I could have accepted the challenge to further my knowledge of these newfound technological marvels; instead, I decided, back to basics for me and use what I have at the lowest cash outlay possible. AsIalready had some basic tools, my choice fell on woodwork.During my working life, I had often stood in awe on some construction site admiring the smooth efficiency dance ofa piece of construction equipment to the rhythmic music of a powerful diesel engine. My choice was thus fairly obvious: to build wood models of some of the iconic construction machines such as a road grader, loader or excavator. I have since realised the list of fond memories goes way beyond these few and that I will not run out of subjects in my lifetime. However, from the outset I encountered challenges when I tried to obtain
ics. – PM reader
.
some basic measurements and detail about this equipment. The manufacturers’ reaction to my queries ranged from suspicion of being scammed out of some trade secrets to outright rudeness. All was not lost, however, and armed with a bribe (cool drinks), my faithful old Canon Powershot, clipboard, pencil and tape, a short drive to the nearest construction site was all that was needed to get started. These photographs and access to photos on the Internet were enough to get me going on my first model. Being a stickler for records, I have kept track of my actual hours spent on these models. To date, I have had a little less than 1 200 hours of endless pleasure while the “what part next and the how to make it to what detail” has kept my mind active. Most of the know-how to use the basic tools has come from recollecting my childhood experience in my dad’s “workshop” and the wonderful friendly expertise from experienced, helpful and friendly members of our local Witwatersrand Woodworkers Association.I definitely won’t die a rich man, but my grandchildren and even their children will have something more valuable and inspiring to remember the “old toppie”: the knowledge that, before electronics, there was life – and a very rewarding life, too.
DOUW KRUGER GAUTENG PM
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 7
It made perfect sense at the time
Time machine
2003
The early 2000s were a great time for innovation when it came to cellphone design. Mobile phones were still tiny, swivelled in all directions and came in every conceivable colour. And they didn’t even look like phones anymore when Siemens introduced the Xelibri, a “fashion” design that borrowed from Fashion Week and was released through the spring/summer and fall/winter collections.
1953
If you own a flashy car, you might consider getting one for Junior, too. This Jaguar made for a six-yearold boy weighed 450 kg, had a 1,8-metre wheelbase and was powered by a motor-scooter engine. Unlike the speedy full-size version, for safety reasons it was limited to a pedestrian 10 miles per hour (16 km/h).
1979
We don’t necessarily associate Abraham Lincoln with DIY, other than crafting the likes of the Gettysburg Address, but our 1979 DIY focused on a few projects inspired by the great man’s handiwork. Like then, in this issue we are all things DIY. Flip through our DIY special and be inspired.
1939
With North America not yet embroiled in the World War, everyday concerns such as home security still exercised citizens’ minds. For example, if you found yourself unable to get to the bank and didn’t want to leave your valuables in the house, you were saved by an emergency jewellery cache installed inside your front door. This little storage space was deemed safe because you would have to unlock your door and stand on a chair to get to your valuables. Unfortunately, robbers probably knew this, too. PM
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www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
Calendar October SUNDAY
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MONDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
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5
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Celebrate our furry friends on World Animal Day.
Grab a cup – it’s International Coffee Day.
TUESDAY
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Get the most out of your month
The Johannesburg Boat Show starts today. RIP Steve Jobs. The renowned CEO passed away on this day in 2011.
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22 In 1797, the first successful parachutejumpwas made byAndréJacques Garnerin in Paris.
The annualCape Town International Boat Show showcases the best of water sports and equipment.
16 18 20 Do your bit to stop world hunger on this World Food Day.
13 The Sanlam Handmade Contemporary Fair starts in Johannesburg.
Send somebody a letter today to celebrate World Post Day.
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Gaming expo rAge comes to Johannesburg today.
On this day in 1878, Thomas Edison made electricity available for household use.
23 A new issue of Popular Mechanics is out today.
26 The Cape Town Flower Show runs until the 29th.
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The Baby Expo in Cape Town starts. Cape Town’s annual Halloween-themed fundraiser, the Zombie Walk, is today.
29 31 On this day in 1945, the first ballpoint Itpen is in the US Cape went on sale. Town’s turn to experience the Coffee & Chocolate Expo.
On this dayin 1974, scientists first reported that Freon gases released from aerosol spray cans were destroying the ozone layer.
The Hermanus Whale Festival starts.
On this day in 1906, the world’s first international balloon race began.
THURS
05/10
On this day we lost the man behind the Apple brand, American entrepreneur, businessman, inventor, and industrial designer, Steve Jobs. Jobs’ tenure brought the world the Apple computer, iMac G3, USB Mouse, iPod, a glass staircase for Apple stores, the Apple power adaptor, the iPhone operating system, the Apple “magic” mouse, and the iPod shuffle and iPad.
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
THURS
26/10
Calling all horticulture, gardening and floriculture enthusiasts: the Cape Town Flower Show is back. Running from 26 to 29 October at the Good Hope Centre, the event showcases everything from seeds, flowers and trees to garden decorating, outdoor living solutions and gardeners’ accessories.
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HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
underwater power tools? For the first time ever, a cordless drill and angle grinder can be fully submerged. Safely. By Da n D u b n o Last summer, two men attempted to fix the busted
reel used to wind up and store a pool cover. Although the reel was mounted barely two centimetres over a filled swimming pool, those idiots – my brother, Mickey, and me – decided not to empty the pool. Instead, we wrapped a AC mains-wired electric drill in layers of garbage bags. Our horrified family gathered as we awkwardly attempted to drive a series of screws without accidentally dunking the drill and electrocuting ourselves. That nightmare is why I was so interested when I heard about Nemo Power Tools, a Hong Kong based company run by entrepreneur Nimo Rotem. This year, Nemo is launching an expanded series of handheld power tools that are completely waterproof; and, in my case, idiot-friendly. They power through any type of water, even contaminated sources, so they’re ideal for a wide range of commercial and consumer uses. I tested the V2 Divers Edition cordless drill (R11 000) and brushless angle grinder
The Nemo angle grinder hits 6 500 r/min underwater and 9 500 r/min on land. 10
(R18 500) on dry land first. I happily drilled all kinds of holes, drove three dozen 50-mm deck screws, cut pieces of pipe, and ground down some steel scraps I found lying around the house. But I wanted to test them in the deep, too. Since it was too chilly for a swim outside and I was too poor for a quick flight to the Caribbean, I had to come up with an alternative. When I headed to the bathroom in my 7-mm wetsuit and snorkel, carrying a stack of wood and steel, my wife gave me a look. “It’s only a test,” I said. Both the drill and angle grinder need to be air pressurised with a clever bicycle-style air pump before being submerged. How much pressure depends on how deep you’re working. At only 60 centimetres in my bathtub, it didn’t take long to get to the necessary one bar (nearly one atmosphere) of pressure. If you are working at the outermost depth of 50 metres, you must pressurise tools to a maximum of six bars. Even dunking power tools in the bathtub can be frightening at first. But once the drill started spinning underwater without electrocuting me, the weirdness passed. When you’re finished, you release the air pressure so the tools can be stored. (Excess pressure left in the tool strains the mechanical seal and could decrease its lifespan.) The 18-volt V2 drill has two bright LED work lights, which is important if you’re in deep water. It has a 12-mm corrosionresistant keyless chuck, offers 16 torque settings, and has dual gear speeds up to 1 500 r/min. That lets you drill up to 10 mm holes in steel and 25 mm in wood. At three kilograms, it’s a little heavier than most standard drill drivers, but underwater you won’t even notice. As for the angle grinder, it has a 22-volt 5-amp-hour battery to power a hefty 1 500-watt motor. Using a 110 mm-diameter cutting or grinding wheel, the tool achieves cutting speeds of 6 500 r/min when submerged and 9 500 on dry land. As well as they performed in my tub, Nemo tools are ideal for scuba divers, pool
The Nemo V2 Divers Edition drill can be submerged in up to 50metres of water. Past versions of the drill, such as this one, have been used by reef-monitoring teams to install eyebolts to support floats to distinguish different sites with minimal impact.
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
and spa maintainers, and boat owners; anyone with constant wet work to be done. You no longer need to haul out a boat to dry-dock to clean propellers, hulls or waterlines. Just put on your wetsuit, add the wire brush attachment to the drill and jump in. What used to be a cumbersome
job becomes a little less cumbersome. Commercial divers can use the angle grinder for salvaging wrecks or grinding off rusted bolts. Nemo says its tools are also used by rescue divers, fire departments and sewer-repair crews, and in the militaries of ten different countries, including special-
forces teams, for underwater construction and aircraft-carrier maintenance. Maybe my brother and I will even use them the next time there’s an issue in the pool. As enjoyable as it was to have such a rapt audience, it’s even more fun to live through the experience.
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 11
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS A father-and-son Australian company has developed a new process to create a lightweight, solar-powered drone, which they hope will be able to fly almost indefinitely during daylight hours.
Cracking the solar-powered drone challenge The company, Praxis Aeronautics, has worked out a new way to encapsulate standard solar cells in composite material without losing efficiency, thus solving one of the key problems that had been holding back solar-powered aircraft: the weight and cost of accommodating solar cells. Praxis, based in the South Australian capital Adelaide, has attracted the attention of the state government’s early commercialisation fund, which will contribute around R1,6 million to the company’s efforts to produce a larger prototype to entice the market. Developers Don Donaldson and son Cameron believe their approach will have numerous commercial applications, from aerial mapping for the mining industry, to cheaper shark spotting in summer and fast deliveries of medicines to remote communities. Petrol-powered drones are expensive and electric drones have limited flying time. Until now, developers of solar drones have grappled with either the weight of fixing solar panels, or the expense of creating body materials that incorporate solar cells. Another approach used to crack the market, says Cameron, has been the use of a thin film of solar cells that can be wrapped over the body of the drone, but that technology costs about 35 times more than the Praxis method. Their solution is to use a laminating process to incorporate ordinary (therefore cheap) solar cells in the composite material of the aircraft; a process that Cameron Donaldson has used in the shipbuilding industry to encapsulate timber in the construction of highend yachts. That process can give marine craft the glossy look of a classic timber boat, but with the durability of glass fibre. His patent attorney suggested that solar cells might be a profitable
Boosting Li-ions Silicon could hold the key to next-gen battery tech
We could be standing on the key to a massive boost in lithium-ion battery capacity. Silicon, the second-most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, has Finnish researchers all fired up. According to findings published in
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new application for the process, which others have tried and failed to achieve in solar aircraft. “Through the process of taking out a patent, we have discovered that people have tried and they’ve got close,” Cameron said. “The issue has been making laminates that are perfectly clear (to allow the cells to operate at maximum efficiency.” Applying the process to a drone also made sense commercially. “It’s the best application to prove the worth of the process, because it’s a relatively small product to manufacture, and no other product we have come across has had the improvement factor,” says Cameron. “We have been able to improve the flight duration by six times (most electric drones can only fly for one hour).” Don said the Praxis technology was “disruptive” because it enabled standard solar cells to be used in a much more productive fashion at a cheaper cost and with greater aerodynamics than other methods. The ultimate goal is to create a drone that can fly in daylight hours for a virtually unlimited number of hours. The drone will have a battery on board and will become, essentially, its own charging station; able to land and recharge when power gets low, before taking off again. There has been worldwide interest in the possibilities of solar-powered drones, with mixed success. Google killed off its own solar-powered drone programme earlier this year. It had planned to develop craft that could fly at high altitudes for long periods of time to beam Internet to remote areas that lacked access. – The Lead South Australia
Scientific Reports, at the University of Eastern Finland it’s been found that replacing graphite anodes with silicon could quadruple anode capacity in Li-ions. In an environment heavily depended on renewable energy sources, energy storage is vital and lithium-ion batteries are considered to have the best potential. Initially it was thought that electrochemically produced nanoporous silicon, a substance hard and hazardous to produce, would be necessary. What the Finns found instead was that particles sized between 10 and 20 micrometres and with the right porosity were, in fact, most suitable. That’s significant because micrometre-sized particles are easier and
safer to process than nanoparticles. This is also important from the viewpoint of battery material recyclability. Says researcher Timo Ikone, “Small amounts of silicon are already used in Tesla’s batteries to increase their energy density. But it’s very challenging to increase the amount.” Next on the agenda is combining silicon with small amounts of carbon nanotubes for better electrical conductivity and durability. And, as the current silicon being used is too expensive for commercial use, the team will be looking into the possibility of manufacturing a similar material from agricultural waste, for example from barley husk ash.
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
Bee tech
Honeycomb system provides innovative strain relief design for cables
There’s no end of lessons to be learnt from the insect world, it seems. One of the latest is a new take on cable strain relief. Cable carriers (also known as cable track or e-chain) are the umbilical cord of modern machines. Individual cables have to be fixed to these tracks, a time-consuming job. Cable tiewraps are typically used to secure cables, but can often only be used once. That’s why there’s intense interest in a revo-
lutionary new design based on bees’ familiar hexagonal honeycomb. For its energy supply systems, motion plastics specialist Igus has developed a unique strain relief system with a honeycomb structure. Cables and hoses can simply and gently be pressed into the honeycomb. The structure is then closed, causing the outer walls of the honeycomb cavities to be pushed gently, but extremely
tightly, around the cables. In this way, the structure simply adapts to the cable diameters. The honeycomb can be mounted in seconds; compared with tiewraps or other strain relief solutions, the user saves about 80 per cent assembly time. The new system also saves space and protects the cables in the e-chain and is much more flexible, as the system is easy to open, to insert new cables or to replace them. The universal strain relief system is available in horizontal or vertical versions. Source: Igus
Easy rider
Is this the end of the saddle as a pain in the butt? For all the advances in bicycle technology, from space-age
frame materials to electronic shifting and no-flat tyres, there’s one area that remains a sore point – literally: the saddle. There have been no significant changes to bicycle saddle technology since the 1960s. Essentially, they are all rails + saddle shell + padding + cover. The disadvantage of this layout is that the saddle shell has two jobs: carry the load of the rider, while also being the substructure for the padding. So seat shells have to be stiff, which means uncomfortable. That’s exactly what a research teamfrom Ergon (ergonbike. com) focused on. The company calls its innovation TwinShell. Two shells function in isolation from each other in a sandwich construction, held in a floating arrangement by a high-performance elastomer damper made of Infinergy. The elastomer is an expanded thermoplastic polyurethane (E-TPU) developed by BASF. The lower, supporting shell performs a load-bearing function; the upper, flexible seat shell supports the padding. It’s said to be inherently more comfortable. But wait, there’s more: besides more comfort, the design is said to allow for an entirely new form of pedalling ergonomics. As a result of isolating the seat shell from the supporting shell, the saddle follows the natural pedalling movements in all directions. This has the advantage of systematically combining optimised pressure distribution across the sit bones, efficient
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za
pedalling ergonomics, excellent vibration damping and active back protection for the first time. Infinergy sets new standards in relation to damping and suspension thanks to thousands of light and highly elastic foam particles. The high elasticity optimises the damping of pressure in the seat area. As soon as the pressure impulse has passed, the foam springs back into its old shape. The material retains this property even under continuous load. The Ergon core thus ensures a direct damping response and the highest possible resilience, as well as maximum durability at minimal material weight. This E-TPU foam has already been used with great success by leading manufacturers in the safety gear and running shoes. 13
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
Tech industry, meet Donald
Elon Musk
Peter Thiel
Eric Schmidt
Tim Cook
Mark Zuckerberg
Tesla, SpaceX
Founders Fund, Palantir Technologies
Alphabet
Apple
• Key donation: $5 000 to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2015 • Twitter: “Good grief, I’m not ‘working’ for Trump. I’m trying to provide advice that helps take things in a more positive direction.” 15/02/2017 • Insider’s view: “Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, next only to the bankers, speak Trump’s language. It’s all about these weird, exceptional, crazy people. ‘The world’s been standing in our way.’ ” – Technology think tank fellow • Assessment: After months working with the administration, withdrew from advisory boards after the president withdrew from the Paris climate accord. 14
• Key donation: $1 million to the Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC • Insider’s view: “Who has held the most power since Inauguration Day? The Thiel operation would be the obvious front runner… Best million dollars he ever invested.” – DC-based strategy consultant • Assessment: Libertarian. Backed Trump early, now wildly influential. Swears he won’t take an administration job, giving him plausible deniability on the charge that he’s shackled to the government.
