sin46th magzus.org

I BOUGHT A GHOST TOWN & NOW I HAVE TO RESTORE IT P.54

HOW TO BUILD A BACKYARD GREENHOUSE P.46

PROTECT YOUR CATALYTIC CONVERTER FROM THIEVES P.14

SATELLITES POWERED BY IODINE P.42

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TESTED BEST NEW CORDLESS MOWERS P.80

WORLD’S FIRST A WATER-DAMAGED 2015 MODEL S P85D TESLA AND A 426-HORSEPOWER 6.2L CHEVY LS3 MOTOR FROM A WRECKED 2011 CAMARO SS MAKE ONE “SNAPPY, THROATY, AND DOWNRIGHT MEAN” MACHINE.

TESLA P.62

Downshift to 2nd, flick steering wheel

Gravity goes sideways

Forget previously owned cars

Praise inventor of asphalt

Endorphins throw party

Decide to name firstborn “86”

Master the drive in the all-new GR86.

// STA NDA R DS //

March/April 2022

My POP Life Tips, gear picks, and vetted wisdom from our staff. p.4

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Machines The future of Right to Repair is here. It’s about time. p.39

Space How a new rocket propellant is solving orbital overcrowding. p.42

2 Can’t Stop Thinking About The pocketknife that’s held up for decades. p.8

10 Tool Awards 2022 Saws, nailers, drills, drivers, the best wrench set, and more. p.71

3 Bioengineering These scientists are making it safe for humans to receive organ transplants from pigs. p.12

11 The Test These cordless mowers are proven to cut the most grass. p.80

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4 Cars and Trucks Stop thieves from stealing your catalytic converter. p.14

Deep Math A perfect pearl hides a formula that can make sense of our random universe. p.25

12 Big Important Product The first affordable 8K television. p.84

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13

Military Tech Afghanistan was a key military testing ground. How do we replace it? p.28

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Editor’s Choice A fast-drying, wear-resistant paint you can apply to anything. p.88

How to Use It Flood your home with Wi-Fi using a mesh system. p.90

7 Physics How researchers created a onedimensional field to freeze atoms. p.32

15 How to Be Good at What You Do Using science to brew complex craft beers. p.100

// FE ATURES //

How to Build a Backyard Greenhouse Step-by-step plans for a plant-filled oasis you can make in a couple of weekends. p.46

I Bought a Ghost Town A fire, a pandemic, and dropping down a 700-foot mine shaft won’t stop me from restoring this village to its former Wild West–era glory. p.54

We Converted a Tesla Into a V-8 Muscle Car When our Model S couldn’t move, we made some bold upgrades. p.62

// ON THE COVER // Rich Rebuilds V-8 Tesla Model S photographed by Christopher Churchill in Seabrook, New Hampshire.

POPULAR MECHANICS (ISSN 0032-4558) is published six times per year by Hearst, 300 West 57th St., NY, NY 10019 USA. Steven R. Swartz, President & Chief Executive Officer; William R. Hearst III, Chairman; Frank A. Bennack, Jr., Executive Vice Chairman; Mark E. Aldam, Chief Operating Officer. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc.: Debi Chirichella, President & Treasurer; Kate Lewis, Chief Content Officer; Kristen M. O’Hara, Chief Business Officer; Catherine A. Bostron, Secretary. Copyright 2022 by Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Popular Mechanics is a registered trademark of Hearst Communications, Inc. Customer Service: For changes of address, and subscription orders, visit service.popularmechanics.com or write to Customer Service, Popular Mechanics, P.O. Box 6000, Harlan, IA 51593. Popular Mechanics (PM) cannot be responsible for unsolicited material. Mailing lists: From time to time we make our subscriber list available to companies that sell goods and services by mail that we believe would interest our readers. If you would rather not receive such offers via postal mail, please send your current mailing label or exact copy to Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 6000, Harlan, IA 51593. You can also visit preferences.hearstmags.com to manage your preferences and opt out of receiving marketing offers by mail. Periodicals postage paid at N.Y., N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post International Publications mail product (Canadian distribution) sales agreement no. 40012499. CANADA BN NBR 10231 0943 RT. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); non-postal and military facilities: send address corrections to Popular Mechanics, P.O. Box 6000, Harlan, IA 51593. As a service to readers, PM publishes newsworthy products, techniques, and scientific and technological developments. Due to possible variance in the quality, condition of materials, workmanship, PM cannot assume responsibility for proper application of techniques or proper and safe functioning of manufactured products or reader-built projects resulting from information published in this magazine.

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March/April 2022

H E N R Y H U N G (G R E E N H O U S E) ; B R I A N VA N D E R B R U G / LO S A N G E L E S T I M E S V I A G E T T Y I M A G E S (G H O S T TO W N) ; C H R I S TO P H E R C H U R C H I L L ( T E S L A )

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My Pop Life // EXPERT H ACKS, GE A R RECS & LIFE-TESTED W ISDOM FROM OUR STAFF //

@jlorileman

Best Thing POP Has Taught Me (So Far) JENNIFER LEMAN News Editor Hey! Come check out this rock.

I’ve spent a lot of time editing articles about vintage cars recently, and I’ve enjoyed learning the history behind some of the world’s strangest cars.

Anyone remember the Subaru BRAT?

On My Reading List

Moon or Mars?

I just got my copy of Robin George Andrews’s first book, Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond. I’m fascinated by volcanoes and their ability to both create and destroy.

Titan! This moon of Saturn blows our moon and Mars out of the water.

Its surface is covered in water ice and liquid methane lakes. The upcoming NASA Dragonfly mission will search for signs of life.

PRODUCTS I’M USING RIGHT NOW

BRAND CHAMPIONS Roy Berendsohn, Matt Crisara, Jennifer Leman, Courtney Linder CONTENT STRATEGY Christine Anderson Executive Director of Commerce and Content Strategy; Erica Murphy Director of Content Strategy and SEO; David White SEO manager for membership; Sean Abrams SEO manager for gear reviews DESIGN + PHOTO Jesse Southerland Creative Director; Amy Wolff Photo Director; Colin McSherry Senior Art Director; Alyse Markel Art Director; Eleni Dimou Senior Designer; Tom Messina Digital Designer; John Hamilton Associate Photo Editor; Lakota Gambill, Trevor Raab Photographers FEATURES Leah Flickinger Executive Features Director; Matt Allyn Features Director; Paulina Isaac, Taylor Rojek Features Editors; Tyler Daswick Associate Features Editor MEMBERSHIP Andrew Daniels Director of Membership Content; Pavlína Černá Newsletters Editor; Theo Kahler Membership Editor OPERATIONS Suzanne Perreault Director of Editorial Operations; Amber Joglar Administrative Assistant SERVICE & NEWS Brian Dalek Director of Content Operations; Courtney Linder Senior Editor; Jennifer Leman, Manasee Mannickarottu Service and News Editors; Daisy Hernandez Associate Service and News Editor SOCIAL MEDIA Caitlyn Fitzpatrick Deputy Editor

TEST TEAM & GEAR REVIEWS Lou Mazzante Test Director; Will Egensteiner Deputy Editor, Testing; Jennifer Sherry Deputy Editor, Expert Reviews; Roy Berendsohn Test Editor; Adrienne Donica, Editor, Expert Reviews; Matt Crisara Autos Editor; Hunter Fenollol Home Tech Editor; Brad Ford Test Editor; Rachel Klein Editor; Barry Knoblach Producer; Paige Szmodis Editor

Coolest Thing on My Desk Does anyone actually know what day it is? Fortunately, my vintage Perpetual Ring-A-Date Wall Calendar by Euroway helps me keep track.

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Kammok Roo Single Camping Hammock

My Sticker Face

I almost never sleep in a tent anymore. This durable and comfy hammock is all I need.

These customizable stickers are fun and unique, and a great way to plaster images of your pet everywhere.

VIDEO Josh Wolff Director of Video; Jimmy Cavalieri Production Manager; Pat Heine, Ken Kawada, David Monk, Taylor Vasilik Producers CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Caroline Delbert, Kyle Mizokami, Joe Pappalardo, Paige Szmodis, Joseph Truini EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Bill Strickland

CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP RESEARCHING

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Chairs! To me, chairs perfectly sit (ha) at the juncture between form and function. Some are beautiful but completely nonfunctional, while others are ugly but extremely functional.

To make something that exhibits both qualities is magic. I highly recommend the documentary Chair Times by Vitra on Vimeo.

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March/April 2022

Popular Mechanics International Kim St. Clair Bodden Russia, South Africa • SVP/International Editorial Director Editorial Offices 132 South 3rd Street Easton, PA 18042

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4

Contact Movie Poster

by ConcepcionStudios on Etsy

Various Keytags Custom Tags

I love the modern look and feel of these movie posters. I’d like to collect a few from their Star Wars series next.

With their simple look and customizable text, these make for fun, creative gifts. I got my dad one that says ALL HAIL COSTCO.

HOW TO REACH US: Customer Care Visit Online POPCustServ@ CDSFulfillment.com; Phone 800333-4948; Mail Customer Care Service Dept. Popular Mechanics, PO Box 6000, Harlan, IA 51593-0128.

LICENSING AND REPRINTS: Contact Wyndell Hamilton, Wright’s Media, at 877-652-5295 ext. 102 or hearst@wrightsmedia.com.