• Key donation: $33 400 each to Democratic and Republican Committees • Twitter: “ ‘The most dangerous world views are the world views of those who have never viewed the world.’ – Alexander von Humboldt” 28/10/2016 • Insider’s view: “If you’re looking for major players, definitely Eric Schmidt – he’s the chair of the Defence Innovation Advisory Board and is very engaged.” – Alexandra Sander, Centre for a New American Security • Assessment: After backing a tech start-up supporting Clinton’s campaign, told Googlers postinauguration the Trump administration would do “evil things”.
• key donation: $10 000 each to 19 state Democratic committees • Liked tweet: “ ‘This loss hurts. But please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.’ – Hillary” 9/11/2016 • Insider’s view: “He’s started to make more of an effort now. He’s had dinner with Jared and Ivanka a number of times… I think that is the right way in for him.” – Republican technology lobbyist • Assessment: Cook’s refusal to unlock the San Bernardino iPhone earned then-candidate Trump’s ire on Twitter. As has the fact that iPhones are built in China. Still, Trump owns Apple stock.
• Facebook: “Holding Max, I thought about all the work ahead of us to create the world we want for our children. This work is bigger than any presidency and progress does not move in a straight line.” 9/11/2016 • Insider’s View: “I’m a little bit bearish on the idea of Zuckerberg running for president. The prevailing theory here is that it’s all a set-up for someone else, like Sheryl Sandberg.” [Both have denied they will run… in 2020.] – Technology think tank fellow • Assessment: Zuckerberg’s visible involvement has been low, but Facebook is the savviest tech firm when it comes to DC. And FB has a connection to Trump’s inner circle: Thiel is on the board.
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
Editor’s note: Board memberships are as of press time and subject to change (see: Elon Musk).
After eight cosy years with the Obama administration, executives from Silicon Valley are learning to work with a new Washington. Or not.
Our colleagues at Popular Mechanics US
talked to nearly 30 Washington, DC, and Silicon Valley insiders to find out which tech companies are working to advance their goals with that country’s new administration and which are keeping a distance. The insiders agreed that whereas cultivating a good relationship between a CEO and the president isn’t the only way to further an agenda – the government writes the laws, after all – in this case it might be useful. “It seems like Trump
wants to do things from the Oval Office, and he’s only going to bring in CEOs,” one lobbyist said. “He likes CEOs. He was a CEO.” A former Obama administration official noted, “Everything suggests to me that the return on investment for engaging with the administration has gone up. This administration’s… idiosyncratic policymaking practice means you want to be heard often and in many different forms, so they don’t forget what your priorities are.” Here’s where the key players stand.
Brian Krzanich
Jeff Bezos
Ginni Rometty
Jack Dorsey
Intel
Amazon, Blue Origin, The Washington Post
IBM
Square, Twitter
Twitter: “As a company cofounded by an immigrant, we support lawful immigration. We will provide impacted employees with Intel’s full support.” 29/1/2017 • Insider’s view: “I think the old-guard folks, like Michael Dell and Krzanich, I think it is really the big guys who manufacture a lot in the US and can say, ‘Look at all these jobs I’ve created. Look at this huge company I run.’ Trump relates to people based on their bigness.” – Republican tech lobbyist • Assessment: Krzanich announced from the White House that Intel would proceed with the R90billion expansion of a chip plant, thanks to Trump’s tax policies. That’s how you land on the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative.
• Key donation: $2 700 to Jason Chaffetz, GOP chair of Benghazi inquiry into Hillary Clinton • Insider’s view: “He matters more as a media outlet than as a tech CEO. I know there was some friction early on in the administration – I don’t know if they kissed and made up – but, you know, Bezos is hardcharging, not just with the focus on Amazon. Amazon Web Services data service is huge, and the government I’m sure is a big customer.” – Democratic technology lobbyist • Assessment: Bezos’s relentlessness as a businessman, along with his diverse portfolio of interests, suggests he may actually be apolitical. Or maybe just pragmatic.
• Open letter to President Trump: “In the years ahead there will be issues on which we agree, and issues on which we do not. But as you prepare to take office as our new president, I hope the ideas I have offered... represent ways that we can work together to achieve prosperity that is broadly shared in our society.” • Assessment: The week after Trump’s election victory, Rometty released an open letter to the president-elect with ideas for achieving his goals for government reform, tax reform, healthcare, and the workforce. Most would create jobs for Watson, IBM’s artificial-intelligence platform.
• Twitter: “This country was founded on one selfevident and undeniable truth: all people are created equal. We all must hold each other, especially the leaders we put in power, accountable to that truth… I commit to using the privilege I currently have to always speak this truth to power, and to ensure the common good leads everything we do.” 9/11/2016 • Assessment: The CEO of the most important piece of technology in Trump’s life has been blackballed. Maybe because Twitter has been in a freefall, or maybe because Twitter refused the Trump campaign’s request for a Crooked Hillary emoji. (That really happened.)
Advisory boards
Presidential Transition Team: Hired employees for the new administration and set policy priorities.
Defence Innovation Advisory Board: Obama-era board, continuing under the Trump administration, that seeks to improve military operations with Silicon Valley practices.
Tech Summit: Preinauguration meeting between President-elect Trump and leaders from the technology industry.
Strategic and Policy Forum: A round table of business leaders advising the administration on how to improve the business climate in the US.
Manufacturing Jobs Initiative: Another round table, this time focusing on job growth and revitalising manufacturing.
White House Office of American Innovation: Applies private-sector business strategies to federal operations. Includes the American Technology Council, which hosted another tech summit in June.
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 15
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
LESSONS FROM AN ASSASSIN Even if you aren’t working to become a killing machine like the guys in the new movie American Assassin, you can still learn a lot from the man who trains them.
1
Joost Janssen is not an assassin. Real assassins don’t tend to respond to interview requests. But he is a close second: a US Navy SEAL for 13 years, and currently an instructor at BUD/S, the school that SEAL candidates attend. He’s also the military adviser for American Assassin, a brutal thriller about a CIA recruit whose fiancée is killed in a terrorist attack. That man is trained by a legendary operative played by Michael Keaton, and Keaton was trained by Janssen.
Suddenly!
OTHER 1954 GREAT ASSASSIN The Manchurian MOVIES Candidate, 1962
16
Start slow.
Janssen says one of the mantras of SEAL training is “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” People trying to learn combat skills aim to be quick, especially actors who want to seem lethal. But the jerky, stuttering movements of someone trying to go too fast are less efficient and accurate. 2
Save your pistol for indoors.
Pistols are ineffective at long range, so don’t bother with them in sniper situations. But “indoors, if your rifle misfires or runs out, you transition immediately to your pistol”, Janssen says. 3
Hand-to-hand combat wears you out.
In actual close-quarters combat, Janssen says, “There is no 35- to 90-second exchange
of sweeping kicks.” You’ll get exhausted, often in as little as ten seconds. 4
Don’t go for the carotid.
In the original script, Keaton’s character ordered trainees: “Go for the carotid.” Janssen pointed out that this would make a mess, possibly allow the victim to call for help, and leave them with the potential to fight for another 30 to 40 seconds. Instead he suggested puncturing the trachea. 5
Train yourself to react.
The SEALs use a training process called a hooded box drill: the trainer uses a string to raise the head covering of a hooded trainee, suddenly presenting him with an unexpected situation. “It could be a young woman
asking you for directions to McDonald’s, or it could be ten guys, one with a fist already halfway to your face,” says Janssen. “You just have to deal with it.” 6
Handle the pain.
In American Assassin, the trainees wear electrodes that shock them if they shoot virtual good guys or innocent bystanders. The technology is an exaggeration, but in real life, Janssen learnt to ignore pain in exercises with live weaponry firing plastic, paint-filled bullets. Civilians put through the same drill shut down. “Their brain has already told them, ‘If you’re hit by something from a gun, you’re out,’ and their bodies automatically do that,” he says. Good way to prematurelyend a career as an assassin.
The Parallax View 1974
La Femme Nikita 1990
Grosse Pointe Blank 1997
Mr. & Mrs. Smith 2005
Prizzi’s Honor 1985
In the Line of Fire 1993
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 2003
Assassin’s Creed 2016*
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
I stink at email
Pressure from messaging apps such as Slack is forcing innovation from traditional email companies. That’s good news for you and very good news for me. By Ale x a n der G e o rge
A recent text from my boss: “Did you get my email? Thanks.” I’m terrible at email. I loathe checking my inbox, so I just don’t do it. The promise that chat apps such as Slack will finally replace the majority of my email exchanges does make me optimistic. As of last year, Slack had more than 1,5 million subscribers. Still, more than 3,7 billion people in the world have email accounts, and it seems like 3 billion of them email me every day. But traditional email providers and independent companies have come up with algorithms that, along with some behavioural changes, can help get my inbox back to its original purpose: efficient communication. Even if you’re not as hopeless as I am, they can help you, too.
YOU: Are a procrastinator
YOU: Catch up on emails late at night and feel guilty burdening people after hours
TRY: Gmail app’s Smart Reply
TRY: Delay Delivery
Google software looks for phrases (“meet Thursday or Friday?”) and posts three (usually) relevant suggested responses above your phone’s keyboard. Tap one and drop in the text (“Let’s do Thursday.”) and adapt as necessary. Smart Reply learns from your responses, so it won’t suggest a smiley emoji if you’re not an emoji person.
Microsoft recently added this feature to the current version of Outlook, the email service we use at Popular Mechanics. Instead of Send, you hit Delay Delivery and put in a date and time, and Outlook will send it at a more reasonable hour. Gmail and other services have this, too. Great for remembering birthdays or appearing like a functional morning person instead of a sleep-deprived insomniac.
YOU: Respond to texts way better than to email TRY: Forwarding certain emails as text messages
Find the Rules section of your email app, and create one for the addresses of any VIP sender. To forward that message as a text, you’ll need to find your phone’s email address. As an example T-Mobile, the service I have, structures addresses as your-phonenumber @tmomail.net, i.e, 212-555-8624@ tmomail.net, but look it up for your carrier.
YOU: Have given up YOU: Are buried in junk mail
TRY: Starting over
TRY: A smart inbox
If your personal email address is too far beyond filtering, and you have (let’s be honest) fewer than a dozen or so people you really want to talk to via email, make a new address. Post an outof-office/vacation prompt for the old address saying that you no longer use this for correspondence, but keep it running for your Amazon and Seamless confirmations.
Over the last few years, Hotmail, Google and Outlook introduced their versions of self-filtering inboxes, which separate human emails from marketing blasts to sell you discounted pants. Right now, the free app Spark does this best. It connects all of your email accounts and automatically prioritises emails from people you’ve corresponded with in the past. It also lets you isolate the people who actually matter – boss, spouse, gondolier, whoever – and you get notified only when they contact you. You can snooze emails you want to deal with later, or pin important messages to the top of your inbox so they never get lost.
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 17
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
The inflatable man Airbags changed car safety. Airbag jackets are about to do the same for motorcycles. By David C u rc u rito
Inflation time: 25milliseconds.
Alpinestars used data from 600 crashes to develop its jacket.
18
Heath starts the countdown: 3… 2… – Stop!
I want to be surprised by the blast. Besides, the counting makes me nervous. Then, bang! The vest under the black all-weather jacket I’m wearing inflates in 25 milliseconds. Tremendous pressure pushes on my chest, shoulders, ribs, kidneys and back. It’s not a pleasant sensation, but in a real accident, it’s a pain I’d be happy to feel. Heath works for Alpinestars, a high-performance protective-gear company on the motocross circuit. The controlled explosion he just caused around me is from the Tech-Air (around R14 000 in the USA), the best example of a new airbag system built into motorcycle jackets. Unlike other airbag devices, Tech-Air doesn’t use bike-mounted sensors, tethering or GPS. The jacket and its inner vest rely on a gyroscope, accelerometers and sensors in the shoulder and back, all linked together by software that can distinguish between normal riding and, holy crap, look out for that car! The system doesn’t require activation or calibration. You just zip up the jacket and get on your bike.
It takes very harsh motion at high velocity to trigger the airbag, so hard braking, sudden movements, and the constant punches that my giggling wife hurls at my chest won’t ever set it off. The Alpinestars US headquarters are in Torrance, California, and although I’m excited to test out the Tech-Air on a ride, I was once told OTHER by a couple of CHiPs (not Ponch and WEARABLE Jon) that southern California roads are some of the most dangerous in the SAFETY country. The 405 is a horrible six-lane TECHNOLOGY nightmare. Even wearing the airbag Spidi Neck DPS Tex Vest jacket, my hands sweat like leaky taps A reflective vest when my riding partners enter the onwith a neck cushion ramp and immediately start splitting that inflates when lanes. Considering how often cars and the tether is pulled trucks like to change lanes, there’s a in a fall. good chance I’ll be needing to change Hövding crashmy underwear a lot, too. After 20 inflated bike minutes, my senses are in overdrive. helmet When we make it to Coldwater Canyon, A collar triggered by I start really pushing myself through abnormal movement the kilometres of hairpin turns. The to form an inflated jacket gives me the confidence to lean helmet around the neck and head. the bike more than I usually do. But a crash is still a crash, and it sucks no Water matter how much protection you wings have. Did I feel safer at intersections? Hell, no. People will always cut in front of you, make crazy illegal turns, or hit you from behind. No matter the gear you’re wearing, motorcycle riding will always be inherently dangerous. As if to illustrate this fact, Heath showed me endless crash-test videos at Alpinestars headquarters. In one of them, a crash-test dummy’s head flew off. The jacket worked perfectly, though. www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
Me and my tech Popular Mechanics has hunted down some of South Africa’s busiest and most successful people to find out what tech makes their lives better. – l u mk a n o femele
Put down a length of masking tape on the area of a join before marking a cut line to avoid permanent marks. > Don’t press too hard; you might dent the surface. Tale of the tape The angled piece of metal on the end of a steel tape measure doesn’t move because it’s broken: it is designed to move. When measuring an inner surface, such as the distance between a corner and a door jamb, the hook when pushed against the corner moves in about 1 mm (the distance depends on the thickness of the metal used for the hook), accounting for that thickness. When measuring an outer dimension, say to the end of a countertop, the hook is pulled
48
Saddling up
Pro tips for mounting and cabling solutions, from someone who got it wrong enough times.
You may not know this, but your router wants to be the centre of attention. It also wants to be high. The single best thing I’ve done for my home network was to invest in an 802.11ac wireless router, drill holes to run Cat 6 cable from our cable router to a central location, hard cable the wireless router and put it on top of a cupboard. The four Wi-Fi signal antennas are arranged with two facing forwards and two facing to the back of the house. It’s helpful that 802.11ac has a large footprint and beamforming antennas, but the placement has made it easier to plug in range extenders to help relay signal through walls and trickier areas of the house. Bottom line: you don’t need to mount your router upside down, just higher so that it doesn’t need to pass through bodies or other obstacles simply to get out. Cable management can also get crazy when upgrading your home’s smarts. Techflex makes various braided/ woven cable management solutions with fire – or rodent – resistant properties, depending on your needs. I prefer the spiral sleeves because they’re easier to wrap around cables and it expands easier. No one likes a rat’s nest behind their PC or smart device; wrap it up.
out, to a precise position and then stopped by its attachment rivets. Reach for it When trying to measure from a point that is out of reach, place two lengths of timber side by side. Move one up until it reaches the point at which you need to start measuring. Now move the second bit of timber down until it reaches the lower point. Clamp the pieces together firmly. You can now measure the total distance from end to end. On the level A proper spirit level is one of the most useful tools in any DIYer’s armoury. For those situations where you don’t have a level handy and absolute accuracy is not critical, here’s how you can improvise. Bottle Take a parallel-sided bottle – such as a wine bottle – and half-fill it with water. Replace the cap or cork, place the bottle on its side on the surface to be levelled (ensuring that it cannot
roll off and break) and turn it until the edge of the label is clearly visible. Now lift or lower one end of the surface until the water’s meniscus is exactly on the edge of the label. Voila… you have levelled the surface. Measuring jug Fill a measuring jug with water to a one of the marked lines and place it on the surface to be levelled. When the meniscus lies on the line, the surface is level. Turn the jug through 90° and you can check the other plane as well. Book or DVD case Hold a DVD case or paperback book up against surface to be checked and place a water-filled measuring jug on it (keep a hold on it so that it doesn’t fall!). Now adjust the pole or surface until the meniscus is on one of the lines. Holding the pole or surface very steady in the first plane, move the DVD cover or book around the pole about 90° and repeat. The pole should now be vertical.
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
A smarter lifestyle for all Smart homes depend on a rock-solid network and the hints we’ve given you in the preceding pages will stand you in good stead when it comes to dimming the lights using only a spoken command or adjusting the home air-con from your desk at work.
Home automation needn’t be as daunting as many believe and needn’t involve sophisticated systems costing the Earth. Increasingly, over-the-counter add-on solutions are being made available that are well within reach of the average DIYer. But there are also times that you need to consider a built-in system designed specifically for your application. Whatever, it’s becoming more and more evident that intelligence can be retrofitted into an older home and easily included in a new build or renovation, according to home automation specialists Homemation, who tackle some smart home myths below.
Installation is too much work
It’s far too expensive
It’s only an unnecessarygimmick
Home automation can be very affordable: start with one or a few rooms or concentrate on specific features only, such as lighting or music or security. The price is largely dependent on your budget and needs. Today, technology has improved and pricing has reduced. Home automation should also be viewed together with your home as an investment that adds a lot of value to your lifestyle. Providing a cost estimate isn’t straightforward though; it’s like asking how much a car costs. Example: Control4 is software that connects your home’s automated products together, through a LAN environment; annual subscription for the Control4 4Sight system is around R2590; starting point is a dedicated controller (from R9590). Lighting costs around R2 000 per lighting circuit. Also, factor in high-speed Internet. Installation should be done by a certified Control4 integrator.
Intelligent zoned heating control and “all out” lighting functions are sensible, practical and energy-saving ideas. The security aspects of the system give great peace of mind and are a very important feature for South African users. Home automation systems don’t only allow you complete control of all the devices in your home, but also make clever decisions on your behalf, such as lowering the blinds in a room because it has become too warm, sending you an SMS and turning off your water because your geyser has sprung a leak, or notifying you that your garage door has been open for more than 10 minutes.
As with all electrical installations, there will be work done inside your house. But it doesn’t have to be sledgehammers at walls and cable chasing. Wireless technologies make it much easier to retrofit homes.
It’s intimidating and too complicated to use In the past this may have been true, but today the technology has been refined and is specifically designed to be user-friendly. Home automation makes use of an intuitive user interface that puts everything at a homeowner’s fingertips.
The technology doesn’t work well together and will be outdated soon Partnerships with the world’s leading brands ensure products integrate seamlessly into the Control4 platform, providing support for more than 10 000 devices from hundreds of
world-class brands, and the hardware is built to be “future-proof”.
It’s just a fad Try telling that to Apple, Google and Samsung, who have invested in home automation to bringmore and improved technology to your home. As Business Insider said: “The ‘Internet of things’ will be bigger than the smartphone, tablet, and PC markets combined.” 49
THE COMPLETE CORD Drills you expect. They’ve been cordless for decades. But a planer? A drill press? A table saw? Along with improved lithium-ion technology that lets maufacturers pack more voltage into smaller batteries, brushless motors are more efficient in how they use that electricity. Your favourite tools can now be used miles away from an outlet. Even somewhere like here. P hotograph by D wight E schliman
} Stihl TSA 230 cutoff saw
} Makita random-orbit sander Three speed settings means you can sand through almost anything. You’ll wear out before the battery. R1 199
} Ridgid brushless vacuum
Products available from leading retailers and online.
This 18 volt wet/dry hand vacuum can be used as is or when you attach the nozzle and floor tool as an upright vacuum for larger spaces.
50
Even a reciprocating saw pales by comparison to Stihl’s cutoff machine. The 5,4 kg saw is powered by a brushless 36 volt motor and its 225 mm diameter wheel cuts steel and cast iron. Or switch to a diamond grit wheel and use the accessory water tank to cut concrete. R8 125. Additional battery and charger cost R3 650
} Milwaukee mitre saw Equipped with a 250 mm blade and a 4 000 r/min motor, this 18 volt saw can crosscut a 50 x 300 plank, mitre a 50 x 200, or crosscut a piece of 150 mm baseboard standing vertically. It can also make you forget you’re not plugged into the mains. About R23 000
} Bosch planer Weighing in at only 3 kg with a 14 000 r/min motor and solid carbide blade, this planer leaves a smooth finish on any thing from construction lumber to a cactus. R1 699
} Stout band saw Stout’s excellent cordless band saw has a throat capacity of 60 mm and can now be attached to an accessory stand to convert to a stationary machine. R1 495
LESS ARSENAL } DeWalt table saw } Craftsman drill driver
} Ryobi lantern A 4 amp battery gets you 330 lumens of light for 48 hours. Plus, it can charge your phone through a 1 amp USB port. R507
A two speed gear box, 12 mm chuck and 21-position clutch to limit driving torque. Plus, it comes with two 19,2 volt batteries. R775
This 23 kg saw is powered by a single 60 volt bricklike lithium-ion battery. It’s a capable cutter, with a rack and pinion gear fence for impressive accuracy. The battery is backwards compatible with any of DeWalt’s 20 volt tool line. R10 499
} Bosch Jigsaw This saw can make any curved or straight cut in wood or composite, aluminium, plastic or steel. When it’s time to change that smoking hot blade, just press the lever and out it pops. R1 550
} Ryobi Bluetooth stereo Excellent sound quality and a convenient 2 amp USB port that uses the stereo’s 18 volt battery to charge your tablet or phone. R1 878
} Milwaukee grinder Cut and grind with a 115 mm wheel with a high-torque 28 volt DC motor. Overload protection and soft start also make this brute safer to use by decreasing the likelihood of kickback or stalling. R7 450
} Milwaukee drill press A magnet in the base of this Milwaukee drill gives you 907 kg of holding force – enough to grip any magnetic surface and become a drill press. The holemaking capacity of 40 mm is plenty for most jobs. About R37 000
51
4 6 1 2 5 3
This amazing interactive motorised chandelier M ichael Dubno, Inventor
My brother Mike makes a lot of crazy things in his basem*nt workshop. The latest is something he named the Tentalux – an animated chandelier with six whirling tentacles of directed light. It’s part of a new partnership called Atelier Automatik he started to custom-build interactive furniture. – D an D ubno 1 / The Tentalux weighs about 20 kgs. The arms and centre skeleton frame are welded steel, the vertebrae are aluminium and the sinews are stainless-steel cables and electric wire – in red and blue like arteries and veins. 52
2 / The Tentalux is controlled by tablet, smartphone, or computer. A recent addition allows it to be voice-controlled using the Amazon Echo (“Alexa, ask Tentalux to dance”).
3 / To orient the tentacles in a particular way, first you must position them using a smart device. That position is saved as a “pose”, which the Tentalux will then be able to re-create from memory.
4 / Five microprocessors – three to control motion, one for dimming, and one that serves as the brain, which controls the vision system.
5/ The brain is a Raspberry Pi3 running open computer vision. A camera mounted in the centre of the six tentacles allows the brain to track simple objects such as plates or centerpieces and assign the arms of the lamp to follow them with light.
6/ To limit the noise the arms make during movement, the servos were custommade using wormgear motors and Hall-effect position sensors. This also allows the arms to retain their position when the fixture is turned off.
A bike light JONATHAN BOBROW, graduate, MIT Media Lab; cofounder, Move2 8 , interact ive toy design firm, Queens, New York We sent Bobrow, a programmer and designer who invented Troxes origami building blocks, shopping with the equivalent of R1 000 and a challenge: build something. He came up with this novel bike light whose switch mounts to your handlebars. MATERIALS
TOOLS
n 3 m EL wire (red) n soldering gun n one EL wire battery pack n heat gun n two AA batteries n 3D printer n 15 m 24-gauge speaker wire n one large button n heat-shrink First make a body for your “neon sign”: a 3Dprinted block with grooves to hold the electroluminescent wire in the shape of your letters. You can design your own, or download mine at jonbobrow.com/popmech. Commercial 3D printing services shouldn’t be hard to find; some are available at maker community venues in some bigger centres. Press the EL wire into the base’s channels. Cover the parts of the wire behind the body with heat-shrink. You can also black out portions of the front this way, say, to separate words. Trim excess wire before plugging it into the battery pack. Cut a length of speaker wire to run along the frame of the bike from the handlebars to where the battery pack will sit by the seat. Solder it to the button. Open the battery pack and find the contacts for the pack’s built-in button. Solder the free ends of the speaker wire to these contacts, bypassing that button. Put heat-shrink tubing over the exposed wire to make a clean and weather-resistant connection. Use zip ties to mount the button to the handlePM bars and the sign below your seat.
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www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
smart
Living
Smart Home Alarm kit & accessories• The Yale Smart Home Alarm is secure, expandable, easy to install and controllable at anytime, anywhere through your smartphone. The kit includes a Smart hub which is the heart of the connected system, a keypad, one PIR motion detector with built-in image camera, a standard PIR and two door contacts
WIN
1 of 3
Smart Home Alarm kits with added accessories
Designed to suit modern lifestyles, the system allows you to add up to 40 devices and can be tailored to your personal requirement. Simply connect your hub to the internet and download the Yale “Home” app which is compatible with Android and iOS operating systems. Easy to install, all accessories in the kit are pre-learnt however adding devices couldn’t be simpler. Follow the visual setup prompts in the app to expand your system as required. With no monthly fees to worry about, you can take full control of your security. Arming, part arming or disarming your alarm is simple via the keypad or app. The Smart Home Alarm will also keep you informed when the alarm is triggered, armed or disarmed via email, SMS and push notifications. Competition winners will also receive as part of their prize an outdoor motion detector, a video camera PIR which enables them to take and view video footage remotely, as well as a smoke detector and panic button. How to enter: Answer the following question: How many devices can be added to the Yale Smart Home Alarm Kit?
Smart Home Alarm Kit: • 1x Smart hub • 1x Keypad • 1x PIR motion detector • 1x PIR image camera • 2x Door/window contacts
SMS the words “Yale Smart Alarm” followed by your answer, your name and e-mail address to 32697 (R1,50 per SMS)
Download the Yale Smart Home App• IOS 9.0+
*Phone not included
Android 4.4+
Plus extra accessories:
• Smart external motion detector, • Smart PIR video camera • Smart smoke detector Each value at • Panic button
R14 000.00
Make the smart choice at yalelock.co.za
COMPETITION RULES: 1. Entry is open to anyone except employees (and their immediate families) of Ramsay Media and associated agencies. 2. You may enter via SMS as many times as you like (R1,50 per SMS; this service does not allow for 8ta numbers) 3. Competition runs until 31 October 2017. 4. We will draw the winner(s) by 8 November 2017. 5. The prize is not redeemable for cash. 6. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. 7. Regrettably, only South African residents are eligible for prizes. 8. By entering this competition, you agree to receive future correspondence from Popular Mechanics. You can opt out at any stage by: (a) Sending an e-mail containing the relevant details with the subject line “opt out” to pmmailers@ ramsaymedia.co.za; or (b) Sending an SMS including the word “STOP” to 31699. Standard SMS rates apply.
The smarter way to protect your home•
(Part 2)
We’re fostering a 2012 Ford Kuga 1,6 Ecoboost Ambiente as a long-term test car to see if it’s still a good purchase and how Ford is addressing the fiery situations that have made this SUV grab the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Lindsey SChutters reports
Agostini Manetta [Addressing Pete Aron at the factory]: “What means far more to me than anything else is our good name. Our reputation represents desire for perfection of the highest quality. I gamble that reputation gladly, because I have absolute faith in every car that leaves this factory. But I will not risk it on a driver in whom I cannot have an equal faith.” Scott Stoddard: “Y’know one of the most beautiful things about a car? If it isn’t working properly, you can strip the skin off, expose the insides, find out exactly where the trouble is, take out the faulty part and replace it with a new one. If only we could do that with people.” 56
Those two quotes come from the 1966 movie Grand Prix. The film chronicles the behind-the-scenes personal drama of a fictional 1966 Formula season that climaxes at Monza. In the real-life 1966 F1 season, Ford had one car in a driver-owned team fitted with its underwhelming 406 threelitre V8. The driver’s name was Bruce and the team carried his surname: McLaren. To be fair, 1966 was a transitional year with the FIA making the jump from 1,5litre engines to three litres. This new standard hit its straps only the following year, when the mighty CosworthFord DFV-powered Lotus 49 propelled Lotus-Ford and driver Jim Clarke to second and third in the constructor and driver standings. That combination would’ve been more successful, but for reliability. The DFV achieved legendary status
through 155 wins from 262 races between 1967 and 1985. Its dominance benefited heavily from the tall, ground-effect-friendly layout and was ultimately immortalised by the very real Ford-produced documentary 9 Days in Summer which chronicles the engine development and agreements between Ford, Cosworth and Lotus. But I digress. Those words, especially those uttered by the Scott Stoddard character, could easily be coming out the mouth of Clinton Pretorious, service manager at Halfway (formerly County) Ford in Kuils River. It’s a thankless job to contact disgruntled customers and urging them to, yet again, bring their affected Kuga model in for phase two of the recall work. Those aren’t his words, though. He is as cheerful as ever, giving the white glove treatment to what he assumes is just an ordinary customer. One of his colleagues catches me poking around the freshly serviced car when I go to collect it. He frankly asks who I am. I assume that the jig is up and explain about the previous article and what the Popular Mechanics motive is. Phase two of the recall includes the fitment of an infrared (IR) sensor in the coolant resevoir, which will accurately track the liquid level and display a warning message on higher-specification (Trend and Titanium) models. On the lowly Ambiente, the engine light will come on www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
Affected Kuga owners will again receive a full account of work done, as well as a detailed explanation of the extended warranty terms.
and the car will go into so-called limp mode, which cuts power and shuts down cylinders. There’s also a new thermostat on the fluid line going to the radiator and the radiator itself now opens its cooling vents at 70˚C and not the customary 90˚C. Pretorious explains all of this to me before I drive off the workshop floor. Before he bids me farewell, I ask if he read the article. A flush spreads over his face as the other shoe drops. Turns out he wasn’t aware of who the customer was. They have a copy of the magazine in the office. Halfway head office questioned him about it. I immediately feel bad for not saying anything then. But I feel an overwhelming sense of pride. I chose Halfway Ford out of convenience; it’s the nearest Ford dealership to my house. I signed up for this story because of how much the Ford brand
means to my family. Speaking of which, the cancer has spread to my dad’s brain. We found out a couple weeks after I filed the first part of this saga. The photo I shot of him leaning on the car is the last time I can remember seeing him stand upright. He now spends his days either in bed or confined to a wheelchair, with shadows of memories of the man he used to be haunting his mind. Some days are good and we can hold a conversation, but then comes days when he’ll awaken from a short snooze and not know where he is. As a boy, I visited the Silverton factory with my father. It would take forever to eventually get the golf cart to his office, partly because manufacturing plants are
massive, mostly because he would meticulously survey every process and worker on the production line, under the guise of giving me a tour. He is a pedant in the way I can never be. Do I think that he would’ve sensed a fault and intervened at the factory level as Kugas rolled off the line in 2011? No. Not even the engineers who developed the 1,6 Ecoboost motor could’ve predicted that. Kuga is a well-appointed compact SUV and the 1,6 Ecoboost is a thrilling powerplant. My dad would’ve been a very happy owner, especially supported by the excellent dealer service at Halfway Ford Kuils River. There’s a new Kuga out now, a facelift to this one. Secondhand 2012-2014 Ecoboost models are going for a steal, though. PM
Ford aren’t new to engine problems. Early issues with reliability didn’t stop the domination through the ’70s and early ’80s Formula One seasons.