MARCH/APRIL 2022

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

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// EXPERT H ACKS, GE A R RECS & LIFE-TESTED W ISDOM FROM OUR STAFF //

CURRENT PASSION PROJECT

Expert Reviews Producer Self-proclaimed unhandiest guy in the office.

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BARRY KNOBLACH

During the pandemic, I decided to write a script for a movie.

It ended up being a 200-page pop-punk musical set in 2005.

Now the hard part is getting it made.

PRODUCTS I’M USING RIGHT NOW

My Favorite App UDisc. I recently got into disc golf with friends, and this app helps you keep score, find courses and nearby events, and even measure your best throws.

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Frigidaire 126-Can Stainless Steel Beverage Center

Amazon Fire TV Stick

My wife and I got this mini fridge for two reasons: to save room in our kitchen refrigerator and to make grabbing beers easier.

We recently cut the cord and bought one of these for every TV in our house. I prefer the Fire TV over the smart TV interface, because eventually the smart TV stops updating.

Best Thing POP Has Taught Me (So Far) This is terrible to admit, but I didn’t know I needed to winterize my lawn mower—I assumed you just put it in the back of the garage until spring. Now I know to make sure there’s no gas or oil in the tank and that traps are set up so mice don’t get to the wiring.

Best Money I Ever Spent 3

4

Beats by Dr. Dre Powerbeats Wireless Earbuds

Google Nest Thermostat

Perfect for making the gym, grocery store, or neighborhood walk more enjoyable.

This little guy instantly started helping us save on our home energy bills.

On My Reading List Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore 1994–2007.

I grew up as a big fan of pop-punk and emo music, and this book chronicles several bands as they go from small-time to signing with a major record label.

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March/April 2022

Hiring a moving company. I hate moving with the passion of a thousand burning suns, so I will happily pay others to pack everything up, lug it out, and deliver it to the new place.

This Gadget Changed My Life The JBL Link 10. From turning on the lights to controlling the thermostat and playing music while we cook, this thing does it all so seamlessly.

ADVERTISING Kimberly Buonassisi Eastern Sales Director, kim.buonassisi@ hearst.com; Ian Sinclair New England Sales Director, ian. sinclair@hearst.com; Kyle B. Taylor East Coast Automotive Director, kyle. taylor@hearst.com; Stacey Lakind Southern California & Midwest Sales Director, stacey.lakind@hearst.com; Andrew Kramer, Northwest Sales Director, andrew@kramermedia. biz; Anne Rethmeyer West Coast Automotive Director, anne.rethmeyer@ hearst.com; Sam Shanahan Midwest Automotive Director, sam. shanahan@hearst.com; Patty Rudolph Southwest Sales Director; patty@ PR40media.com; HEARST DIRECT MEDIA: Celia Mollica Sales Manager, celia.mollica@hearst.com MARKETING Sarah Hemstock Director of Marketing; Emma Sklarin Associate Marketing Manager; Vincent Perella Jr. Marketing Coordinator HEARST MEDIA SOLUTIONS Tom Kirwan SVP, Chief Revenue Officer; Todd Haskell SVP, Chief Marketing Officer; Jeff Hamill EVP, Chief Media Officer; Erick Neher VP, Marketing; Morgan Sheff VP, Marketing; Christine Hall VP, Hearst Direct Media; Chris Tosti Group Finance Director Regina Wall Advertising Services Director; William Carter Executive Director, Consumer Marketing; Peter Davis Research Manager; Anouska Best Public Relations Coordinator; Chris Hertwig Production Manager, chris.hertwig@pwxsolutions.com PUBLISHED BY HEARST Steven R. Swartz President and Chief Executive Officer; William R. Hearst III Chairman; Frank A. Bennack, Jr. Executive Vice Chairman; Mark E. Aldam Chief Operating Officer HEARST MAGAZINES, INC. Debi Chirichella President and Treasurer; Kate Lewis Chief Content Officer; Kristen M. O’Hara Chief Business Officer; Catherine A. Bostron Secretary Gilbert C. Maurer, Mark F. Miller Publishing Consultants 300 West 57th Street New York, NY 10019

B A R R Y K N O B L AC H (P R O F I L E , J B L) ; CO U R T E S Y F R I G I DA I R E (F R I D G E) ; CO U R T E S Y A M A ZO N (F I R E) ; CO U R T E S Y A P P L E (H E A D P H O N E S) ; CO U R T E S Y G O O G L E (N E S T ) ; CO U R T E S Y H A R P E R CO L L I N S (S E L LO U T )

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Paul Collins

My Pop Life

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Can’t Stop Thinking About // STR A NGELY COMPELLING A N D COMPELLINGLY STR A NGE TOPICS OUR STAFF IS OB SESSING OVER //

3 THINGS THE TL-29 CAN DO 8

W H I T T L E → The knife works remarkably well as a whittler, thanks to a beefy handle that provides a good grip and a blade that takes a nice edge.

I sharpen a point on tomato stakes and make wood plugs (shaped sort of like golf tees) to wedge into holes where a screw has stripped out.

March/April 2022

S C R I B E → When you need to mark a precise cut line, nothing beats a mark scribed with a knife. It’s narrow, it’s sharp, and it won’t smudge off. It’s as accurate as it gets. The spear-point blade on the TL-29 performs wonderfully in this respect. Just run it along the edge of a square.

S C R A P E → That narrow screwdriver blade works wonders when you need to scrape gunk out of a narrow channel. Whether it’s scraping with the edge sideways or the edge forward, it gets the gunk out—and it won’t fold back and pinch you, because it locks in place.

R OY B E R E N D S O H N (H E A D S H OT, K N I

ROY BERENDSOHN IS A TEST EDITOR AT POPMECH. HIS FAVORITE TOPICS INCLUDE ANYTHING TO DO WITH WOOD, HOME IMPROVEMENT, AND THE BUILDING TRADES. BUT HE ALSO ENJOYS A LIVELY DISCUSSION OF BLACKSMITHING, WELDING, AND BOATBUILDING.

Sacred Stone of the Southwest is on the Brink of Extinction

B.

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enturies ago, Persians, Tibetans and Mayans considered turquoise a gemstone of the heavens, believing the striking blue stones were sacred pieces of sky. Today, the rarest and most valuable turquoise is found in the American Southwest–– but the future of the blue beauty is unclear.

On a recent trip to Tucson, we spoke with fourth generation turquoise traders who explained that less than five percent of turquoise mined worldwide can be set into jewelry and only about twenty mines in the Southwest supply gem-quality turquoise. Once a thriving industry, many Southwest mines have run dry and are now closed.

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Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. If you aren’t completely happy with your purchase, send it back within 30 days for a complete refund of the item price.

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Bioengineering // BY K IMBERLY HICKO K //

I

N A G R O U N D B R E A K I N G 2 021 E X P E R I M E N T,

surgeons from NYU’s Langone Health connected a genetically modified pig kidney to the blood vessels of a brain-dead organ donor on life support. The pig’s organ filtered waste from the woman’s blood and produced urine, just like a human kidney, for the entire 54-hour experiment. This first-of-its-kind procedure could signify pig kidneys as a transplant option for more than 90,000 Americans waiting for such an operation.

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March/April 2022

Kidneys (above) aren’t the first pig part to enter a human body.

Doctors routinely transplant pig heart valves into human patients.

Transplanting organs is difficult, because our immune system is programmed to destroy anything it doesn’t recognize as native to the body.

Animal-to-human transplants are extra challenging because most mammals, including pigs, carry a gene that allows their body to make a sugar found in cell membranes called alpha-gal. But that gene is inactivated in some species of primates, including humans. Our immune system therefore sees alphagal as an intruder and produces natural antibodies

P H OTO I L LU S T R AT I O N BY A LY S E M A R K E L U S I N G G E T T Y I M AG E S

Someday, a Pig-toHuman Organ Transplant Could Save Your Life

G E T T Y I M AG E S

designed to destroy it. In some people, alpha-gal antibodies cause an allergic reaction after they consume meat and/or dairy products (see sidebar). For transplant patients, the presence of alpha-gal in a transplanted organ can trigger an immune system response that leads to organ failure.

The researchers performing the pig-to-human transplant anticipated the possibility of rejection, says Robert Montgomery, M.D., chair of surgery at NYU Langone Health and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute. Montgomery and his team connected the woman’s blood vessels to those of the pig kidney, clamping the vessels shut to prevent blood flow until the kidney was in place. “Right before we opened up the clamps, I said to the team, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen…but we’re going to learn something important,’” Montgomery says.

When the team opened the clamps, the woman’s blood flowed and filtered normally through the pig’s kidney. The organ functioned as well at the end of the experiment as it had in those first few minutes.

“I was pretty blown away,” Montgomery says.

To protect the kidney and the host from rejection during the transplant, Montgomery and his team turned to Revivicor, a Virginia-based biotechnology company, which produces and breeds “GalSafe” pigs, animals genetically engineered without the gene needed to make alpha-gal. Revivicor uses a method called homologous recombination to produce the pigs, removing the gene from the nucleus of a nonreproductive cell and then inserting that modified nucleus into a female reproductive cell.

Once the reproductive cell develops into an embryo, researchers implant it into a “pseudopregnant” sow, a pig that’s experiencing the physical and behavior changes of pregnancy but is not actually pregnant.

EXPLAINED: ALPHA-GAL AND MEAT ALLERGIES

Lone star ticks can transfer alpha-gal sugar molecules through their saliva when they bite you, spurring an immune system response that sends a flood of antibodies to attack the sugar. If your body overproduces those antibodies, your immune system might also attack the

The sow will then give birth to a pig that’s missing the alpha-gal gene, and that pig can breed with other GalSafe pigs to produce more pigs without the alpha-gal gene.