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 57
DRIVINGby ANTHONY DOMAN ([emailprotected]) Compiled
Jaguar F-Pace > nissan navara clever chassis > volvo Xc90 T8 hybrid > Toyota Fortuner gd 4x4 automatic >
Driving Jaguar F-Pace S Jaguar has perfected the art of the fast SUV. Lindsey Schutters investigates the underpinnings of that achievement
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I’m not a fan of fast SUVs because I don’t enjoy how they feel when heading through an off-camber bend. Call me a coward, but that’s just me. I also had a problem with the two-litre diesel Jaguar F-Pace because I couldn’t see any compelling reason to recommend it over Land Rover’s slightly less well screwed together Discovery Sport. Then I got behind the wheel of the three-litre supercharged V6 F-Pace S and suddenly I was intrigued. This car has all the off-road capabilities of its less muscular cousin, but is an entirely different animal on the asphalt. I found myself wanting to go faster. I started chasing the exhaust note. I wanted it to exhale a puff of tyre smoke on each corner. I was intoxicated. And like all things that give me a rush, I wanted to know why. There are faster things out there, like BMW’s X5 M, but for now let’s concern ourselves with the first legitimate lovechild between Jaguar and Land Rover. The feline influence is the first you’ll feel because the suspension design comes from the almighty F-Type and is adapted to fit the 2 874 mm wheelbase, which places most
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
OWN MONSTER TRUCK > Launches: audi q5 + RENAUL
of the weight between the axles. Up front is the famed double-wishbone and round back is a multi-link set-up that Jaguar named Intergral Link, obviously doffing a hat to the integral nature of good rear suspension on a large vehicle. To be fair, the company could have slapped new body panels and fancier leather on a Discovery Sport, but it chose to make an exceptional car instead.
Stiff lower bits Suspension is mostly made from aluminium with components forged from cast blankets into a ribbed design. Using aluminium makes the platform as light as possible while resisting corrosion. That ribbed design also contributes to the stiffness. Upper links of the rear suspension are forged aluminium; the lower arm features a hollow casting of the same material. Springs and dampers are mounted separately and precisely positioned to better deal with the dynamic forces. The aim is superior stiffness without compromising on refinement, but the pleasant side effect is a design that is space-efficient and that doesn’t intrude into the substantial – and maybe best-in-class – luggage space. Stiffness is a recurring theme. The double wishbone is notably stiffer than other designs in camber, allowing the front tyres the stability to develop more lateral force more quickly. This means you can turn in harder while carrying greater speeds
T captur + honda cr-v
The Jaguar F-Pace’s dual purpose of competent rough-roader and agile asphalt sprinter was an ambitious undertaking, but something that was ultimately achieved in S guise.
with a reduced risk of skidding. When those front suspension developments are tied to the variable steering ratio – achieved through changing the steering contact point with the variable pitch gears on the rack bar from the valleys on-centre and the peaks at lock – your driver confidence skyrockets from all the real-time responsiveness. The F-pace has by far the best steering feel among SUVs, which usually err on the side of lightness. When those clever engineering touches are pushed to the limit, torque vectoring is on-hand to distribute power through finely metered braking to the inside rear wheel when cornering and help reduce understeer. These systems specifically focus on that inside rear wheel to retain steering integrity.
Eyes on the road If you leave the driving dynamics settings in the default mode, the Adaptive Dynamics system comes into its own. The car monitors body movement 100 times a second and wheel movement 500 times a second to provide continuous variable
damping to suit the detected conditions. It must be said that this isn’t new technology at all and Jaguar has mastered passing off being late to the technology party as innovation, but the F-Pace does handle as well as they say it does. There are just a ton of tiny things, like the addition of a fifth mounting point for the steering rack and increased rotational stiffness where the subframe meets the body. The rear axle also has high lateral stiffness to help the tyres stay in contact with the road on initial turn-in; the less you have to rely on torque vectoring through the differential and the electronic stability systems, the better. Electronic nannies can make handling unpredictable. F-Pace aerodynamics resemble that of a saloon more than an SUV to improve high speed cruising. Further enhancing ride quality is the bushes, which can now be made softer than on standard multilink suspensions to absorb more energy because of the greater lateral stiffness. There’s also greater caster stiffness, which results in better body control under braking. Where the F-Pace lags behind in autonomous drive features, it more than makes up with regard to confidence-inspiring handling. That it can easily accommodate a family of four and all their luggage or shopping is a bonus. There is method to the International Car of the Year accolade and it can inspire madness behind the wheel. From R1 069 400, jaguar.co.za
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 59
DRIVING
Split decision
SUSPENSIONS
And the winner in the battle of the springs is… it depends. For the moment, comfort means coils. Simple, reliable and tough,
leaf springs have been giving us a softer ride since the middle ages. Particularly if we need to carry a heavy load as in the back of a bakkie. Which is why there’s bound to be some headscratching about any decision to ditch a design that’s proven its worth, like Nissan South Africa did with its new Navara double cab. All new local Navaras are fitted with a multi-link coilspring rear suspension. The new vehicle is, in fact, the first of its type to sport a coil-spring rear end. To add a little confusion: in time, you will be able to get your Navara with leaf springs. That’s because Nissan designed its next-generation ladder frame chassis to accommodate both coil sprung fivelink suspension on high-end 60
models and a more traditional leaf spring set-up for workhorse and mid-range pick-ups. On the double cabs, ride comfort and handling are what it’s all about, says the general manager of Nissan’s technical centre (Africa), Hirokazu Kudo. Not that you should mistake a comfortable ride for a softie approach. “With a pick-up truck, one of the key propositions is toughness,” he says. Okay. “We implemented the multilink suspension with the double cabs because of their predominantly dual use character,” says Nissan’s marketing director Kabelo Rabotho. “Comfort is important; people migrate from SUVs because of their lifestyle requirements.” Why should these people even care about the rear end design?
Comfort, stability and handling are top priorities for Nissa’s new Navara, which gets a sophisticated rear end.
The Navara double-cab set-up uses heavy-duty coil springs and shock absorbers mounted in front of the solid axle for the main damping. This places the central damping point directly above the rear axle, a double
benefit: better ride and handling characteristics as well as heavier load-handling. That translates, says Nissan, into less bobbing of the rear end, especially when unladen, rear wheels that track the front
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
A naked Navara drew admiring glances at Nampo. Shown in blue are the main components of the five-link set-up: coils, links, transverse rod and dampers.
Why coils? With coil springs and a multi-link rear, it’s a win-win, says Nissan’s Kudo. Well, mostly. 1. Improved comfort, through lower friction. “Friction is something that chassis engineers constantly try to decrease. It’s an ongoing fight.” 2. Better handling and vehicle stability. “Usually ride comfort and handling are tradeoffs. Here, you get both.” 3. Optimised performance of spring, stabiliser and damper. “This helps us achieve 1 and 2. That’s because the multi-link components focus on their own specific functions. With leaf suspension, you have to combine these many functions. It is very difficult to optimise one area of performance.” 4. Lower weight. “Weight reduction is key and contributes to better performance and fuel consumption.”
wheels more accurately – especially at speed – and less likelihood of being bounced off line by potholes and mid-corner bumps. More than one-and-a-half million test kilometres were driven to establish how the suspension interacted with the steering set-up, the wheel and tyre choice and the electronic driver aids. Engineers were able to tweak the damping rates more accurately, too,
because bobbing at the rear is controlled more directly by shock absorbers with multi-link suspension, than on a leafsprung suspension where the shocks are mounted on different sides of the rear axle. But… leaf springs have their uses. Especially for heavy loads. And leaf springs have this inherent ability to stiffen resistance as the load is increased. Oh, and besides cushioning the ride, leaf springs
hold the rear axle and wheels in position. Simple, yet effective. On coil springs alone, a vehicle would wobble uncontrollably, so additional locating arms are needed. Five-link suspension has two arms each side that essentially hold the rear axle in place for front-to-rear movement while allowing each rear wheel to move vertically independently of the other, plus a lateral link to control sideways movement. You guessed it: all of this adds complexity – and weight. Yet there’s no denying the advantage of having each component performing essentially one function. In the case of the coil suspension, the Panhard rod locates the axle; that’s all it does. The damper damps and the links keep things in position. It’s just technically a better solution. In terms of durability, coil seems to have the edge on leaf. “There is no stress concentration in the parts. With leaf springs, there is contact between leaves. This also generates some noise,” says Kudo. From a durability point of view the coil spring set-up has been proven, says the company’s senior manager for LCVs, Freddie Louw. “Our own Patrol, Toyota Land Cruiser and Land Rover Defender have been running on coil springs.” When designing in a more stable ride, one of the key characteristics engineers aim for is
lateral rigidity of the suspension. In other words, how much the tyre is displaced relative to the frame. Multi-link suspension components are rigidly mounted to eliminate sideways movement, but allow movement in a vertical plane. You can expect more neutral, more predictable cornering and less waywardness. That’s safer. If it’s such a good system, why didn’t they do it before; and why don’t the others do it? Louw takes a moment before replying. “Improvement is the way of the world,” says. “In the previous generation we were the first in the market, not necessarily to come up with new technology, but to apply certain technology. Examples: six-speed transmission, electronic transfer gear operation and McPherson strut front suspension; up to that time it was with torsion bars. “It is a matter of applying new technology to the segment. I am quite sure that, over time, we will be copied with this as well. The customers are becoming more demanding, especially for double cabs. You have to find solutions to improve ride comfort because ride is one of the big reasons why people tell us they won’t change from a passenger vehicle or an SUV.” Things will be different for single cab workhorse versions. “Single cab, looking at the customer application, is more likely to be carrying a heavy load. We will introduce these when we start local production, in the near future.”
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 61
DRIVING
The art and pitfalls of the smart SUV It’s winter on the Garden Route, the perfect time for a family of four to contemplate the convergence of technology and motoring. By L in d se y S chutters
Two-and-a-half hours of charge
for 35 km of driving range. Well, 38 km if you go downhill and are hard on the brakes. But still. That’s not a good return on investment. And remember that you need those batteries full if you use four-wheel drive. It would be ample for my work commute, mind you. Charge it overnight and again at the office. It’s a shame the provided cable is so short, though. But none of that matters now. Right now this fully laden SUV still has 200 km to go before we get home and the range says 235 km. Consumption is hovering at around 9 litres/100 km, a far cry from Volvo’s claims. The batteries are all but dead at this point, too. Completely spent on the short trip from Sedgefield to Wilderness. 62
The open road isn’t the place for a hybrid; that’s a lesson I learnt on this very same stretch of road about two years ago in a Toyota Auris hybrid. This isn’t the same kind of party, though. The battery pack in the XC90 T8 is in the centre tunnel between the front and rear seats and doesn’t encroach on boot space. It’s also a plug-in hybrid so the motor is less of an oversized alternator that robs the engine of efficiency. But it still has a full separate drivetrain to lug around that isn’t being helped by a stiff headwind as the last breath of a snowstorm blows up the Garden Route. I didn’t always have my doubts about this formidable car. I’m still a believer in the Volvo formula of two-litre, four cylinder engines in all of its cars. The XC90 T8 has the T6’s turbo- and supercharged petrol engine good for 249 kW and 440 N.m, with the electric motor contributing a further 65 kW and 240 N.m. If the Polestar badge on the back wasn’t enough warning then the urgent shove in the backside when I fully open the throttle reminds me of the power that lurks beneath the family-friendly exterior.
Power with responsibility Keeping the car on the road while I’m making full use of the available power is an array of tech that now includes a midcorner gear hold function. It seems silly, but that feature is literally there to stop any mid-corner gear changes that can unsettle the car. A microscopic component of the larger autonomous system that culminates, bear with me here, in the Drive Me autonomous car solution that is currently undergoing testing in the Swedish car maker’s hometown of Gothenberg. And that’s where the conceit of this Polestar XC90, which is pretty much driving itself back to Cape Town, starts to fall apart. On the one hand you have one of the most advanced self-driving cars on South African roads that its creators are using as a pet project to show off both the dynamic potential of the dual drivetrain and the company’s safety advancements. To be clear: I back a Volvo-branded horse in the race to eliminating road deaths, especially after the company stated that it accepts full liability for the safety of its autonomous systems. That was in www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
reference to the Autonomous Drive Level 4 cars in the Drive Me pilot programme and in response to how Tesla handled the tragic fatality in early 2016. Back in Autonomous Drive Level 2 country where there is only adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist working in tandem, I can comment on the quality of the Pilot Assist system. The end 2016 software update that liberated Pilot Assist to operate up to 135 km/h and without a car ahead seemed a bit wary of tight bends when I tested it in the S90, but it operated well on the way to Knysna and repeats that performance on the way back. Yes, Audi and Mercedes-Benz are bringing Level 3 cars to market, but I’m hesitant to outsource overtaking manoeuvres to a computer when South African drivers are as unpredictable as a wild animal.
Cabin fever In the cabin the 9,5-inch Sensus touchscreen interface still dominates the dashboard. Seven luxury leather seats are comfortable; my wife and I make full use of the first row massage functions. I enjoy live-recorded albums on road trips and set
the ills of the world. We were stuck in roadblock traffic coming into Swellendam, a nightmare scenario for parents of two small children who had just woken up from a nap and were eager to stretch their legs at the promised surprise location. With the XC90 negotiating the stop/start driving bit, I was free to concentrate on solutions to the unhappy children problem. Is the 8,7 litres/100 km fuel consumption the car averaged over the round trip ideal for mostly highway cruising? No. I could’ve shaved almost two litres off that figure in the D5 diesel model and still had access to 99 per cent of the same features. I know that the drive to work the day after we got back was purely on electric power and that trip figure is a lot better than a Range Rover Sport would do and you lose the autonomous We still stand features with that. by our assesWe are yet to gaze upon ment of the the mountaintop of hyper XC90 as the efficiency and 100 per cent pick of the autonomy, but cars like million rand the Volvo XC90 are the luxury SUVs sherpas that lighten the if you’re not load and guide the way. going off My eldest is six and she road. Just not isn’t impressed any more the hybrid, yet. when I let technology take the wheel. To her it's normal. She even says she doesn’t want to drive when she grows up. She also takes plugging a car into the mains in her stride, only questioning why we still need to stop at the fuel station when we already charged at home. As we quietly cruise through the charred remains of the Knysna forest I reflect on the past. Our insatiable need to strip resources from the Earth is partly to blame for the devastation. The the Bowers and Wilkins audio system to invasive pines that fuelled the inferno are a its Gothenberg Concert Hall acousticshangover of a simpler time when there replicating setting after asking Google to wasn’t much planning for the future. We play Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged album. walked with some of the last remaining Later on, while my family is asleep, I focus elephants, their fallen ancestors victims of the audio on the driver seat and clear their intersection with human expansion. some backlog from my podcast queue. Maybe bad fuel economy from the infantile This is what you pay your R1 million state of hybrid technology isn’t that bad. for: the effortless mile-munching with all It’s just tax that this generation is paying the safety systems working together to to reverse the damage. You know, the sins lull you into a true sense of security. You of the father… But none of that matters buy a luxury family carrier for the peace now. It’s all about getting the next generaof mind that your loved ones have been tion home safely. given the absolute best protection against
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 63
DRIVING
TOYOTA FORTUNER GD-6 4x4 AUTOMATIC This one favours the bold
Toyota has learnt not to mess with a winning formula. In the case of the bestselling Fortuner, familiarity breeds… admiration. This is probably self-evident, but let’s say it anyway: if Toyota’s legend-
ary Fortuner were a dog, you would have heard about it by now. Still with canine analogies: if you don’t shortlist the Fortuner when shopping for an SUV, insist the faithful, you’re barking mad. Leaving aside peace of mind and near-fanatical loyalty, it’s worth knowing that Toyota has sold nearly 18 000 current-generation Fortuners, of which our test vehicle, the 2.8 GD-6 4x4 Automatic (R624100) accounts for 3 946 sales (correct at the time of writing). By anyone’s measure, this makes it very successful indeed. Why would you choose this 7-seater over, say, a Pajero Sport, Ford Everest or Land Rover Discovery, all of which deserve your attention? Evidence suggests the answer lies in a heady mix of versatility, affordability, off-road capability, perceived reliability and that deliciously illogical factor we call emotion. All these vehicles are impressive, and a couple are arguably more stylish, but hey, only one of them is a Toyota.