The surgeons transplanted the pig’s thymus in addition to its kidney. The thymus gland controls the release of mature T-cells, immune system cells that fight foreign invaders in the body. It also deletes T-cells that malfunction and attack the body’s own tissues. In a pig-to-human transplant, the pig thymus deletes human T-cells that would otherwise attack the donated pig organs—in this case, the kidney. Including the thymus was an unusual part of the protocol and is not the clinical standard, says Susan Quaggin, M.D., chief nephrologist and professor of medicine at Northwestern University. Typically, surgeons administer immunosuppressive drugs to prevent the organ recipient’s immune system from attacking the new organ. Using the thymus instead is “exciting and innovative,” she says, but this novel approach could slow down this procedure’s path to FDA approval if more testing is required.

The next step will be to test the viability of the GalSafe kidney in a living human, Montgomery says. While this procedure didn’t indicate how long the kidney would keep working in a human, it suggested the pig kidney won’t be immediately rejected, he says. “I think that’s going to give all of us who are involved in this field, and the [government] regulators, some increased confidence that it’s going to be okay, and that we can now make this jump.”

The technology is unlikely to ever fully replace human kidneys, but after clinical trials and plenty of follow-up, Montgomery says, genetically modified pig kidneys will become a viable option for kidney transplant patients in the next five to 10 years.

alpha-gal found in animal food products such as pork, beef, gelatin, and milk. This can lead to an allergic reaction ranging from hives to nausea to, in extreme cases, anaphylaxis.

Alpha-gal syndrome— unique for its immune system response to a sugar (most allergic reactions are triggered

by a protein)—has no cure, but sometimes symptoms fade over time. Meanwhile, Revivicor breeds GalSafe pigs for human consumption in addition to creating organs safe for transplants, so meat lovers with an alpha-gal allergy could soon enjoy the occasional slice of bacon.

March/April 2022

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Cars & Trucks // BY M ATT CRISA R A //

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March/April 2022

A

CCORDING TO THE NATIONAL INSURANCE CRIME BUREAU

(NICB), thefts of catalytic converters jumped by nearly 326 percent from 2019 to 2020, hitting 14,433 reported cases. This exhaust emission control device contains precious metals, and a crook can earn as much as $250 for a couple of minutes of work with a reciprocating saw. Meanwhile, if you’re unfortunate enough to have your vehicle’s catalytic converter stolen, parts and labor can cost you upwards of $1,000 for a replacement.

As exhaust flows toward your vehicle’s muffler, it enters a catalytic converter (also referred to as a cat) and its catalyst-coated honeycomb structure. There, the catalyst’s precious metals help convert the byproducts of internal combustion—carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and unburned hydrocarbons—into carbon dioxide and water.

G E T T Y I M AG E S

Thieves Want Your Catalytic Converter.

Here’s How to Stop Them

With the proper tools and equipment, a catalytic converter shield or lock can be installed in just a couple of hours.

The MaxJax portable two-post lift is one of the most versatile DIY tools ever invented. Its patented design allows you to get full-sized lift advantages in spaces with limited ceiling heights. Best of all, MaxJax is completely portable and can be setup virtually anywhere. For more info call 1-844-629-5291 or visit MaxJax.com.

1-844-629-5291 • www.MaxJax.com ©2022 MaxJax, LLC, a subsidiary of BendPak Inc. The MaxJax is protected by one or more patents or claims of patents in the U.S. and elsewhere. PATENT NO. US 8.256.577 B2 - PATENT NO. US 9.150.395 B2.

autostacker.com 1-888-977-8225 © 2022 BendPak Holdings LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of BendPak, Inc. Autostacker is protected by one or more patents in the United States, China, Europe, and other countries.

Cars & Trucks

Modern catalytic converters use a reduction catalyst and an oxidation catalyst. The first uses a mix of platinum and rhodium to pull oxygen atoms away from nitric oxide, creating pure, benign nitrogen. The oxidation catalyst (platinum and palladium) then combines oxygen from the reduction stage with the exhaust’s carbon monoxide to convert it into far-less-dangerous carbon dioxide.

It also oxidizes unburned hydrocarbons to create water vapor and carbon dioxide.

Catalytic converters generally house one to two grams of rhodium and up to seven grams each of palladium and platinum. Though all three metals dropped from a peak price in early 2021, at press time they still command $369, $57, and $42 per gram, respectively. Mounted to the exhaust pipe without protection, often near the rear bumper, cats are an easy target.

Higher-clearance vehicles and hybrids are at a much higher risk of having their catalytic converter stolen. With a truck or SUV, there’s more room for thieves to reach underneath. And a hybrid’s electric assistance lowers the stress on the internal combustion engine, leaving more precious metals intact. Earl Black, a mechanic at our local Meineke Car Care Center in eastern Pennsylvania, says that he commonly sees Toyota hybrids and Honda crossovers with missing cats.

Many auto insurance companies and repair shops recommend engraving your license plate number and VIN onto the cat’s exterior, making the

BEST CATALYTIC CONVERTER LOCKS/ SHIELDS

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LOSTAR CATALYTIC CONVERTER SHIELD FOR TOYOTA PRIUS The Toyota Prius is one of the most common vehicles to roll into a shop with its cat missing. This Prius-specific aluminum shield bolts to the underside of the car to block access. $47 to $98 (depending on model year)

March/April 2022

part identifiable to law enforcement if found. However, many salvage shops say they accept just about every cat regardless of what may be scratched onto it.

The NICB also suggests parking in well-lit areas—a motion-sensing floodlight next to your driveway is a great start. But that might not be enough, says mechanic Wade Hughes of Sun Devil Auto in Sun Lakes, Arizona. One of his customers reported having their catalytic converter stolen in broad daylight while parked in a crowded grocery store lot.

Catalytic converter locks and shields provide far greater security. Most locks surround the cat with a steel cage secured to your frame, and shields seal off the area around the converter.

Both are straightforward solutions, and although no device can offer absolute protection, these turn thieves’ easy money into enough of a pain that they’ll look elsewhere.

If your catalytic converter is stolen, call the police and your insurance company to report the theft, and then drive straight to a repair shop. Operating a vehicle without a cat is not only incredibly loud but can also lead to a hefty fine in most states.

Following a theft, many drivers will opt to replace the original cat with a cheaper aftermarket alternative. However, Black says a factory cat is generally more efficient, and aftermarket versions can often trigger engine error codes that delay the repair and drive up the labor cost. Most repair shops can also install protection systems (like those below) during the replacement process.

CATCLAMP CATALYTIC CONVERTER CAGE Cages fit most vehicles.

CatClamp’s model wraps its ¼-in-thick stainless-steel wire rope around the cat and loops around the chassis to add another roadblock for crooks. $176

CAT SECURITY SHIELD This shield wraps around the cat itself, making it more inaccessible to thieves than a cage. Cat Security makes shields for the Honda Element as well as Toyota vehicles (Prius, Tundra, Tacoma, Sequoia), along with the Chevrolet City and the Nissan NV200. $279

CO U R T E S Y LO S TA R ; CO U R T E S Y C ATC L A M P ; CO U R T E S Y C AT S E C U R I T Y

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Battery Power.

Made by STIHL.

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Removable Bar & Chain The removable 4" guide bar and 1/4" PM3 saw chain feature toolless replacement, allowing for easy access and maintenance.

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Deep Math

5

// BY LEIL A SLOM A N //

PH OTO I L LUS T R AT I O N BY A LYS E M A R K EL US I N G G E T T Y I M AG E S

W This Natural Treasure Contains the Secret to Stronger Armor

Keshi pearls, sourced from Akoya pearl oysters, can exhibit up to 2,615 layers of nacre, built up over a span of 548 days.

HEN IT COMES TO BUILDING

tough, resilient materials without wasting energy, few human manufacturers can compete with Mother Nature. One of her most intriguing achievements is nacre, commonly known as mother-of-pearl, a material that is much stronger than the sum of its parts. “[Nacre] is effectively chalk, but it doesn’t break like chalk. When I think of chalk, I think of a very brittle, delicate material,” says Robert Hovden, a professor of materials science at the University of Michigan and one of the researchers on a study involving nacre. Last year, his team uncovered new information about the nano-level structure of nacre that could open new frontiers in the world of human-made supermaterials.

The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on nacre’s structure at the nanoscale level—lengths of a billionth of a meter, even smaller than a wavelength of light. Using an electron microscope, the researchers noticed that inconsistencies in the nacre’s brick-and-mortar structure led to “corrections” in future layers. When an asymmetrical nacreous layer corrupted the pearl’s symmetry, future layers “adjusted” their thicknesses to make the pearl more spherical.

Clams and other mollusks construct pearls by blanketing a “bead nucleus,” or a small object inside the pearl sac, with tiny alternating layers of calcium carbonate and organic protein. These layers make up nacre. “It’s sometimes referred to as brick and mortar,” explains Neil H. Landman, curator emeritus at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History. “The bricks are the nacreous [calcium carbonate] tablets; the mortar are the organic sheets between the tablets.”

Hovden and seven other researchers analyzed the “periodicity” of this brick-and-mortar structure, or how uniform the layers of nacre were.

March/April 2022

25

Deep Math

They found that an erroneous layer—one that was too thick or too thin—affected layers up to 5.5 microns (5.5 millionths of a meter) away, creating repetitions over distances of 8.5 microns that, all together, formed a near-symmetrical pearl. Mollusks appear to be accounting for irregularities that occur while constructing pearls. Nacre layers’ thicknesses varied by up to 40 nanometers on average, but not in a haphazard way.

The layers mirrored what often happens in a mathematical system known as a Markov process, says Hovden. Markov processes include an element of randomness—in this case, the thickness of the outermost nacreous layer—but one that can be influenced by the system’s history. (“Memoryless” Markov systems also exist—see sidebar.)

In a pearl, the thickness of the nacreous layers depends somewhat on the thickness of the layers preceding it; thick layers will sometimes beget compensatory thin layers around them, and the correlation is strongest between layers that are close by. This pattern is typical of systems involving a Markov process.

Markov processes are widespread in nature. “It’s the same structure you find in heartbeats, in earthquakes, the crumbling of sandcastles, economic markets, and now we add to that list, the structure of pearls,” Hovden says. This fits what scientists already knew about pearls, says Landman: Changes in the outside world, such as seasons, appear in a pearl’s layers. “Pearls are like tree rings,” he says.

“If you cut up the pearls, you could reconstruct what is going on in the area where the pearls were forming maybe hundreds of years ago.”

These f i nd i ng s i nt r ig ue eng i neers a nd researchers looking to recreate desirable natural materials without human manufacturing. Mother Nature can make pearls under “physiological conditions,” says Shenqiang Ren, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. “I mean neutral pH, room temperature, and ambient pressure.” The hope is for humans to achieve the same results with the same sustainable methods.

When humans build with bricks, they plan the construction to avoid irregularities. “A skilled mason measures every layer, and any mistakes that could disrupt the periodic order are corrected through premeasured lines and templates,” says Hovden. Mollusks, however, don’t seem to need planning to create near-perfect pearls: “They’re 26

March/April 2022

The board game Chutes and Ladders involves players racing up a numbered path according to the sum of a dice roll. If you land at the bottom of a ladder, you climb farther up the board, while landing atop a chute slides you backward. The game ostensibly hinges on chance due to its reliance on dice, but in actuality, Chutes and Ladders is a stochastic system called an absorbing Markov chain, meaning just a portion of the system contains randomness.

Absorbing Markov chains are “memoryless.” Past dice rolls in Chutes and Ladders don’t affect the results of the next move, but the current position of each player does. Rolling a seven might move you forward seven spaces in one

pretty unintelligent things. Yet [pearls] have incredible periodic symmetry.” Hovden says.

Scientists don’t yet understand all the nuances of pearl making, but Ren and his lab are using nacre as one source of inspiration for a strong, light material that can be used in gear such as armor and helmets. “Before we replicate those material[s] artificially in man-made structure[s], [we’ve] got to understand what processes determine their microscopic physical properties,” Ren says. Other possibilities include diatoms, a type of algae, and materials inspired by bones.

But you won’t find nacre-inspired armor anytime soon. Producing an object the size of a pearl is quite different from producing suits of armor, Ren says. “There are still some fundamental questions that need to be addressed in order to make this commercially viable,” he explains.

In the meantime, there is plenty to appreciate about pearls and other natural materials as they already are. “Serendipity is just wonderful,” says Hovden. “We’ve been [studying biomaterials] on the side for five years now, and I’m yet to have a project where you don’t open up this material and just get shocked with wonder.”

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Military Tech // BY THOM AS M UTCH //

Members of the 82nd Airborne Division test C4 in Afghanistan in 2002.

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March/April 2022

F

most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever developed “the Mother of All Bombs” (MOAB), the U.S. military finally found an opportunity to test the ordnance on the battlefield. In April 2017, intelligence officials had located a large cell of Islamic State Khorasan, the terrorist group also known as ISIS-K, hiding in a cave complex in Nangarhar province on the border with Pakistan.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, to use its official name, had shown promise during demonstrations in testing grounds, such as Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, since its unveiling in 2003. But the Pentagon had never deployed it in actual battle, over concerns about civilian casualties. This cell, however, was believed to be remote enough for a MOAB deployment.

According to the initial assessment by the Afghan Ministry of Defense and local media reports, the surprise blast swept through the caves with ease, causing at least 36 casualties, without harming any known civilians. (The U.S. government never publicly released its own damage assessment.) For the Pentagon, this was more than a strike against terrorists: It served to demonstrate the feasibility of its newly developed weapons systems.

In many ways, Afghanistan was the ideal battleground for trialing new technology. Unlike in Iraq and Syria, much of the fighting took place in rural or mountainous areas with low concentrations of civilians. Using the GBU-43/B near urban centers would constitute a war crime under international law because the force would have been “indiscriminate,” causing civilian deaths and the destruction of critical infrastructure.

Using an active conf lict to experiment and demonstrate the effects of new technology is nothing new. World War II saw the rapid development and deployment of technology ranging from computers for codebreaking to nuclear weapons. More recently, during the First Gulf War, the U.S. and its allies tested satellite surveillance and target identification technology that enabled coalition forces to disable the once-fearsome Iraqi army.

In Afghanistan, the U.S. military first demonstrated a major new capability before its invasion.

A prototype Predator drone had been loitering over Kandahar in September 2000 when its opera-

G E T T Y I M AG E S

Did the U.S. Lose a Crucial Testing Ground When It Left Afghanistan?

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Military Tech

tors spotted a tall, bearded man they recognized as Osama Bin Laden. But as Stars and Stripes reported, “the elation was quickly erased by exasperation. The Predator had yet to be equipped with missiles.”

It was the start of a process that would lead drone warfare to becoming a major factor on the modern battlefield. In 2020 alone, the Trump administration used a Reaper drone to kill top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, and Azerbaijan used Turkish- and Israeli-developed drones to overwhelm the Armenian military and end the decades-long Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in a matter of weeks.

The Afghan government, especially under former president Ashraf Ghani, was particularly pliant to U.S. military requests, as it depended heavily on U.S. support and aid. However, the American exit from Afghanistan may not affect the readiness of the military for future fights.

“While the conflict in Afghanistan allowed the testing and rapid development of communication and precision weapons capabilities, the Taliban didn’t operate air capabilities,” says Justin Bronk, a research fellow for Airpower Technology at the Royal United Services Institute in the U.K. In the case of an offensive conflict with a peer adversary such as Russia or China, these developments would be of limited use.

THE ADVANTAGES OF UAVS ARE RENDERED USELESS IN THE CONTEXT OF AN ENEMY THAT CAN CUT THE LINK BETWEEN OPERATOR AND AIRCRAFT.

“The advantages of UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles], for example, are rendered useless in the context of an enemy that can cut the link between operator and aircraft,” Bronk says.

And China, which has not been involved in a major military conflict since its war with Vietnam in the 1970s, is proving that a strong military may not even need an active testing ground. It recently shocked the Pentagon when it tested a hypersonic missile that circumnavigated the globe. And in their own Xinjiang province, the People’s Liberation Army recently built two mock aircraft carriers that bear the distinctive traits of American carriers—to possibly practice locating, tracking, and destroying the U.S. Navy’s most precious asset in any future wartime.

TESTED IN AFGHANISTAN The nearly 20-year conflict saw the development of both transformational and controversial new military tech.

30

ON THE SPOT SURVEILLANCE

MEDICAL HELP ON THE BATTLEFIELD

BIOMETRIC DATA COLLECTION

In 2019, the U.S. equipped a battalion from the 82nd Airborne with experimental mini drones that could be carried on a soldier’s person and flown with a handheld controller. This allowed them to rapidly scout nearby terrain from a safe position.

As casualties from IEDs mounted, battle medicine developments focused on treatments that could be given at the scene. Medics developed tourniquets that could be applied with one hand, allowing injured soldiers to use it on themselves.

In one controversial development, U.S. and local authorities trialed biometric data collection, like iris scans, to compile large amounts of data on populations. Experts now worry the Taliban could use the tech to find Afghan allies who aided the U.S.

March/April 2022

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1

7

Physics // BY CA ROLINE DELBERT //

The absolute temperature scale gives measurements in Kelvins—unlike Celsius and Fahrenheit, which use degrees. Absolute zero is thus 0 Kelvin, not 0 degrees Kelvin.

32

March/April 2022

R

in Germany have conditioned a lab to register the coldest effective temperature in a research-controlled environment ever recorded—38 trillionths of a Kelvin above absolute zero. According to a 2021 study published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the temperature persisted for two seconds at the University of Bremen’s Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), and the conditions that made this possible could have longstanding ramifications for quantum mechanics.

Absolute zero is 0 Kelvin, equal to –273.15 degrees Celsius, or –459.67 degrees Fahrenheit.

This is the point at which particles are essentially motionless, and it’s the lowest possible

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temperature we could ever theoretically reach, according to the laws of thermodynamics. Some researchers seek absolute zero for use in precision instruments that can test the fundamental laws of physics, while others do so to model something called the Cold Big Bang, when all matter exploded into being and the universe began operating under observable laws of matter and energy.

In this latter sense, looking at a system at absolute zero—one almost completely without kinetic energy—would be close to observing the very beginning of physics.