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JUST THE FACTS ENGINE: 2.8-litre, 4-cylinder turbodiesel TRANSMISSION: 6-speed automatic POWER: 130 kW at 3400 r/min TORQUE: 450 N.m between 1600 and 2400 r/min GROUND CLEARANCE: Ramp angle: 29 degrees Ground clearance: 279 mm TOP SPEED: 180 km/h ECONOMY: 9,2 litres/100 km (8,5 litres claimed) PRICE: R624100
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
With room for big families (and big objects) plus a generous list of creature comforts, the Fortuner is a long-standing favourite.
We covered over 1000 km during our week with the Fortuner, giving us plenty of time to explore its features and capabilities and we liked it very much. It works for family holidays, weekend getaways, off-road adventures and just about any other application you can imagine, with the possible exception of a daily commute; unless, of course, your workplace is somewhere remote and rugged. How different is it from the previous model? Not very. It’s longer, wider and a little more refined, with all the features that elevated its predecessor to recordsetting sales levels, but that aside, it’s reassuringly familiar and therein, we suspect, lies its appeal. Powered by Toyota’s new-generation 2,8-litre 4-cylinder turbodiesel, the Fortuner is a pleasure to drive at highway speeds, when the powerplant barely raises a sweat and the 6-speed auto transmission shifts cogs with nary a hiccup. Even in “Eco” mode, it delivers enough grunt to permit overtaking without noise or drama. The paddles on the steering column are a nice if somewhat puzzling touch: you can press the downshift paddle a couple of times if you’re in a hurry, but the response is so leisurely that you might as well use
your right foot. In “Sport” mode, of course, everything becomes more vigorous, but at the expense of economy. As spacious and economical family transporters go, the Fortuner does rather well. Our Garden Route adventure occurred mostly on tar, with a couple of short forays into the rough stuff, but with the 80-litre fuel tank filled to the brim and our inner hooligan reined in, we covered over 850 km before chickening out and pulling over for a refill. That’s with four people on board and the rear compartment packed to the rafters with suitcases, bedding, cooler boxes, booze and other essentials. Standard features include a diff-lock, hill descent control, a very efficient aircon with separate rear-seat adjustment, seven airbags, cruise control, electric driver’s seat adjustment, cup holders where you need them, a double glove compartment (part of which is cooled by the aircon), lots of storage space, and enough rearseat legroom to keep everyone happy. The middle-seat row can slide, which helps. Although the GD-6 4x4 Auto features a good-sized infotainment touchscreen and an extremely useful reversing camera (a boon when exiting a parking space with the rear view blocked by luggage), we found the absence of integrated satnav and a remote tailgate opener a bit weird. These features are included with the flag-
ship V6, but then again, that derivative sells for R670500. For the record, this is a proper off-roader. Simply by pressing a button, you can venture just about anywhere and be reasonably certain of arriving without incident. We took the Fortuner into deep sand and deliciously gooey mud, climbed mildly intimidating gradients and explored a few places not designed for SUVs (or any other vehicle, for that matter). When we returned it to Toyota a week later, it was in perfect nick and they had to prise the ignition key from our vice-like grip. Put simply, the Fortuner works. – Al an Duggan
Off the charts
Every eighth Toyota sold in May 2017 (we picked the month at random) was a Fortuner. The big SUV ranked as topseller in its category and more is to come, according to Calvyn Hamman, senior vice president for sales and marketing. “The buyer trend favouring the ride height, interior space, comfort and style of SUVs at the expense of traditional passenger cars appears unstoppable,” he says. He also cited the brand’s “rock-solid reputation” of quality, reliability and resale value, which he described as vitally important in these economically testing times.
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 65
DRIVING
Range Rover Evoque Convertible The one that I want Those of us fortunate to be in motoring media hardly ever have enough money to afford the cars we drive, but most know exactly what they would spend lottery millions on. The garage is usually three cars strong. A practical daily driver, a tool for your favoured leisure activity (race car or 4x4) and the so-called Sunday car meant for pointing at mountain passes and impressing the neighbours. Because I have a wife who works on a farm and has a penchant for large vehicles with load bays, I don’t count a double cab in that equation. It’s a standard requirement. This, however, is the first Range Rover ever to make my list, and it falls somewhere between a Sunday car and a daily driver. It was a Friday, not a Sunday, when I realised how special this car can make you feel. We were heading to the Spur at my daughter’s request on her birthday. We also had on board my mother-inlaw, who first spotted the gentleman in the Range Rover Sport Supercharged giving us the thumbs-up. Bear in mind that the Evoque was launched in 2012 and is as common as vineyards in the Stellenbosch winelands. But still, in its sizzling Phoenix Orange and 66
chock full of my family, the convertible variant stirs up emotions. While it’s hardly as practical as a full-sized, seven-seat Range Rover, there is enough boot space for the week’s groceries and room in the back for child car seats. Even Isofix anchor points. And it’s still a Range Rover with enough – barely – ground clearance to clear small boulders or hop even the tallest of suburban kerbs. Four wheels are constantly driven and there’s the terrific Land Rover Terrain Response system for when the going gets really tough. I used to berate the Evoque for killing off the stellar Freelander 2. It is essentially that same car with some extra trimmings on
the top and a higher list price, but at least this version feels like something unique. In convertible guise, Land Rover has finally managed to give the Evoque an identity to go alongside its premium leather-clad interior. My children begged for the roof down on every trip. Strangers come up to comment on the car. Other road users wish they were you. If I were spending a million rand on a compact SUV, I want to feel like I spent a million rand on it and this car delivers that feeling in spades. It moves, too, with Mini-like agility thanks to that wheel-in-every-corner layout. The two-litre, four cylinder turbo-petrol Ingenium engine’s 177 kW and 400 N.m is good for 0-100 km/h sprints in as little as 8,1 seconds. There’s some body roll, but that stiffer shell keeps things tight in the twisties. Not bad, Land Rover, not bad. Even on a tech level the adaptive cruise control and self-parking features bring it in line with the modern competition. Now let’s talk about that horrible infotainment interface… It’s about time you just adopt Apple Carplay and Android Auto. From R987 800, landrover.co.za – L in d se y S chutters www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
Your Own Monster Truck Three things make any truck a monster: taller suspension, bigger tyres, and a meaner motor.
Lift it up
Fit new tyres
Upgrade your engine
For beginners looking for a quick lift, install a levelling kit. Some trucks come with a higher rear end (a factory setting to accommodate heavy loads), so a levelling kit raises the front end by adding spacers to the suspension. Kane used a kit from ReadyLIFT to add 7,5 centimetres to his 2012 Silverado. For more, you’ll need a complete suspension upgrade. That typically means replacing the front coils and adding a pair of rear leaf springs.
Tyre size depends on both lift and your fender shape. Lift kits specific to your truck should tell you how big you can go. Larger tyres also gear down your truck, giving it better fuel economy, but slowing acceleration (the engine does more work for every wheel rotation). For a big jump in wheel size, install a rear axle with a higher ratio. Kane swapped his vehicle’s 1:3.75 axle for a 1:4.88 to accommodate 37-inch tyres.
Kane is overhauling a Chevrolet 5,3-litre LS he pulled out of a donor for his own vehicle, a Suburban, and recommends the engines for anyone working on a GM. “The LS family is cheap and bulletproof,” he says. He’s targeting roughly 520 horsepower with his build, but for novices, 300 is a reasonable goal. A new cam, fuel-injection kit and turbo all boost your engine power. Just be sure to upgrade the head gasket and head studs to contain it.
M or g a n K a ne , driver, mechanic, Grave Digger
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 67
DRIVING
report
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AUDI Q5 Quattro permanent all-wheel drive has underpinned Audi’s drivetrain tech, so it’s interesting to see a change in emphasis with the latest generation of the brand’s popular Q5 SUV. As part of what is overall an evolutionary update, the Q5 gets “quattro on demand” as standard across the range. Effectively, in normal driving the Q5 defaults to more efficient front-wheel drive. Drive goes to the rear axle only on demand, up to 100 per cent if needed. This smart system permanently monitors the route, driver and driving status and is able to act predictively, if needed. It uses 150 sensors delivering data 100 times a second to allow it to calculate the needed intervention about half a second in advance. Audi says it needs only 200 milliseconds to fully activate quattro. Parameters monitored range from road friction coefficient to wheel rotation speed, engine torque, steering angle, accelerator position, road slope and driving style. Audi’s drive select system provides up to seven driving modes, including off-road. Chassis options available on the new Q5 include adaptive air suspension with five-position ride height. Class-leading efficiency highlights include a drag factor of 3,0 (four-cylinder models), auto transmission freewheel function and thrifty two-litre turbocharged engines: a 140 kW/400 N.m diesel and a 185 kW/ 370 N.m petrol. The diesel gets 4,9 litres/ 100 km yet storms from standstill to 100 km/h in 7,9 seconds. Price: from R698 000
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RENAULT CAPTUR Only two years after its launch to the local market, Renault has updated its Captur with what it says is stronger design, a more intuitive drive and more diverse engines to meet consumer needs. Externally the makeover includes new bodywork, lights and wheels. Similar cosmetic updates are visible on the inside – such as new multipurpose central storage options plus front central armrest – though what’s not immediately evident is more supportive seats. The Captur has enjoyed a comprehensive standard-fit list of convenience features to keep occupants informed, entertained and in control, but added to that now is Renault’s R&Go® application, available from entry level in the new Blaze derivative. This customisable interface is a smartphone/tablet multifunction application that adds innovative functionality such as remote control and incorporates a dedicated cradle for a smartphone or tablet. Automatic transmissions seem to be hitting the spot and Renault has recognised this with the availability of either manual or its electronic EDC (efficient dual clutch) automatic on its top 88 kW 1,2-litre fourcylinder petrol model. Other engine options are the three-cylinder 66 kW petrol and 66 kW 1,5 diesel four-cylinder that’s said to yield a class-leading 3,6 litres/100 km. Helping the Captur to a top 5-Star Euro NCAP are ABS brakes with EBA, electronic stability program (ESP), front airbags and head/chest side bags. Price: from R229 900
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HONDA CR-V More space, that’s how you’re going to capture the families in 2017: give them more room to expand. But how else do you improve on the world’s bestselling SUV? More than nine million units in 150 countries is no small feat. And that space in reality translates into a 65 mm increase in second-row knee clearance. The pick of the line-up is by far the 1,5-litre V-Tec Turbo, which is good for 140 kW and 240 N.m. Honda also made some adjustments to the all-wheel-drive system, which sees 10 per cent more power heading to the rear wheels. Further enhancements come via dual pinion electronic power steering and an innovative floating subframe. Fluid-filled bushes and a frequency response damper that adjusts for rate as well as stroke keep the drive very smooth. Staying competitive in a now very crowded market comes down to minor differences and using 780 grade high tensile material in 28 per cent of the vehicle body will add enough rigidity to the body and keep the drive exciting. The company is leading the way with standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, which adds more weight to the company’s “most advanced compact SUV” claim. All new Hondas come with a 5-year/ 200 000 km warranty and the CR-V is no different. Two engine variants fill out the range with the naturally aspirated twolitre bringing forgettable performance to the table. Price: from R422 900
PM
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
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HOW TO MAKE
BY KE VIN DUPZ YK PHOTOGR APHS BY GREG MILLER
The inside of the wet hot cell at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where scientists use nitric acid and columns of silica glass to remove dangerously radioactive material that accrues in neptunium – plutonium’s precursor – during shipping from Idaho National Laboratory.
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www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
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Pu Plutonium (244)
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za
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THE STRANGEST PRODUCT catalogue
on Earth belongs to the USA’s Isotope Business Office, which manages the sale of atomic isotopes produced at Department of Energy labs around the country. It’s got your calcium, platinum and titanium. Your ytterbium, your strontium-90, and of course uranium-235 and plutonium-239 (responsible for Hiroshima and Nagasaki). In this catalogue, plutonium-238 is the only-on-one-model-year carburettor from the old car you’ve somehow kept running: useful, unique and discontinued. And the old car is a spacecraft: NASA missions bound beyond the influence of the Sun, where solar power isn’t an option, use radioisotope power systems (RPS) to create electricity from the heat of atomic decay. RPS that use 4,8 kilograms of fuel have powered experiments on the Moon and Mars and launched golden records etched with the essence of human civilisation to the edge of the solar system. They run only on plutonium-238, which is (relatively) cheap, has a suitable half-life, and gets plenty hot. But it was a by-product of Cold War-era nuclear weapon factories, now decommissioned, and by the 2010s there were fewer than ten RPS’ worth remaining for NASA to use. So scientists lobbied the US energy department to start making it again. Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory produced a 50-gram sample in late 2015 – the first since 1988. This year, having refined the process, the lab expects 300 grams. The goal? 1,5 kilograms per year.
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The water that cools and helps stabilise the HFIR glows blue because of Cherenkov radiation; the result of excited electrons moving through water faster than light.
1 RECEIVE NEPTUNIUM-237
2 ELIMINATE PROTACTINIUM
3 CREATE TARGETS
The precursor to plutonium-238 is neptunium-237, a radioactive by-product of nuclear power plants. Oak Ridge gets its neptunium trucked in from Idaho National Laboratory in a powdery form called oxide. When it arrives, it’s deposited via a dumbwaiterlike system in a shielded room called a hot cell. Some of the neptunium oxide will have already decayed into a more dangerous radioactive material called protactinium, so small quantities are moved into a separate hot cell plumbed for radioactive liquids, where scientists can do the chemistry needed to remove it.
Watching through a oneand-a-half-metre-thick lead window, scientists use manipulators – grabber arms controlled from the outside – to pour the powdered neptunium into a beaker, add nitric acid and cook it until it has dissolved and the solution takes on a dark green colour. Then the liquid is poured through a column of silica glass beads, whose surface attracts protactinium. The remaining liquid is moved to a glove box.
In the glove box, the neptunium is processed with a technique invented at Oak Ridge called modified direct denitration. The liquid solution is rotated in a heated kiln until it sifts out, again in a powdered oxide form. This powder is mixed with powdered aluminium and pressed into pellets the size of a 15 mm socket, which are loaded into aluminium rods, targets for Oak Ridge’s experimental high flux isotope reactor (HFIR).