When conditions move closer to absolute zero, particles begin to behave in abnormal, unpredictable ways, affecting the properties of elements and compounds. Nitrogen freezes into an unstable solid at 63.15 Kelvin, or –210 degrees Celsius, and liquid helium becomes a frictionless “superfluid” at around 2 Kelvin. At cool enough temperat ures, some par ticles even ta ke on special wavelike characteristics, forming a state of matter called a “Bose-Einstein condensate” in which a mass of individual particles enter the same quantum state to become a single fluidlike cloud of atoms.

In the dist a nt f ut ure, the universe w i l l approach absolute zero at the end of everything (see sidebar). However, it’s impossible for scientists to create absolute zero conditions in a lab, because removing all heat from an object would require an enormous amount of energy.

To simulate an extremely cold temperature, the researchers in Germany applied a magnetic field to an atomic cloud to slow the atoms within and lower the system’s temperature. The magnetic field was generated by a current running through a chip that was used to trap and cool the atoms beforehand.

The field acted as a lens affecting all the atoms collectively. The researchers tuned their lens toward a distant focal point to slow down the atomic cloud’s expansion. With the correct magnetic field magnitude and timing, the atomic cloud’s expansion came close to a standstill, reducing the effective temperature to an astonishing 38 picoKelvins (that’s 38x10 -12 Kelvins). Because no thermometer can detect such a minute amount of energy, the researchers calculated the figure based on the particles’ lack of kinetic movement.

34

March/April 2022

The magnetic field was tuned using careful calibration, as if it were a specialized pair of prescription glasses. Just as eyeglass lenses can focus near or far, so can the scientists tune a magnetic field. In this experiment, the scientists tuned their magnetic field to an infinite distance away, collimating the cloud’s expansion in all three dimensions. With the expansion of the atomic cloud reduced to .00005 meters per second, recording the kinetic temperature required two seconds of observation, which was only possible by doing it in ZARM’s drop tower in weightless free fall.

The group of researchers, from the University of Bremen, Leibniz University Hannover, the Humboldt University of Berlin, and the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, say they hope to eventually achieve a top potential “weightlessness” period of up to 17 seconds.

Although brief, this stretch of time could allow them to test the fundamentals of physic s i n t he pu re s t p o s sible cond it ion s a nd a l s o help ot her r e s e a r cher s e x a m i ne t he Cold Big Bang and other universal mysteries in a context that explores the state of the world just as it began.

Absolute Zero Is Certain Death for Our Universe The Big Freeze hypothesis states that the heat death of the universe will result when all of space approaches absolute zero, or a state of no thermodynamic free energy. A 2020 study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society posits that heat death will arise in the distant future, when low-mass stars like the sun exhaust their nuclear fuel and become white dwarf stars—extremely dense remnants of the stars’ cores. After trillions of years, the white dwarf stars will become black dwarf stars, stellar remnants that have cooled down so much that they are no longer emitting heat or light.

Silicon nuclei in the black dwarf stars’ cores will fuse to produce nickel nuclei which will emit positrons (the

antiparticle of an electron, meaning it has the same mass as an electron, but a positive charge), and in turn will decay into iron nuclei. In the most massive black dwarf stars, those positrons will eventually “annihilate” enough electrons at the core, causing a gravitational collapse that will fuel a colossal explosion. The creation of each black dwarf star—along with black hole evaporation and darkened galaxies—will leave behind iron chunks of former planets, comets and stars, and trace subatomic particles and energy. As space expands, that energy will cool to absolute zero, bringing on the heat death of our universe. But don’t worry too much: Experts estimate that this final hurrah won’t occur for another 10 1100 years.—Courtney Linder

NUBEQA is a prescription medicine for men with prostate cancer that has not spread to other parts of the body and no longer responds to hormone therapy* *Hormone therapy includes drug treatments or surgery that lowers testosterone.

INDICATION NUBEQA® (darolutamide) is a prescription medicine used to treat men with prostate cancer that has not spread to other parts of the body and no longer responds to a medical or surgical treatment that lowers testosterone.

It is not known if NUBEQA is safe and effective in women and children.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION NUBEQA can harm unborn babies and cause loss of pregnancy. Men with female partners who may become pregnant should use effective birth control (contraception) during treatment and for 1 week after the last dose of NUBEQA.

Before taking NUBEQA, tell your healthcare provider about all your medical conditions, including if you: • Have kidney or liver problems.

• Have a partner who may become pregnant.

Males who have female partners who may become pregnant should use effective birth control (contraception) during treatment and for 1 week after the last dose of NUBEQA. Talk with your healthcare provider about birth control methods.

• For women, tell your healthcare provider if you are: – pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

NUBEQA can cause harm to your unborn baby and loss of pregnancy (miscarriage) – breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. It is not known if NUBEQA passes into breast milk.

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Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. NUBEQA may affect the way other medicines work and other medicines may affect how NUBEQA works.

You should not start or stop any medicine without talking to your healthcare provider.

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Talk to your healthcare provider if you have concerns about fertility.

These are not all the possible side effects of NUBEQA. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch.

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Please see additional Important Safety Information on adjacent page and Important Facts About NUBEQA on next page.

IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT NUBEQA® (darolutamide) tablets (new-BEH-Kah) What is NUBEQA? NUBEQA is a prescription medicine used to treat men with prostate cancer that has not spread to other parts of the body and no longer responds to a medical or surgical treatment that lowers testosterone. It is not known if NUBEQA is safe and effective in women and children.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking NUBEQA? Tell your healthcare provider about all your medical conditions, including if you: • Have kidney or liver problems • Have a partner who may become pregnant.

Males who have female partners who may become pregnant should use effective birth control (contraception) during treatment and for 1 week after the last dose of NUBEQA. Talk with your healthcare provider about birth control methods • For women: tell your healthcare provider if you: – are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

NUBEQA can cause harm to your unborn baby and loss of pregnancy (miscarriage) – are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. It is not known if NUBEQA passes into breast milk Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.

NUBEQA may affect the way other medicines work and other medicines may affect how NUBEQA works.

• Swallow NUBEQA tablets whole.

• If you are receiving gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analog therapy, you should continue with this treatment during your treatment with NUBEQA unless you have had a surgery to lower the amount of testosterone in your body (surgical castration).

• If you miss a dose of NUBEQA, take your normal dose as soon as possible before your next scheduled dose. Do not take 2 doses together to make up for a missed dose.

• If you take more NUBEQA than prescribed, call your healthcare provider right away.

What are the possible side effects of NUBEQA? • Feeling more tired than usual • Arm, leg, hand, or foot pain • Rash • Decreased white blood cells (neutropenia) • Changes in tests that determine how your liver works (liver function tests) NUBEQA may cause fertility problems in males, which may affect the ability to father children.

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How should I store NUBEQA? • Store NUBEQA at room temperature between 68°F to 77°F (20°C to 25°C).

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• Visit www.nubeqa.com to obtain the FDA-approved product labeling • Call 1-888-842-2937 You may report side effects or quality complaints of products to the FDA by visiting www.fda.gov/ medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

© 2022 Bayer. All rights reserved. BAYER, the Bayer Cross and NUBEQA are registered trademarks of Bayer. PP-NUB-US-1439-1 12/21 Printed in USA

Machines

8

// BY K YLE W IENS //

It’s likely been decades since you last found a service manual included in the box with a new tech product. The Right to Repair movement seeks to change that.

CO U R T E S Y I F I X I T

Digital Locks Are Shackling the Future of Tinkering

W

H E N I WAS I N H I G H SCH OO L , MY FI RST J O B

involved repairing Apple computers for minimum wage so I could buy a laptop for college. When I finally scraped together the $1,800 or so for a midrange iBook, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, two months into the semester, I dropped my clamshell laptop on its power port, breaking it. I searched for a service manual online, but I was stymied by repeated copyright takedowns that are effectively “No Trespassing” signs.

Those takedowns were a clear sign that Apple didn’t want me to fix my laptop; it had established a defensive perimeter of lawyers to enforce the knowledge ban. As it turns out, Apple isn’t unique in this—Toshiba notoriously demanded that an Australian repair website remove all of its online manuals. The farm equipment manMarch/April 2022

39

8

Machines

ufacturer John Deere has secret diagnostic tools that it refuses to share with farmers. These legal tactics are standardizing an expectation of manufacturer control. Inspired by my frustrating dorm room experience, in 2003 I started iFixit, an online repair community dedicated to enabling people to fix all their things. Ever since, we’ve been systematically tearing down the obstacles that companies have erected to block repairs.

These days, a tech product is far more than the physical thing you can touch. In the past, you could take things apart and intuit how they worked. Software has changed that: Some functionality is now invisibly locked away inside a microchip. You can’t touch it, you can’t feel it, and you can’t change it.

Using this newfound leverage, tech companies have pioneered tactics to lock us out of the things that we own. If this trend continues, tinkering will become a thing of the past. Everything we own has the potential to become a disposable appliance, connected to the internet and subject to the whims of the manufacturer.

Let’s say you like really crunchy toast. You could swap out the spring in your old toaster for a slower one, but you can’t change the software timer in a new toaster to make your toast darker. And pretty much everything these days—from toasters to tractors—contains embedded software.

Apple’s latest lockdown tactic involves broken iPhone screens. It digitally pairs the screen to the rest of the device so that you need special software to restore full functionality. Because it’s an industry leader, other companies have begun copying Apple’s repair-stymieing tactics—Samsung is now using similar software locks.

Farmers and mechanics are running into the same issue. If you buy a new electronic part from

John Deere, it comes without the required software to make it work. Deere refuses to provide farmers with tools to transfer software off their old part.