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
Oak Ridge staff in front of the lead window and manipulators that allow them to work with the radioactive materials inside a shielded hot cell.
Less radioactive steps in the manufacturing process happen in a glove box, which is slightly less intimidating than a hot cell. Here, pouring recycled neptunium.
4 IRRADIATE NEPTUNIUM
5 EXTRACT TARGETS
6 SEPARATE PLUTONIUM
7 SEND TO LOS ALAMOS
The HFIR offers much higher flux (the rate at which targets are bombarded with neutrons) than the reactor of a nuclear power plant. Once target rods are loaded into the reactor, they’re bombarded for a period of three to twelve months. As neutrons collide with the targets, some of them are absorbed by neptunium atoms. That creates a new neptunium isotope, neptunium-238, which radioactively decays into plutonium.
When irradiation is complete, the targets go back into a hot cell. The rods are dissolved with a caustic solution and the radioactive material inside, now 12 to 14 per cent plutonium-238, is again dissolved in nitric acid.
A process called solvent extraction isolates the plutonium and neptunium: solvents are added to the solution that dissolve only those elements. Then scientists induce the solution to separate, like oil and water, so that they can remove the solvent that’s bound to them. At this point, neptunium is separated and can be passed through the cycle again. The plutonium is purified through a process called ion exchange, which Oak Ridge is still refining a key step to reaching the 1,5-kilogram per year delivery goal.
Fully refined, the plutonium powder is packed into stainless-steel canisters designed for transporting radioactive materials. It’s shipped to Los Alamos National Laboratory, where it’s turned into fuel capsules for RPS, then to Idaho National Laboratory, right back where it started as neptunium, where the RPS are built.
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 73
PHOTOGRAPHS BY FREDRIK BRODEN
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www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
Don Greer and his wife, Helen, hid in a tornado shelter. Only he survived. Now, a team of engineers has committed to doing the impossible: building a structure that’s stronger and smarter than the merciless, random powers of Nature itself.
BY BRANTLEY HARGROVE
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 75
At a little before 7:30 on the evening of 27 April, 2014, Helen Greer looks out through the screened-in back porch towards the river. “Don,” she says, “don’t you think you should come look at this?” Her husband of 41 years appears at her side and looks to the south. From this spot at the northern edge of the small River Plantation subdivision, near Mayflower, Arkansas, he can see the homes of his neighbours and beyond, the cone of Pinnacle Mountain rising above the pine and hickory woods along the banks of the Arkansas River. It is the way the clouds are moving that is upsetting Helen. She asks Don, “Don’t you think we should go to the safe room?” Don squints at the sky above the treetops and the low ridgeline and sees no reason for panic. “Just a bunch of clouds moving around out there,” he says. The wind moans and the trees in the yard toss. It happens a lot this time of year. Don is a builder by trade and has overseen the construction of many of the houses in the neighbourhood – a mix of modest single-storey wood-frame and brick homes, along with a few McMan-sions closer to the river. Their son, Donnie, lives next door, and their grandson plays in a yard just metres from their own. Helen spends hours tending her rose garden and when the bushes are in bloom it’s the pride of their quiet block. During the day, purple martins fly in and out of the birdhouse in the backyard. At night, Don and Helen often pass the time on the back porch, where her two schnauzers snore in her lap. They watch fireflies flickering in the woods and listen to the coyotes hollering up and down the train tracks. Sitting out there, at 80 years of age, Don feels like he’s done pretty well in this life. On this night, the lightning keeps getting closer, louder. The schnauzers have run off some place, hiding. Don scans the darkening sky in the southwest – like night is coming on. But all he can see out there is rain falling in deep-grey curtains over the river. This isn’t the first time the weather has kicked up like this. Almost three years ago to the day, Don had watched from the lee of his house as a storm swept over the valley, and a barrel-shaped tornado howled up Palarm Creek. Though it came within a kilometre or so of their home that day, it never got so bad that they needed to use the tornado shelter in the corner of the house – what Helen calls the safe room. Don finds the dogs beneath the couch. They won’t come out. Gusts roar out of the pines in the north, rushing past the house toward the river. Helen heads for the shelter. Don still isn’t worried, so he leaves the dogs and follows his wife as much for her peace of mind as anything else. He enters the bedroom and steps into the 2,4-metre-square shelter that also serves as their walk-in closet and gun safe. He shuts the door behind him, and though the events that follow remain fragmented in
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his mind, he is certain he has locked the three deadbolts. He never sees the tornado, but within seconds he hears it, like sand hissing against steel. The door begins to groan and flex back and forth on the hinges and deadbolts. The staccato of heavy objects striking the shelter is deafening, like being fired upon by a machine gun loaded with bricks. Don throws himself against the door and pushes with everything he has. Helen is a small woman, but she too finds her strength, and she stands between her husband’s arms to help him brace against the wind outside. thousand kilometres to the west, a man named Larry Tanner has spent nearly two decades studying the kind of wind that is screaming through Mayflower and how to defend against it. He runs the laboratory at the National Wind Institute, a Texas Tech research centre that serves as a hub for the study of everything from wind energy to wind-hazard mitigation. Housed in In 41 years of marriage, Helen (left in 2004) and Don (below, photographed on the site of his former home) had already survived one close call with a tornado.
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
a hangar at what used to be Reese Air Force Base, on the outskirts of Lubbock, Texas, it contains a massive, two-storey vortex simulator; a wind tunnel capable of generating a sustained gale of up to 175 kilometres per hour; and, in a far corner, the Debris Impact Facility. Tanner has a ruddy face, a thick, west-Texas drawl and a shock of cotton-coloured hair. He is an architectural engineer, a student of catastrophic tornadic events, and the world’s foremost expert in tornado shelters. Three years after the Mayflower storm, Tanner stands behind a protective wall of clear Lexan panelling, reading from a clipboard in the officious monotone of a man about dull work. Some of what he says is a recitation of Federal Emergency Government Agency (FEMA) codes, but the gist is, he’s about to propel a seven-kilogram projectile 160 kilometres per hour at an above ground steel-panel tornado shelter to simulate the debris impacts generated by a tornado packing 400-kilometre-per-hour winds. With the record satisfactorily established for the video cam-
wife is gone. He pushes himself up on to his feet and tries to pull on the door, but its steel cladding is so badly warped that he can barely get it to budge. He fumbles for his phone and calls Donnie. “Are you okay?” Don says. “We’re all fine,” Donnie says. “Get your butt over here. Your mom is hurt. I’m hurt, too.” Soon, Donnie emerges from his own shelter. Don has the door cracked open now, and he can see his son running through the debris towards him. Donnie pushes against the door while Don pulls, and it moves just enough to allow Don to squeeze through. Donnie finds his mother inside the reinforced box, the only piece of the house still standing. Don has a gash on his scalp down to the skull, and another under his left arm, exposing ribs. One of his lungs is punctured. His left wrist is broken and his left thumb is laid open with a deep gash. With the help of his son, Don staggers into the drifts of brick and lumber that cover his own foundation, where even
Don thought his door was struck by a refrigerator. There were several in the yard, none his. But the engineers aren’t so sure.
era, Tanner steps from behind the screen to another, safer enclosure even further back, because the debris cannon is online. Known as the potato gun on steroids, the cannon draws on both atmospheric science and applied engineering. Its howitzer-like barrel is six metres long, 10 centimetres wide, and is attached to a 114-litre compressed-air tank. Where the two meet, a butterfly valve is capable of draining the entire contents of the tank within several thousandths of a second. No gunpowder. No explosives. Just the force of air. The steel-panel shelter – the victim of today’s testing – sits five and a half metres from the muzzle. As ammunition, Tanner will use the most common missile found swirling within high-end twisters: a 50 x 100 wooden beam. His assistant and cannoneer, Tanner Pletcher, a Texas Tech senior studying civil engineering, shoves the plank down the barrel and rams it home with a makeshift plunger. He steps behind the control panel and begins punching keys on a laptop. “Arming”, he shouts. A pneumatic rushing issues from the tank as it pressurises. The cannon’s green laser sight paints the middle of the shelter’s 113-kilogram steel door, right at one of its slide bolts. A klaxon sounds three times, resounding through the hangar. “Clear”, Pletcher yells. “Three… two… one… ” on and Helen Greer’s tiny shelter is shattered by a sound like an explosion that snaps off of the bare concrete walls and the hollow steel of the door. After that, Don’s memory briefly goes dark. He regains consciousness on the floor, and feels a terrible pain in his left wrist. He finds a torch, but it’s difficult to turn on; something is wrong with his thumb. He finally gets it to work, and he points the beam at Helen, who is lying next to him at the back of the shelter. Her hands are folded beneath her head. She seems to look up at him, but her eyes are coated in a film of cellulose insulation. He shakes her because she won’t speak and then Don realises that his
the tile and the vinyl have been scoured away. In the early evening dusk beneath the storm, the tornado bears away to the northeast, towards Vilonia. He stares out over River Plantation. His house is gone. His son’s house is gone. Where his neighbour’s homes stood a few moments ago is a trail of shattered lumber and shredded insulation leading to the river. His wife is gone. It will take two hours before an ambulance can make its way through the trashed streets to the place where 115 Plantation Road once stood. “Check on your mother,” Don keeps telling his son. ind is as formidable a natural force as the oceans and volcanoes, but it presents a unique problem: wind is invisible. Still, the Debris Impact Facility forges ahead with a singular mission: to protect people from it. More specifically, to protect people from things the wind blows. It sounds like an impossible thing to achieve. Wind is too random and too big. But they try, and they try again, and with each blast of that standard wooden beam against a steel door or prefabricated shelter, all brought voluntarily to Tanner’s lab for testing by their manufacturers, they get a little closer. The list of truly safe shelters grows a little longer. After Pletcher counts down to one, there is a great exhalation of air, a puff of white gas from the muzzle, and the plank hurtles towards the door like a javelin, covering the five and a half metres in 124 milliseconds. The board strikes near the middle slide bolt with a hollow, metallic concussion like thunder and is repelled. Waves transmit through the steel wall panels. The shock wave dislodges the outer door handle, which is sent skipping across the concrete floor. Tanner, Pletcher and the group of undergraduate students observing behind their own barrier emerge and gather around the door. They note a rectangular impression in the steel plate left by the butt of the plank.
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 77
Several students measure the depth of the indentation with a ruler. Others enter the shelter’s dim interior through an escape hatch to gauge the condition of its 25 mm steel slide bolts. The door’s reinforced frame is visibly warped. Some of the bolts fastening its cross members are loose. But the slide bolts are still retractable and holding fast. That’s a good sign. For the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, Tanner will repeatedly attempt to spear this shelter with a well-stocked supply of planks. He’ll hit the handle assembly, the hinges, the air vents, and the steel side-panelling, a wooden pipe clenched in his teeth. By now, he can often see a structure’s vulnerable spots before the cannon is loaded. He knows, for example, that if he targets the upper corner of the shelter wall, there is less space for the impact’s energy to disperse. The corners are wellknown failure sweet spots, and Tanner pounds them relentlessly. If he hits a box’s weakest points and they hold, the shelter should survive even the worst-case scenario. And if the shelter doesn’t pass his test, its failure provides lessons for how to build a stronger one. Because if Tanner doesn’t locate and exploit the weak links, a tornado most certainly will.
Above: The EF-4 tornado left a 65-kilometre trail of destruction. Right: The Greers’ storm door, which cost R10 000, was probably struck by a piece of airborne plywood roof decking.
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on built the storm shelter himself. Before he had even started framing the house, while the concrete slab was still setting, he plunged heavygauge rebar down into the cement, bent at the bottom to add support. He welded rebar to the anchors and threaded them through stacks of concrete blocks, forming a small box, with cement pumped down into the hollows. He bent the rebar skeleton over the top and lined the ceiling with concrete as well. The steel door to their safe room had set him back the equivalent of nearly R10 000. Now, in the Baptist Health Medical Centre in Little Rock the day after the storm, Don struggles to understand how his shelter failed. We had a third of a metre of concrete over us, he thinks. Solid concrete walls with rebar. But as he thinks about it, he knows it wasn’t the concrete that failed him and Helen. It was the door. The one that he had bought. He remembers asking a man at the builder’s supply for a storm door, and that was what he gave him. In Mayflower, surveyors from the National Weather Service are combing through the path, estimating the wind speeds that caused the damage. They will assign the tornado a number on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which assesses wind velocities based on varying degrees of destruction, from the light damage of an EF-0, where winds top out at 135 kilometres per hour, to an EF-5, the most violent classification, where winds exceed 320 kilometres per hour. The surveyors identify this one as a killer EF-4, which they now know has claimed 16 lives, including Helen Greer’s. Amid the flattened forests and River Plantation, where houses seem almost to have been smeared over the low hills, one detail stands out: Don’s shelter, and the fatality they’re told is associated with its failure. Tim Marshall, a meteorologist and civil engineer who often consults with the US National Weather Service, is one of those conducting the survey. He sends a photograph of the door to his friend Larry Tanner at the Debris Impact Facility. Tanner calls Ernst Kiesling, an engineering professor at Texas Tech and the executive director of the National Storm Shelter Association, a collective of manufacturers that issues construction standards for tornado shelters. “I know good and well that’s not a tornado door,” Tanner tells him. “I want to do a forensic autopsy on it.” Shortly before Don is due to be discharged from Baptist in early May, his son receives a letter. It’s from Mike Vaughn, the president of the NSSA. He expresses his condolences, and asks if Don will allow the association to take the door for further study. From his hospital bed, Don gives the okay. A month later, an NSSA member from Tulsa, Oklahoma, travels to River Plantation, retrieves the door and its frame from the ruins of Don’s home and drives it to Lubbock. Tanner’s laboratory is in Lubbock, but it’s also always been out there, in the scars left behind by storms. Before the cleanup begins in earnest, he’ll sift through what remains, like a homicide detective. More often than he’d like, he finds safe rooms that would have failed his tests: a shelter whose walls had been punctured by steel debris, shelter doors with locking and hinge assemblies that he knows would not withstand a direct hit, hurricane doors that might work in Miami, but were simply not designed to repel the projectiles of an EF-4 or EF-5 tornado. The trouble is, unless a residential tornado shelter is built with US federal government money, there are no regulations. The first primitive standards weren’t developed until 2001, when FEMA launched a shelter incentive programme after an EF-5 ploughed through the Oklahoma City suburbs in 1999.
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The Debris Impact Facility’s pneumatic cannon is laser-guided and hurls projectiles – typically 50 x 100 mm beams – at simulated wind speeds as high as 400 km/h. The cap on the end of the plank helps it be propelled by the full force of the air.
There’s no way for Tanner to know how many faulty shelters are out there giving diligent, well-intentioned people like the Greers a false sense of security. All he can do is keep testing. At first, some home builders saw the programme as another revenue stream, but there were restrictions: to qualify for programme funds, the shelters had to have an engineer’s seal of approval, and they had to be tested at Texas Tech. “There were a lot of mom-and-pop operations, and what they brought in for testing was almost comical,” recalls Kiesling. “They had no idea what it takes to stop that missile travelling a hundred miles per hour. And the question arose: ‘What can we do about this?’ There were no standards. So, in 2001 the NSSA was formed.” Starting the NSSA helped, but it didn’t solve the problem. Many shelters are built without federal grants by contractors with no connection to, or even knowledge of, the NSSA and its standards. Exactly how many are out there can’t be known. They won’t show up on any FEMA or NSSA database. There is no enforcement mechanism to ensure they will follow the structural formula researchers such as Tanner have perfected. Don was convinced that his door had been struck by a refrigerator. There were several in the front yard, none of them his. But Tanner isn’t so sure. Judging by the narrow rectangular crease in the steel he suspects it was a stray sheet of plywood roof decking. Today, 30 June, 2014 – two months since the tornado struck – they’ll find out. Some of the most prominent wind engineers and shelter manufacturers in the world have gathered at the Debris Impact Facility to observe. The mood in the lab is funereal. Using a circular saw, Tanner’s assistants dissect Don’s door. Inside, they find a honeycombed cardboard stiffening encased in 18-gauge steel. It’s a fine door, just not in a tornado. The object struck right across the centre, between the residential-grade latch and deadbolt, destroying both. The steel cladding deflected inward. That’s most likely what ended Helen Greer’s life.
on Greer steers his pick-up down a neighbourhood street along the Arkansas River, looking toward Pinnacle Mountain to the south. He points at an empty foundation along the riverside and another across the street. These homes would have been the first to go as the tornado came ashore. He pulls on to the next street, and marks the tornado’s progress, slab by empty slab. Some of the houses have been rebuilt, some haven’t. It’s been nearly three years since he lost everything. He has a new, much smaller house now. It’s connected by a breezeway to his son’s new house. They settled on a site deep in the piney hills near Conway, 15 kilometres from River Plantation. Though little was salvageable after the tornado, neighbours and his family did manage to recover a few pictures of Helen. They also located her schnauzers two days after the storm – rattled, but alive, beneath the debris. Don wears a hairpiece to cover the scar arcing across his scalp. He’s missing a chunk of lung. He visits Helen’s grave often, and has installed a granite bench next to it so he can rest his legs. Don turns left on Plantation Drive before coming to a stop at an empty lot. The lawn that Helen kept neat and trimmed is now overgrown. Her rose bushes are gone. The foundation was busted up and hauled off long ago, but there are still a few shards of lumber, swatches of insulation, and a three-metre section of an oak tree – its upturned ball of roots the size of a dumpster. He thinks about what he might have done differently. He wishes he had installed a better door, or at the very least built the shelter with the door facing any direction but south. He wishes he’d put her in the corner when the house was coming down around them. That’s what he’d planned. But everything happened so fast. PM
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 79
THE
2TO WAYS COOK MEAT
BY FRANCINE MAROUKIAN PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID WILLIAMS
Chef Shane Solomon’s braised pork shoulder South Philly style.
WET COOKING
Lower temperature + High-sided pot The pot requires a tight lid so precious cooking liquid isn’t lost to evaporation.
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When you’re looking to advance your kitchen skills, recipes aren’t good enough. Evolution comes from understanding the principles behind recipes: useful techniques applicable to more than one meal. Bearing in mind that ovens and animals are both variable creatures, two top chefs compressed years of experience into practical directives designed to support your cooking efforts, no matter the dish.
Chef Nathan Anda’s flawless, foolproof roast beef.
DRY COOKING
Higher temperature + Low-sided pan More meat surface is exposed to the heat element, maximising browning.
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WITH SHANE SOLOMON, oven master and Chef, PIZZERIA STELLA, PHILADELPHIA
Liquid is the heat transfer agent: The heat source heats the liquid, the liquid cooks the meat. Uses less expensive cuts from the most exercised parts of the animal, like the shoulder and shank. The connective tissue, fat and sinew holding the muscles together require longer, slower cooking to melt into gelatin, yielding tender meat and flavourful cooking liquid. Braising uses a large cut as centrepiece, and the cooking liquid gets cooked down into a kind of sauce served as accompaniment.
EQUIPMENT
■ Le Creuset Pot: the standard ■ All-Clad Rondeau: expensive, but also useful for roasting and deep-frying ■ 25 ml ladle (for skimming) ■ spider strainer or perforated skimmer (for lifting meats and removing vegetables) INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1: Sear the meat
➞ Meat must start out totally dry. Surface moisture prevents browning and introduces water into the fat, causing splattering. ➞ Heat the pot, then add just enough oil to film the bottom. When hot enough, the oil should skim across the surface, and the meat will sizzle on contact. ➞ Sear meat on all sides, even the ends. Use tongs to turn it in the pan, then remove it and discard any discoloured oil.
Step 2: The vegetables ➞ When added for the sole purpose of flavouring the broth, vegetables are left in larger pieces, like a quarter 82
carrot or half an onion, and then re-moved. When part of the final dish – as in this one – vegetables are uniformly cut for even cooking (like 10 cm dice or matchsticks, called julienne). Stir in the cut vegetables, which will then release their natural moisture, deglazing the pan. When you have some loosened fat as a cushion, add delicate items like garlic, ground spices or dried herbs. If tomato paste is being used as a flavouring agent, stir it into the vegetables during the last minute or so, giving it a chance to toast. Step 3: Deglaze the pan ➞ Deglaze the pan by adding a cup or two of wine or citrus, and reduce the liquid by at least half while scraping any meaty bits from the bottom of the pan. Step 4: Add the cooking liquid (and the meat) ➞ Return the meat to the pot. Add your braising liquid (about two-thirds up the sides of the meat) and bring it to a simmer; this temperature is critical to the success of the final dish. The surface of the
liquid should be gently trembling, never at a rolling boil, which toughens the proteins in the meat. Step 5: Add the fancy aromatic sachet ➞ . . . directly into the liquid, then cover the pot tightly to prevent evaporation. (To make a sachet, use kitchen twine and cheesecloth, or even a white paper coffee filter in a pinch.) Step 6: The braise ➞ Transfer covered pot to a moderate preheated oven – 160 degrees Celcius – and wait. Tenderness, not time, is the indicator of doneness. Insert a fork and twist. If the meat comes apart, it’s done. Step 7: Skimming and reduction ➞ When the meat is done, discard the sachet. Remove the meat, which may be delicate by this time, using a kitchen skimmer; a large flat spoon with holes that allows you to gently lift the meat and leave the liquid behind. ➞ Skim the fat with a ladle. Reduce what’s left over a low flame. This step eliminates water, leaving a richer, more intensely fortified sauce behind. Step 8: Mounting and garnish ➞ Take the time to finish your sauce, giving it flavour with an ingredient so delicate it can’t go in until the end. Depending upon the dish, it can be something fruity like olive oil, sweet like honey, or the classic addition of cold butter in small pieces. This addition is always done slowly
and off the heat, swirling the pan for emulsification (this is called mounting). As a final step, add any herbs or greens that couldn’t be in there for the long haul but will stay bright and green when thrown in at the end.
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
Once you know how it works, all you need is a list of ingredients. PORK SHOULDER SOUTH PHILLY STYLE ■ Meat: 1,5 kg pork shoulder, bone out, fat cap on, salted ■ Vegetables: ½ head fennel, 1 cubanelle pepper (much better variety but you can settle for green pepper), 1 red onion, 3 long hot peppers, all thinly sliced ■ Other seasoning: 10 garlic cloves (roughly smashed), 1 tsp red pepper flakes, 1 tsp dried oregano, 3 anchovy fillets (chopped) ■ Flavouring agent: 3 Tbsp tomato paste ■ Deglazing liquid: 1 cup white wine, 1 cup lemon juice ■ Cooking liquid: 3 l chicken stock ■ Sachet: 1 tsp each coriander seed and whole fennel seed with 1Tbsp whole black peppercorns, 2rosemary stalks, 2 bay leaves Rest, portion, and serve over white beans. ■ Mounting and garnish: Fresh parsley and oregano and a drizzle of lemoninfused olive oil ■ Option: Shred meat into pasta ragu or make a twohanded sandwich
MEAT FACT: The greater the distance from the he ad or hoof, the more tender the cut. OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 83
WITH NATHAN ANDA, butcher and chef, RED APRON BUTCHER, WASHINGTON, DC
When dry-cooking, the meat comes in direct contact with the heat, as in broiling (heat comes from above), grilling (below), and the two methods every home cook should master: roasting (meat is surrounded by hot air), and the double-dry hybrid of pan-searing followed by oven roasting. Dry-cooking uses cuts that are already tender, primarily from the part of the animal that doesn’t get much action, like across the upper centre. Roasting calls for larger cuts, but unlike old-fashioned spit roasting, in which the meat was exposed to open flame, the oven provides only heat, not flavour. That comes from seasoning and from how good the meat is to begin with.
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Here is your template. Armed with this, all you need is the weight of the meat and the temperature you’re aiming for.
EQUIPMENT
■ oven thermometer (monitoring) and instant-read meat thermometer (temping the meat) ■ sturdy rimmed baking sheet with flat roasting rack
ROASTING
Step 1: Prep
➞ The meat must start at room temperature. When meat is cold, seasonings sit on top of the fat cap and muscle. They don’t penetrate. Room temperature meat allows the salt and pepper to break into
that exterior shell, acting as a tenderising agent as well as deepening flavour. ➞ I use a heavy rimmed baking sheet lined with heavyduty foil and topped with a flat roasting rack. (Those large, expensive roasting pans with handles and V-shaped racks are primarily for turkey.) ➞ Seasoning style depends upon size and cut. For a smaller roast with very little fat cap, like a pork loin, I might make a paste out of salt, pepper, chopped garlic, and a drop of oil (pasty, not runny), smear it on, and give it a chance to sink into the meat, about 20 minutes. For a roast that will benefit from some complexity, like a butterflied leg of lamb, I make a paste of roasted garlic (mellows it), Dijon mustard, rosemary, black pepper, and olive oil, smeared on the inside of the roast (before it is rolled and tied) as well as the outside. ➞ On a larger roast with a substantial fat cap, like a majestic prime rib that can stand on its own flavour-wise, I just liberally season with salt and pepper and roast on top of a bed of aromatics: sliced onions and strong, woody herbs like rosemary and thyme (not soft ones like basil). Placed under the roasting rack, this gives the exterior crust a great aroma without flavouring the meat itself. Step 2: Heat ➞ When a roast goes into a hot oven, moisture trapped in the fibres of the meat is pulled towards that heat source. While you do get a beautiful dark exterior at the end of the roasting period, you also get a well-done rim
around the edge – not desirable. But if you use a low-temperature oven, the roast slowly acclimates to the heat, gradually raising its internal temperature. As a result, the meat retains its moisture and has an even texture. ➞ There’s ongoing kitchen controversy about when to oven-sear the meat. Some swear by an initial blast prior to roasting in a moderate oven. I am a practitioner of the reverse sear, first roasting in a low-temperature oven, then hitting it with the higher heat. I realise this is a break with tradition on what might be our most traditional meal. But why not do everything possible to preserve the meat’s moisture, which is a function of heat plus time. So: when the roast gets to your desired internal temperature in the low oven, it’s time to turn up the heat and brown the fat cap. ➞ There will be rendered fat in the pan. Siphon most off, because you’re about to heat things up to 230 degrees. In a 120-degree oven, that temperature rise is so slow it won’t affect the meat itself. It will just give you a beautiful brown crust. The sign that it’s done: colour, which typically happens in about 10 minutes. Step 3: Rest ➞ Transfer the roast to a cutting board for about 30 minutes (15 for a small roast). Be patient. If you mess with the exterior too soon, the juices that are drawn to its heat will make a speedy exit rather than be absorbed back into the meat. (While the meat rests, carry over cooking can raise the internal temperature as much as 15 degrees.) PM
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 85
Grudge report Domestic appliances are expensive and, when they break, are liable to cause catastrophe. But it doesn’t need to be that way. The Popular Mechanics editorial team are on hand to deliver the best buying advice. Let’s start with the washing machine. BY LINDSEY SCHUTTERS
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No, you haven’t slipped through a wormhole into next month’s issue of Home Appliance Monthly. But what you are about to read is recognition that the Popular Mechanics reader is concerned about more than just how to fix a stubbornly non-washing machine. In any case, today’s high-tech machines are as different from their predecessors of only a few decades ago as the Millennium Falcon is from the horseless buggy. We’re headlining this foray into the world of big metal-andplastic boxes The Grudge Report, because nobody really wants them, even though everybody needs them. Particularly if the current one has expired in a flood of curses, tears, sudsy water and half-done washing. Here’s the thing: there’s something strangely compelling about the modern take on what is, when all’s said and done, a humble laboursaving device. Besides ensuring the whitest whites, darkest darks and brightest colours, they – and we know this is hard to believe – can also save you money. Plus, they’re smarter than you think. Although perhaps not smart enough to stop you turning your favourite woollen socks into baby booties, if you don’t bother to read the care instructions.
THE BEST WASHING MACHINE, RIGHT NOW: LG FH4U1JBSK4 10 KG 6 MOTION DIRECT DRIVE Why? Two things. One is the direct drive inverter (variable frequency) motor. Two is the TrueSteam function. Inverter motors can change frequency and direction; this can greatly reduce power savings and optimise washing cycles for various cleaning applications. The inverter motor can throttle up in short bursts for speedier rinse cycles, which will cut down on water use. According to affinity laws defining the relationship between centrifugal load variables, power consumption can be as little as 25 per cent of what is needed to run the motor at full speed if you throttle down to around 60 per cent. Also reducing water use is the TrueSteam, which can heat up small amounts of water to steam clean tough stains or delicate garments. You can even use this setting to refresh harder-wearing fabrics such as denim jeans and cut down on washing loads.
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What makes an efficient machine? Achieving clothes washing nirvana is treading the narrow line between water and electricity savings. The faster you wash, the less water you’ll use, but it costs more energy to get the drum up to speed. Then you need to factor in the size of the load. Less laundry uses less everything. Where Samsung excels in using laundry detergent with its Eco Bubble technology, LG has spent more time optimising the way the laundry tumbles around the drum. These six motions include scrub, filtration, swing, rolling, stepping and tumbling. The caveat being that you need to spend a bit more time learning when to use which washing technique. You can then download other wash cycles via LG’s SmartThinq smarthome platform. Washing machines that can automatically weigh the load fare much better than less intelligent units because they can adjust the resource use accordingly. With the machine at the helm in figuring out wash cycle length, water savings of up to 45 per cent can be expected, especially with the TurboWash engaged, bringing the cycle time down to one hour.
Think of the digital inverter motor as the accelerator pedal on a car. The drum is perfectly capable of spinning on momentum, with the motor mainly used to increase speed. This intermittent and variable power delivery means that the motor is idle for periods, saving on electricity use. There’s also freedom for the motor to spin in an opposing direction, or switch between directions, which results in more variation in wash motion.
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Test notes: The washing machine was put to work servicing a household of five adults (three women, two men) and two children (aged 6 and 2). This house usually relies on a Defy 15 kg top loader with washing happening twice a week, on average. Because the LG unit operates remarkably quietly when compared with the existing top loader, wash cycles could be left overnight. After a month of testing, the water bill increased by R100, while there was no significant change to electricity consumption. Wash frequency almost doubled because of the decrease in machine capacity, combined with the extra care taken to optimise load contents. Spin dry was a significant step up from the experience in the Defy machine, but that unit is 20 years old.
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
Key findings: A smaller machine for a family accustomed to laundromat-style top loaders made for a steep learning curve and wasted water early on. l The machine’s water heating abilities make for a negligible extra draw on the electricity supply. l Silent wash cycles mean that wash cycles can happen overnight, outside of peak use times. l The spin dry capabilities are excellent. l Shorter rinse cycles = less water use. l TrueSteam is great for refreshing denim jeans between washes, extending the wear time to almost three weeks on one pair – car grease cut the wear time short.
While its main competitor, Samsung, allows for adding items on the fly through a small door within the door, LG instead allows users to pause a cycle to add extra items. The door won’t open if the internal temperature is above 60˚C.
l Users remarked that clothes were cleaner and fresher after being washed in the LG machine. Conclusion LG matches the industry standard of an inverter motor backed by a 10 year warranty, but falls behind with regard to after-sales support. Its main competitor Samsung has more brand stores that you can visit should you have a problem. LG does, however, offer the largest number of features when it comes to the actual wash cycles. TrueSteam counts as a big win for the company and there is a bigger emphasis on the physical clothes cleaning through proven varied agitation. PM
AUSTERITY MEASURES How to reduce the cost of washing l If you’re buying a new washing machine, consider a front loader instead of a top loader. Front loaders use around half the amount of water. l Look for models with load sensing technology. The machine will adjust the amount of water it uses according to load size. l If machine doesn’t have load-sensing technology, wash only full loads. l Use cold wash wherever possible. Cold wash is sufficient for lightly soiled clothes and is ideal for brightly coloured clothing. Warm or hot water will be necessary for heavily soiled clothing.