GM has even sued Dorman Products, an aftermarket parts manufacturer, for selling its own tool to transfer software onto new auto transmissions.

In legislatures around the world, proponents of the Right to Repair movement are fighting these companies to preserve our ability to tinker. Last year, the New York Senate passed a bill that would require companies to publish manuals and share parts and software tools with their customers—but time ran out in the session before the bill could make it through the Assembly.

In November, Apple announced that it would finally start making some parts and manuals available to customers. It’s a seismic shift in favor of DIYers, but it’s not enough to overcome the softwarepowered barriers that companies have erected.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Biden administration have come out strongly in favor of repair reforms, and Congress is working on a bipartisan bill to reverse the copyright law that GM abused to sue Dorman. That bill would legalize distribution of software repair tools, enabling a much-needed marketplace of modern repair tools. Dozens of states are expected to introduce laws to restore balance in the world of repairs. Strong opposition is expected from companies that profit from monopolizing repair. But the path forward is clear: You bought it.

You own it. You should be able to fix it.

Along with my laptop, I also brought a gift from my grandfather with me to college: a soldering iron.

Despite Apple’s best efforts to stop me, I managed to patch the cracked solder on my charge plug. I put it all back together, the laptop fired right up, and I was on my way.

2021

STATE OF PLAY Despite strong opposition from manufacturers and lobbies, Right to Repair reforms are coming.

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2022

MAY

JULY

NOVEMBER

JANUARY

FUTURE

The Federal Trade Commission issues a unanimous, bipartisan “Nixing the Fix” report, finding that “there is scant evidence to support manufacturers’ justifications for repair restrictions.”

President Biden issues an executive order in July calling for a “whole of government approach” to restoring competition, and singling out farmers’ problems with repairing their John Deere equipment.

Apple caves and agrees to start selling parts and making service manuals available to consumers “in early 2022.”

Dozens of states are expected to introduce Right to Repair laws at some point in 2022. Illinois legislators hold the first such hearing.

Members of Congress are considering reversing the anti-tinkering Section 1201 copyright law.

March/April 2022

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9

Space // BY JEN NIFER LEM A N //

Iodine-Powered Satellites Could Save Low-Earth Orbit 42

March/April 2022

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H E N U M B E R O F S M A L L S AT E L L I T E S

placed in Earth’s orbit has been steadily increasing over the past decade—up from 39 launches in 2011 to 1,202 in 2020— and the pace continues to accelerate. In the coming decades, satellite operators such as OneWeb, SpaceX, and Amazon plan to launch tens of thousands of satellites into orbit to enhance broadband internet coverage around the globe.

Typically, the electric propulsion systems that power these small satellites rely on pricey gas propellants like xenon or krypton, which are in short supply. “If you do the numbers, there is just not enough xenon available for xenon propulsion systems on all these satellites,” says Trevor Lafleur, Ph.D., a plasma physicist and principal engineer at the French space firm ThrustMe. Lafleur and his colleagues are part of a broader

P H OTO I L LU S T R AT I O N C R E AT E D B Y A LY S E M A R K E L U S I N G T H R U S T M E ( T H R U S T E R)

Downstream view of ThrustMe’s NPT30-I2 iodine ion thruster firing in a vacuum chamber.

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eing a trainer, bodybuilder, and nutrition expert means that companies frequently send me their products and ask for my stamp of approval. Most of the time I dive into research, test the product out, and send the company honest feedback. Sometimes, however, I refuse to give the product a try, because frankly, the ingredients inside aren’t real food. And I’d rather drink diesel fuel than torture my body with a chemical concoction.

Like my father always said, “What you put inside your body always shows up on the outside.”

One protein shake that I received, that will remain nameless, was touted as ‘the next big shake’ but really had a list of gut destroying ingredients. Everywhere I read I saw harmful artificial ingredients, added sugars, synthetic dyes, preservatives and cheap proteins; the kind of proteins that keep you fat no matter how hard you hit the gym, sap your energy and do nothing for your muscles.

Disappointed after reviewing this “new” shake, I hit the gym and bumped into my favorite bodybuilding coach. This guy is pushing 50, has the energy of a college kid, and is ripped. So are his clients.

While I firmly believe that the gym is a no-talk focus zone, I had to ask, “Hey Zee, what protein shake are you recommending to your clients these days?”

Zee looked at me, and shook his head. “Protein shakes are old news and loaded with junk. I don’t recommend protein shakes, I tell my clients to drink INVIGOR8 Superfood Shake because it’s the only all natural meal replacement that works and has a taste so good that it’s addicting.”

Being skeptical of what Zee told me, I decided to investigate this superfood shake called INVIGOR8.

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While there are over 2500 testimonials on Amazon about how INVIGOR8 “gave me more energy and stamina” and “melts away abdominal fat like butter on a hot sidewalk”, what really impressed me was how many customers raved about the taste. So I had to give it a try.

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And INVIGOR8 was good. Better than good. I could see what Zee meant when he said his clients found the taste addicting.

I also wanted to see if Invigor8 would help me burn that body fat I’d tried to shave off for years to achieve total definition.

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9

Space

effort to develop a cheaper, more sustainable propellant—one that can maneuver satellite constellations through orbit safely and efficiently.

Xenon, the heaviest nonreactive noble gas, is the propellant of choice in part because it has a low ionization threshold, meaning it requires relatively low amounts of energy to lose an electron and ionize. But at approximately $3,000 per kilogram, it’s an expensive option. It’s also a finite resource, making up less than one part per 10 million in Earth’s atmosphere. That’s particularly troubling given how many industries, like lighting and imaging, use the gas.

Krypton, the propellant that powers SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, is also in high demand. While it’s cheaper than xenon, krypton isn’t as efficient.

Plus, more than half of the world’s krypton is used in the thermal insulation of windows—a need that’s expected to grow as the world warms and contractors work to reduce energy loss in large buildings.

“The [small-satellite] industry is almost forced to look for alternatives,” Lafleur says.

Enter iodine. The mineral, found naturally in many sources from soil to seaweed, is abundant— its global production is 500 times that of xenon, and it’s about 100 times cheaper. “It could easily accommodate being used on all these satellites, while still being able to service all of the other industries that require it,” Lafleur says. Though iodine has roughly the same mass as xenon, its storage density is three times higher than xenon’s and nine times higher than krypton’s, both of which are stored as gases in pressurized tanks. Iodine can be packed into a smaller, unpressurized tank, making miniaturization easier. In tests, iodine proved twice as effective as xenon. It’s safer to transport, and thrusters can be shipped prefueled so buyers don’t have to spend time sourcing propellants from local vendors. “You can pretty much plug it in,” Lafleur says.

In February 2021, ThrustMe concluded the first ever in-space test of an iodine ion thruster. While in orbit, the NPT30-I2 thruster fired a total of 11 times, both to test whether it was operational and to reposition the Spacety satellite it was maneuvering.

ThrustMe shared the results in November 2021 in the journal Nature.

“People have talked about iodine as an option for electric propulsion ion thrusters for almost 20 years now,” says Charlie Ryan, Ph.D., an aerospace engineer at the U.K.’s University of Southampton.

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March/April 2022

“[This test] is a considerable step.” ThrustMe was the first to launch and test an iodine thruster, but it’s not the only company developing the technology. The Italian space firm T4i launched a similar iodine propulsion system in 2021.

Iodine isn’t necessarily a silver bullet, though.

It’s highly corrosive, so the team at ThrustMe encased the most critical parts of the thruster in iodine-compatible coatings made from ceramic and polymer. And it takes 10 minutes for the system to heat up enough to convert the solid iodine into plasma, hampering the satellite’s ability to make quick orbit adjustments. Lafleur says this issue will likely improve with more power.

ThrustMe plans to scale its designs to meet the needs of a wide variety of missions. Lafleur says the company is working on a larger version of the current propulsion system, as well as a design that clusters multiple thrusters together. Both, Lafleur says, could take a spacecraft to the moon, Mars, or beyond.

The propulsion system can shrink, too. Many satellites currently in orbit are too tiny to house a propulsion system. “If you’re a small satellite with no propulsion system and there’s a collision risk, you can’t do anything about it,” Lafleur explains.

Future satellites could be outfitted with a miniature, simplified version of the company’s iodine thruster, powerful enough to perform avoidance maneuvers and reenter Earth’s atmosphere, thus limiting potential collisions involving space junk.

“We can finally offer something to small satellites which didn’t really exist before,” he says.

Here’s the Thrust of It Ion thrusters rely on a process called ionization, pulling electrons from an atom to form ions, to generate thrust.

Instead of ionizing expensive noble gases, ThrustMe’s propulsion system (see main image) turns solid iodine into a plasma, which can then be ionized and expelled as thrust.

H O W IT W O R K S: Heaters within a specialized tank warm the solid iodine until it sublimates, turning it into a

gas. That gas enters a specialized discharge chamber surrounded by a radio-frequency (RF) inductive antenna. Similar to an induction stovetop, the RF induction antenna heats the gas and turns it into a plasma. “It’s essentially a soup of electrons and positive ions,” Lafleur says. Then, a pair of high-voltage grids extracts the positive ions from this soup and accelerates them to generate thrust.

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G E T I T N OW AT P O P U L A R M E C H A N I C S . C O M/S T E A M B O O K

HOW TO

BUILD BACKYARD

GREENHOUSE a

Step-by-step plans for making a plant-filled oasis

BY JOSEPH TRUINI PHOTOGR A PH Y BY HEN RY HUNG

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M

any backyard gardeners start their plants indoors in late winter or early spring, before the weather is warm. But the best way to jump-start plants for spring gardening and also extend the growing season into winter is with a backyard greenhouse. Our design is a 6-by-8-foot structure, large enough to accommodate dozens of plants but compact enough to fit into the smallest yard. It’s also easy to build, requiring only basic carpentry skills and easy-to-use tools. You can finish it over a couple of weekends.

The cost of the materials to build our greenhouse is about $1,200. That’s higher than some pre-assembled greenhouses, but our materials are more reliable than any “snap together” model; plus, this one is customizable. We include a potting bench, overhead plant hanger, and deck, but you can add or subtract features as needed. Whether you’re an expert gardener or a rookie, our greenhouse will expand your gardening potential and diversify the kinds of plants you can grow at home.

SPECS AND MATERIALS

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I LLU S T R AT I O N BY G EO RG E R E T S ECK

Part Qty. Size and Description A 10 1⁄2" x 18" reinforcing bar B 2 4" x 6" x 72" timber frame foundation C 2 4" x 6" x 96" timber frame foundation D 10 2" x 4" x 52½" rafter E 3 1" x 4" x 60" intermediate truss collar tie F 2 2"x 4" x 56" gable-end truss collar tie G 2 2"x 4" x 135⁄8" front truss vertical blocking H 1 2" x 4" x 8½" rear truss top block I 2 2" x 4" x 71⁄8" rear truss side block J 10 2" x 4" x 69¼" sidewall stud K 2 2" x 4" x 96" sidewall top plate L 2 2" x 4" x 96" sidewall sole plate M 4 2" x 4" x 69¼" rear wall stud N 1 2" x 4" x 65" rear top plate O 1 2" x 4" x 65" rear sole plate P 2 2" x 4" x 69¼" front wall stud Q 2 2" x 4" x 75¾" front wall trimmer stud R 2 2" x 4" x 17¾" front wall top plate S 2 2" x 4" x 185⁄8" front wall top plate T 8 2" x 4" x 23" eave blocking (Trim eave blocking to finished length on-site)

U 10 1" x 2" roof battens V 10 1" x 2" sidewall battens W 2 1" x 2" x 96" rafter strapping X 1 ¾" x 7¼" x 99" ridge cap Y 1 ¾" x 8" x 99" ridge cap Z AA BB CC DD

1 2 2 1 1

FF GG HH II JJ KK

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CUT THE TIMBER FRAME FOUNDATION Start by crosscutting two pressuretreated 4x6 timbers to 8 ft. long, and two other 4x6s to 6 ft. long. Mark both ends of all four timbers for a 1¾-in.deep x 5½-in.-wide half-lap joint. Set the depth of cut on your circular saw to 1¾ in., and make a shoulder cut across the timber precisely 5½ in. from each end of the four 4x6s. Then set the saw to its maximum depth of cut and make the cheek cut in from the end of the timber [1].

Flip the timber over and make another cheek cut into the opposite edge. To complete the half-lap joint, trim away the last bit of waste wood with a reciprocating saw or handsaw. Repeat to cut half-laps into both ends of all four 4x6 timbers. Lay out the 6x8-ft. timber frame foundation, overlapping the half-lap joints at each corner. Measure the opposing diagonals to check that the foundation frame is square and make adjustments as needed; then secure each half-lap joint with two 3½-in.long structural screws [2].

1" x 3" x 8¼" vent frame top 1" x 3" x 171⁄8" vent frame side 1" x 3" x 41⁄8" vent frame end 1" x 3" x 363⁄8" vent frame bottom 3 5⁄16" x 16¼" vent top plywood gusset EE 2 2½" x 7" vent side plywood gusset

LL MM

1" x 3" x 76¾" door stile 1" x 3" x 195⁄16" door head rail 1" x 3" x 195⁄16" door midrail 1" x 4" x 195⁄16" door bottom rail 1" x 4" x 32" door head casing 1" x 4" x 77" door side casing

1

Polycarbonate roof panel Polycarbonate sidewall panel

NN 6 1" x 4" x 21¼" potting bench support OO 3 2" x 4" x 25¾" potting bench brace PP 4 1" x 4" x 96" potting bench slat QQ 1 ½"-diameter x 94" conduit for hanging plants RR 2 1" x 4" x 20" cleat SS 4 5⁄4" x 6" x 72" decking TT 5 2" x 4" x 20½" deck floor joist UU 2 2" x 4" x 72" deck band joist 2

3

BUILD THE ROOF TRUSSES In this build, you’ll prefabricate the roof trusses that frame the greenhouse roof to simplify the framing process. Each truss is composed of two angled roof rafters and a horizontal collar tie. There are five trusses in all: front and rear gable-end trusses, and three intermediate trusses. Begin by cutting ten 2x4 rafters to 52½ in. long. Miter-cut the top end of each rafter to 40 degrees; leave the bottom end square. Next, measure up 2½ in. from the bottom of the rafters and cut a small notch known as a bird’s-mouth cut. These notches allow the lower end of the rafters to sit flush on top of the sidewalls. (See the photos on page 52 for more information.)

Also, measure down 25½ in. from the upper end of each rafter and cut a ¾-in.-deep x 1½-in.-wide notch into the top edge of each rafter. Cut the ¾-in.-deep sides of the notches with a jigsaw, and then chop out the block of waste wood with a hammer and 1½-in.-wide chisel. These notches will accept a 1x2 strap after you install the trusses.

To assemble the trusses, butt together the 40-degree-mitered ends of two rafters. Then glue and screw a ½-in. plywood gusset plate over the joint between the rafters [3]. (We used yellow decking glue throughout this project.) Fasten the gussets with 1¼-in. decking screws. Repeat for the remaining four pairs of rafters.

For each of the three intermediate trusses, cut a 1x4 collar tie to 60 in. Miter-cut each end of the collar

HOW TO

BUILD A BACK YARD GREENHOUSE

long, and the bottom 1x3 to 363⁄8 in.; square-cut both ends of each piece. Next, cut two short side parts to 41⁄8 in. long, mitering their upper ends to 40 degrees. Lastly, cut the two angled parts to 171⁄8 in. long; miter each end of both parts to 40 degrees.

Assemble the air vent parts, then glue and screw a ½-in. plywood gusset plate across the top joints [6], and across the joint at each lower corner, with 1¼-in. decking screws.

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tie to 50 degrees, then glue and screw it to the rafters with 15⁄8-in. decking screws [4]. For each of the two gableend trusses, cut a 2x4 collar tie to 56 in. long; miter-cut each end to 50 degrees. Set each collar tie in between and flush with the rafters, then screw it in place with 2-in. decking screws.

To the rear gable-end truss, add three small triangular 2x4 blocks.

Place one in each lower corner, between the rafter and collar tie [5], and one in the upper corner tucked beneath the gusset plate. The blocks create a rough opening for the operable air vent. To the front gable-end truss, install two 135⁄8-in.-long vertical 2x4 blocks. Miter-cut the upper ends of the blocks to 40 degrees, and notch the bottom ends to fit snugly over the 2x4 collar tie. These two blocks provide fastening support for the polycarbonate panels.

CUT AND ASSEMBLE THE AIR VENT FRAME Make the frame for the air vent from six 1x3s. Cut the top 1x3 to 8¼ in.

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MAKE THE GREENHOUSE DOOR To make the 245⁄16-in.-wide x 76¾-in.tall greenhouse door, start by cutting two 1x3 vertical stiles to 76¾ in. long.

Next, cut the three horizontal rails to 195⁄16 in. long; cut the head rail and midrail from a 1x3, and cut the bottom rail from a 1x4.

I joined the door frame parts using a plate joiner to cut slots for compressed-beech biscuit splines.

Position the top edge of the midrail 37¼ in. down from the head rail.

After cutting corresponding slots in the parts, I applied glue to the slots, inserted the biscuits, and clamped the frame together [7]. If you don’t have a plate joiner, glue and screw ½-in. plywood gussets across the joints with 1¼-in. decking screws.

Let the glue cure overnight.

7

FRAME THE WALLS All four walls of the greenhouse are framed with 2x4s. Cut the horizontal top plates and sole (bottom) plates for the two sidewalls to 8 ft. long. For the rear wall, cut the top and sole plates to 65 in. Next, cut five 2x4 studs for each sidewall, and four studs for the rear wall, to 65¼ in. To assemble the walls, drive two 3-in. decking screws through the top and sole plates and into each wall stud [8].

To frame the front wall, which includes the doorway opening, you’ll need ten 2x4 parts: Cut the sole plate to 65 in. and then cut two double-2x4 top plates. Each double top plate consists of an 185⁄8-in.-long 2x4 topped with a 17¾-in.-long 2x4. Next, cut two wall studs to 65¼ in. long, and two trimmer studs to 75¾ in. (The trim-

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ted with a flush-trim bit to cut away the overhanging polycarbonate [11].

A router provides the quickest and most accurate way to trim the polycarbonate, but if you don’t own a router, lay the polycarbonate panel in place, mark where it overlaps the wall frame, and then trim it to size using a circular saw or jigsaw.

INSTALL FOUNDATION AND WALLS 10

11

mer studs form the rough opening for the door.) Finally, cut a 27¾-in.-long 2x4 temporary header to span across the top of the trimmer studs. Screw the parts together with 3-in. decking screws. Once the wall is installed, remove the header. Use a paint pad to apply a coat of solid-color stain to all surfaces of each part [9]. Allow the stain to dry overnight.