Smart or connected functions are limited to downloading and transferring custom wash cycles that aren’t preloaded on the device from LG’s. We had a power failure during testing and the machine didn’t skip a beat in carrying on where it left off once power had been restored.
l When buying a washing machine, ensure you choose the right size. A larger machine than necessary will cost you considerably in water and electricity.
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 89
THE new
We’re in a drought. What can you do about what used to be the water-gobbling green, green grass of home? BY LUMKA NOFEMELE
PAVING SLABS ARE EASY TO CLEAN, come in various designs, are generally low in maintenance and provide a good surface for outdoor entertaining. However, they can result in scraped knees and elbows if used in children’s play areas and the concrete can crack over time. Initial installation costs are also higher than some other options.
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PEBBLES/GRAVEL
Pebbles are an economical, simple alternative that can be used anywhere you need ground cover. They require essentially no maintenance, unless leaves need to be raked away and you need to inhibit weed growth. Pebbles are inexpensive and require no water. They also add a decorative touch to your garden. However, pebbles are not a good choice for children’s play areas and can pose a choking hazard for small children. www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
IMAGES PROVIDED BY STODELS GARDEN CENTRE
PAVERS
ARTIFICIAL LAWN
TOP PICTURE THIS PAGE: iSTOCKPHOTO/DIGITALGENETICS
A true outdoor carpet, artificial grass directly addresses the primary environmental concerns of real turf. It requires no watering, no mowing and no feeding. Some manufacturers use recycled materials, such as old tyres or plastic bottles. Though expensive, artificial turf has a life expectancy upwards of 25 years, making it a less costly alternative to real turf over its lifespan. Available in an array of blade lengths, colours and textures, synthetic grass can fool most. The main benefit of going artificial is that it is low maintenance, child friendly and, of course, saves water. That said, artificial turf has its own environmental drawbacks. It is a petroleum-based product that creates pollution and waste in the manufacturing process. And, although it is often made partially with recycled materials, it is not biodegradable. Despite a long life of from 15 to 25 years, it will, ultimately, end up in a landfill. Critics also point to synthetic turf as an environmental heater. It absorbs heat and feels hot to the touch in direct Sun. The types of artificial lawn to consider include nylon, polyethylene, polypropylene. The amount of traffic the lawn receives will help determine the type of material best suited for your home. Polyethylene is soft, vibrant in colour and resilient. Nylon is strong, allowing it to maintain its shape, and can withstand high temperatures. Polypropylene, while less costly, does not have the durability or resilience of the other two.
TRADITIONAL LAWN If you still wish to go the authentic lawn route, there are a few things you can do to still save water.
MULCH
Mulch is one of the easiest and most affordable ways to save water in your garden. Mulch is any substance that can be placed on the soil surface around plants to keep the moisture in the soil. It also helps prevent soil erosion, keeps the roots of plants cool and helps to prevent frost damage to plants. Organic mulchcomes from plant or animal sources and is the best type of mulch because it conserves water and feeds the soil as it slowly breaks down. It also attracts earthworms and other micro-organisms, which aerate the soil. Examples include compost, pine needles, grass clippings, bark chips and leaves. The drawback of mulch is that it retards the heating of the soil by the Sun.In summer this is not a problem but in early/mid spring when you need all the warmth you can get from the Sun’s rays it can inhibit the germination of seeds, especially those seeds that need a higher soil temperature to germinate.Lower soil temperature can also reduce seedling growth rate. Mulch can be unsuitable for crops that need fine sandy soil to flourish (such as carrots) or are subject to collar rot in moist conditions (such as garlic).
Plan a simple shape You can reduce your area covered by lawn by selecting a simple geometric shape and avoiding curves. It is also easier to irrigate a simple shape without water wastage. Avoid using lawn on steeper slopes, along fences and for narrow walkways, as these are very difficult to maintain.
Water efficiently Deep soakings of water encourage roots to utilise moisture deep in the ground. It is essential that you irrigate lawns less frequently, but deeply, otherwise the roots are concentrated closer to the soil surface and are exposed to a higher soil temperature, causing them to dry out faster.
Plan to harvest water In planning your lawn, shape the area to have a slight hollow in the centre of the lawn. This ensures that you get maximum absorption without run-off, making better use of the rainwater to minimise frequency of watering.
Feed organically for long-term results Organic fertilisers require less water to break down and the feeding will last for a longer period. Using organic food will also lessen the chance of burning. Mow often Grass is weakened when it grows too long between mowings. PM
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 91
C H A NI C
S
R KIDS ★
★ P O P ULA
ME
FO
R
TOY REVIEW
LEGO BOOST The new Lego Boost sets combine traditional Legos with a smart tablet, so kids can build and operate automated Lego robots. You can make a guitar that plays sound effects, a cat that purrs and interacts with you, or a robot that you can make move and talk. The projects are animated using an icon-based coding app, which teaches kids basic coding commands and concepts. To test the new smart Legos, we enlisted the help of two extraordinary young men: Carson Huey-You, 14, who graduated from Texas Christian University this past May with a degree in physics, and his brother, Cannan, 11, who graduated from high school the same month. So, once again: Carson graduated college at 14, Cannan graduated high school at 11. Read on.
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BY CARSON AND CANNAN HUEY-YOU
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MAX BURKHALTER
CARSON: When we opened
the box, we looked at the app and we looked at all the different things you could do. Then once we started building, we were able to connect it to the app and start controlling it. We built a little car with a propeller, and then with the iPad app we were able to connect and make it roll around in different directions and do other cool things. CANNAN: The app was easy to use. It had a pretty simple interface. It was maybe a little bit for younger kids, but not too bad. It didn’t use any crazy coding or anything. It was pretty easy to figure out. CARSON: Yeah, it’s not super-duper advanced, but
that’s a good thing. You don’t get overwhelmed. For an introductory programming experience, where you’re telling something to do this or not do that, I think it’s good. CANNAN: You don’t have to jump right into the advanced stuff, like the Lego Mindstorms sets. You could definitely use the pieces in this set to make other things, too, not just the cat or the robot. There are a lot of other pieces, like a conveyor belt and a motion sensor and a propeller. CARSON: The one bad part is, if you don’t have an iPad or another platform the app works on, it would be impossible to use this set. CANNAN: That you can
control the Legos from your iPad is the coolest part of the set though. You don’t just roll it around with your hand, you can move it using the app. We’ve been playing with Legos forever, and we still play with them a lot. I think we would play with this set again in the future. CARSON: Yeah, I liked it. There’s definitely a lot of potential with this app, and I think overall it added a cool new aspect to playing with Legos. It’s a new concept and I think it’s really interesting. CANNAN: Same. PM
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 93
SHOP NOTES EASY WAYS TO DO HARD THINGS
Simple magnet drywall stud finder Take the strongest fridge magnet you’ve got and tie it on a length of string. Hold it so it hangs against the wall, then slowly slide it across. It’ll be attracted to the nails or screws that secure the wall’s wood lath or drywall to studs. Since fasteners occur at regular intervals, if you’re not finding a stud, try a bit higher or lower off the ground.
Soft drink can tab tensioner
RECENTLY I MISLAID a pair of reading glasses and, even though I knew they were
somewhere in my office, I couldn’t find them. I searched my desk and the floor and looked under and behind the couch. No luck. So I decided to wait until dark. As soon as the Sun was down, I turned off the lights in my office and turned on my beloved tactical LED torch, a Fenix PD35 I had bought on the recommendation of a friend, who’d bought his on the recommendation of a cop. The beam is narrow and bright. I aimed it at the tangle of cables and junk under my desk – where I’d looked several times already and found my glasses almost immediately. My wife did the same when one of her parakeets got loose in our basem*nt. She could hear it but didn’t see it until she searched with a torch. This works so well because searching with a torch forces you to narrow your focus. Your eyes and your attention can’t wander. Your brain doesn’t have to sift through masses of extraneous visual information. You truly concentrate on what you’re doing; and then, suddenly, there’s the cellphone you dropped when you were mowing the lawn. – David Owen
ILLUSTRATIONS BY MORNING BREATH
Turn off the lights to find things
Straps that tighten around an anchor point, like for a tent’s rain fly, are often equipped with a plastic tensioner that adjusts into place and grips the line to hold it fast. If yours isn’t, improvise one with the pull tab from a soft drink can: break the tab off the can, leaving a jagged edge under one of the tab’s holes. Orient the tab so the jagged edge is the farthest edge from the anchor point. String line through the tab so it goes under the outer edges of the holes and over the divider between them. Wrap around the anchor point, then tie the rope to the non-jagged hole. Give the line some slack and you can slide the tab to lengthen or shorten it. When the line tightens up, the jagged aluminium will bite the rope and hold.
LOCATE A MISSING WEB PAGE Sometimes, you really, really need to access a website that will no longer load. Luckily, sites can remain in Google search results for a few weeks, and if you click on the green down arrow next to a result’s URL, then on “cached,” you’ll load a copy of the page Google saved when it was last available.
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BUYER’SGUIDE
To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or email: [emailprotected]
OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 95
BUYER’SGUIDE
To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or email: [emailprotected]
014 597 3327 | [emailprotected] www.3dprintingsystems.co.za
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Unleash your creativity
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
BUYER’SGUIDE
To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or email: [emailprotected]
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Reverse Engineering of 3D scanned mesh models Sketches converted to geometry with ‘Draw’ stylus input
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Airflow and fan cooling optimised with Flow Analysis
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OCTOBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 97
BUYER’SGUIDE
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To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or email: [emailprotected]
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
BUYER’SGUIDE
To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or email: [emailprotected]
CFP TECHNOLOGIES Digital readouts (DRO) for Milling Machines & Lathes Linear Glass scales. 130 mm - 1 200 mm Magnetic scales up to 32 m
Please visit website for more information and prices.
Website: www.cfptech.co.za Email: [emailprotected] Tel: 012 5673618 / 012 5430683 Cell: 0828570324
FLASHLIGHTS – Starting from R 369.00
BATTERY CHARGERS – Starting from R 749.00
GAMO AIR RIFLES – Starting from R 1,689.00
REPLAY ACTION CAMS – Starting from R 2,665.00
021 851 3284
New shop now open: SHOP 4 THE FLAGS @ CIRCLE 5, C/O CENTENARY RD & REESE RD, SOMERSET MALL, SOMERSET WEST
www.futurama.co.za
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To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or email: [emailprotected]
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
BUYER’SGUIDE
To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or email: [emailprotected]
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To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or email: [emailprotected]
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ OCTOBER 2017
BUYER’SGUIDE
To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or email: [emailprotected]
WOOD
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Montana 012 548 7672 Rustenburg 012 244 1319
f. 011 708 2023 [emailprotected] www.vanacht.co.za
New Stratasys F123 Series F170, F270 & F370 FDM
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F370 System available for demonstration at 3D Solids AMT offices, Pretoria Contact : Russell Oosterlaak Tel : +27 12 345 5112 Email : [emailprotected] www.3dsolids.co.za
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DO IT YOUR WAY / USEFUL, CLEVER TIPS FOR YOUR HOME
WIN SEND US YOUR HINT – AND SCORE!
WINNING TIP
HOSED
For years, one of the big irritations in my life was the basket in the weir of my pool. Whenever I removed the cover to clean it out, the leaves and other debris in the basket would float out of it and have to be painstakingly retrieved. I finally got hold of an old pair of my wife’s pantyhose, of which there appears to be a limitless supply. I cut a section from a leg (thigh is best), and pulled it over the top of the basket and the cover, as in the attached pic. Now, when I remove the cover, the basket remains attached to it and the contents are securely contained. TOM CONNELL MIDRAND
BEAM ME UP Those of us born before the digital TV satellite era will no doubt remember that, when one touched the bunny ears while adjusting them in an effort to find the best signal, the signal was boosted. It works the other way as well. When approaching your house, hold the garage or gate remote against your lower arm, with the LED pointing at your skin, before pressing the button. This way, you will extend the range of the remote by several metres – in my tests, up to 100 metres! Dinner will also be served a tad earlier.
MAC VAN DER MERWE ROBINDALE
SPARE THE ROD A blocked sewer drain can be a problem if you don’t have plumbing rods. Here’s a handy alternative plan. Take a length of 20 mm black irrigation pipe. It is firm enough to put into the drain, and inserted into the outflow pipe as far as it will travel.
Now, take your garden hose and insert it into the irrigation pipe, also as far as possible. Turn the water on full. The hose pipe itself is not firm enough to be fed into the blocked sewer, but using the irrigation pipe allows it to travel much further down the blocked drain. I have found this very useful.
Send us your tip and you could win a Masterlock hamper worth R2 000. The hamper will consist of a 44 mm chrome plated zinc fusion padlock, select access key lock box, keyed 1,8 metre self-coiling locking cable, 20 mm brass combination lock and Fusion coloured padlock. Masterlock 44 mm chrome plated zinc fusion padlock. Steel shackle with two adjustable positions, front access keyway for convenience and stylish matching keyhead are headline features. Masterlock select access key lock box. The extra-large key storage compartment holds multiple house or car keys and access cards, with set-yourown combination convenience for optimal security. The wall-mount design allows permanent installation (mounting kit included) and features a shutter door for better weather resistance and greater discretion. Masterlock Keyed 1,8 m self-coiling locking cable. Keyed 3 pin tumbler for security and ease of use. The vinyl covered cable protects against scratching. Masterlock 20 mm brass combination lock. Practical and stylish with aluminium body and brass finish, 3 mm-diameter brass-plated steel shackle that fits most luggage zips, three-digit setyour-own combination convenience and brass dialling wheels. Limited lifetime warranty. Fusion coloured padlock. Featuring 44 mm wide zinc-plated lock body for strength and durability coupled with a front access keyway for ease of use. The shrouded, hardened steel shackle protects against cutting, dual locking levers provide added protection from prying or hammering and the four-pin cylinder has increased pick resistance. Limited lifetime warranty.
BASIL DUNCAN-SMITH SIMON’S TOWN
ELASTIC FANTASTIC Painting can be a mess if you have excess paint on a paintbrush. Removing the excess by pulling the brush against the side of the tin clogs the groove and makes the lid stick. To remove excess paint I put an elastic band across the top of the tin before opening it. When dipping the brush I pull it against the elastic band to remove excess paint. Before closing the lid, I just wipe the elastic down with paper towel.
GEORGIE FALCON PAROW PM
Send your tips to: PM Do It Your Way, Box 180, Howard Place 7450, or e-mail popularmechanics @ramsaymedia.co.za. Please include your name, address and contact number. Regrettably, only South African residents are eligible for the prize. Prizes not claimed within 60 days will be forfeited.
RESERVATION OF COPYRIGHT The publishers of Popular Mechanics reserve all rights of reproduction or broadcasting of feature articles and factual data appearing in this journal under Section 12 (7) of the Copyright Act, 1978. Such reproduction or broadcasting may be authorised only by the publishers of Popular Mechanics. Published by RamsayMedia for the Proprietors, Popular Mechanics, 36 Old Mill Rd, Ndabeni, Western Cape. Distributed by RNA, 12 Nobel St, Industria West, Johannesburg, and printed by CTP Web, 12-14 Boompies Street, Parow, Cape Town. Apple Mac support: Digicape tel 021 674-5000.
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