Set the timber frame foundation on the ground and use a 4-ft. level to confirm that it’s level across its width and length. If necessary, dig out or build up the underlying soil until the frame is level. Next, bore ½-in.-diameter holes, spaced about 24 in. apart, through the timber frame. Use a small sledgehammer to pound ½-in.-diameter x 18-in.-long steel reinforcing bars through the holes and into the ground [12]. The bars will keep the foundation from shifting. Cover the ground within the timber frame with landscape fabric; then add 3 in. of gravel or bark mulch to create the floor.

Install the prefabricated walls, starting with one of the sidewalls.

Stand the wall on the timber frame

foundation, aligning the sole plate flush with the outer edge of the 4x6 foundation timber [13]. Secure the wall to the foundation by driving 3-in. decking screws down through the sole plate and into the 4x6 below [14].

Space the screws about 24 in. apart.

Repeat to install the opposite sidewall.

Raise the rear wall, sliding it between the two sidewalls, and confirm that the walls are plumb. Screw the rear wall down to the foundation with 3-in. drywall screws, and then screw through the studs at each end of the rear wall and into the sidewall [15]; space the screws 16 in. apart.

Repeat to install the front wall [16].

Then use a handsaw or reciprocating saw to cut out the 2x4 sole plate that runs across the doorway threshold.

14

ATTACH THE POLYCARBONATE PANELS Doing this to the wall frames prior to erecting them will save you time and trouble. Begin by peeling off the clear protective film from the back side of each polycarbonate panel. Lay the polycarbonate across the walls, starting in the center of the wall frame.

Make sure all seams align with the center of a stud, but leave a 1⁄8 -in. expansion gap between the panels.

Fasten the polycarbonate panels to the wall frames with 1¼-in. decking screws spaced about 16 in. apart.

Slide the polycarbonate panels into place at each end of the wall frame [10], and then use a router fit-

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INSTALL THE TRUSSES Add the roof trusses by tilting the rear gable-end truss into place on top of the rear wall [17]. Align the truss flush with the outer edge of the wall, and drive a 3-in. decking screw up through the top plate and into the bird’s-mouth cut in each rafter.

Then install the three intermediate trusses, making sure to position each over a wall stud [18]. Fasten each intermediate truss as you did the gable-end truss: Screw up through the top plate at a slight angle and into the bird’s-mouth cut [19].

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March/April 2022

Set the front gable-end truss on top of the front wall and tilt it into place [20]. Drive 3-in. drywall screws up through the top plate and into each rafter, and then secure the truss with two 3-in. metal L-brackets. Screw the brackets to the top of the trimmer studs and into the 2x4 collar tie [21].

SHEATHE THE ROOF Before attaching the polycarbonate roof panels, set a 1x2 strap into the notches cut into the top edge of each rafter. Secure the straps by driving a single 15⁄8-in. decking screw through

the 1x2 and into each rafter [22].

Then install a 2x4 block between each pair of rafters [23] to close off the space between the top plate and the underside of the polycarbonate roof panels.

Fasten the polycarbonate panels to the rafters with 1¼-in. decking screws, spaced 16 in. apart [24]. Continue installing the panels across the rafters on each side of the roof, leaving a 1⁄8-in. gap between each panel.

Once all the roof panels are in place, make the ridge cap, using a pressure-treated 1x8 and 1x10, each

PH OTO G R A PH/ I LLU S T R AT I O N BY T EEK AY N A M E

26

99 in. long. First, use a circular or table saw to rip the 1x10 down to 8 in. wide. Then bevel-rip a 10-degree bevel into one edge of the 1x8. Screw the two boards together and set the ridge cap over the peak of the greenhouse roof. Secure it in place by driving 15⁄8-in. decking screws down into the rafters [25].

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ADD THE OVERHEAD PLANT HANGER

ADD BATTENS To help create a weathertight roof, apply a continuous bead of silicone sealant to the seams between the polycarbonate panels. Then cover each seam with a 1x2 batten [26]. Fasten the battens with 15⁄8-in. trim-head screws, spaced 16 in. apart. Repeat the process to apply battens to the vertical seams in the greenhouse walls.

29

FINISH THE DOOR AND VENT Add 1x4 exterior casing around the doorway opening, and then hang the door with two self-closing hinges [27].

Mount the hinges 6 in. from the top and bottom of the door. Then install the automatic vent opener by screwing it to the air vent frame and the 2x4 collar tie [28].

BUILD THE POTTING BENCH For the potting bench’s three mounting brackets, cut two horizontal 21¼-in.-long 1x4 bench supports, and one 25¾-in.-long 2x4 diagonal brace. Trim one end of the six 1x4s to 45 degrees, and both ends of the three 2x4s to 45 degrees. Glue and screw one 1x4 to each side of the 2x4 to create a 45-degree diagonal brace. (You’ll use 15⁄8-in. decking screws for the potting bench.) Slip each mounting bracket onto a stud in one sidewall. Position the brackets 35¼ in. above the timber frame foundation, and fasten them by screwing through the horizontal 1x4s

PH OTO G R A PH/ I LLU S T R AT I O N BY T EEK AY N A M E

Complete the interior of the greenhouse by installing an overhead bar for hanging plants and baskets. Cut a length of ½-in.-diameter metal conduit to 94 in. Drill a ½-in.-diameter x 1-in.-deep hole in the 2x4 collar tie in the front and rear gable-end trusses.

Position the holes 12 in. from the end of the collar ties. Slip the conduit into the holes, and then secure it to the underside of each 1x4 collar tie with a single conduit strap [31].

BUILD AND INSTALL THE PRESSURE-TREATED DECK 30

and into the side of the wall stud [29].

Then drive a single screw through the lower mitered end of the brace and into the edge of the wall stud.

Since there’s no way to attach a mounting bracket to the studs at each end of the sidewall, screw a 1x4 cleat across two studs in the front wall and rear wall. Place each cleat at the same height as the mounting brackets: 35¼ in. above the foundation. These support the 1x4 potting bench slats.

Make the surface of the potting bench from four 96-in.-long 1x4 slats. Set the slats across the mounting brackets and cleats, spaced ½ in. apart, then fasten them with 1¼-in. decking screws [30].

For the deck frame, cut two 2x4 x 72-in. band joists, and five 2x4 x 20½-in. floor joists. Screw the floor joists between the two band joists with 3-in. galvanized decking screws, spaced 161⁄8 in. apart, to create the deck frame. Set the frame in front of the doorway and fasten it to the timber frame foundation with four 3½-in. structural screws. Support the outer two corners of the deck frame with concrete blocks or pressure-treated posts to hold the deck level.

Cut four pieces of 5⁄4-in. x 6-in. pressure-treated decking to 72 in. long. Lay the decking across the floor frame, spaced ½ in. apart [32]. Fasten the decking to the deck frame with 2-in. decking screws. Now, with your greenhouse complete, bring in the plants and watch them grow!

I Bought a

Brent Underwood owns Cerro Gordo, a mining town from the 1800s in the high desert of Southern California.

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March/April 2022

This abandoned California mining village once had 400 buildings.

Now I’m restoring the 20 that remain.

By Brent Underwood, as told to Clint Carter March/April 2022

55

LIFE WITHOUT WATER IS PRETTY MUCH TORTURE. CERRO GORDO DRIED UP YEARS AGO WHEN I N 2018 , B RE NT U N DE RWOOD SU B M ITTE D A WI N N I NG $1 .4

million bid on a network of dried-up silver mines in Southern California. The property includes 336 acres of high-desert terrain and the remains of a mining boomtown called Cerro Gordo, or “Fat Hill.”

After COVID-19 hit, Underwood moved from his home in Austin, Texas, to live at Cerro Gordo full-time. Now he’s the sole inhabitant of a genuine Wild West artifact.

The day we closed on Cerro Gordo, my partner and I met the caretaker to receive the most preposterous key chain I’ve ever seen. There must have been 40 keys hanging off. It happened to be Friday the 13th and my partner’s birthday, so after signing the papers, we retreated to Cerro Gordo to celebrate.

The plan back then was basically the same as it is now: We want to turn the old mining town into an offbeat hospitality destination and artist retreat. Things just haven’t run as smoothly as we’d hoped.

Originally we talked about soft-launching a few cabins on Airbnb by Halloween 2019, but logistical challenges, a catastrophic fire, and a national pandemic have continued to push that date back. Now here we are in 2022, still not open for overnight guests, and for the past two years, I’ve lived at Cerro Gordo alone.

Don’t get me wrong, the town is humming. Volunteers show up frequently to help me restore the old buildings, and brave

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Los Angeles redirected its water supply and drained Owens Lake, which used to sit just below the town. The initiative was part of the aqueduct program that inspired the movie Chinatown, and I had to truck water up the gravel road in limited amounts.

You can imagine life without running faucets, but living it every day is another story. With no plumbing, I used an outhouse and washed my hands in a bowl. To shower, I warmed a rubber bag of water in the sun and then let it dribble down on me from above. I longed for a sink, a washing machine, and a garden hose.

I’d heard stories about water leaking into one of the mines. Legend had it that there was a sump 700 feet underground, with an old pump that stopped working. The problem was, the lift to go down and inspect the situation is 150 years old, and almost everybody I spoke to told me it was too dangerous to use. Especially since there was no guarantee that water was still there.

But time wore me down, and I had to find out.

So I put together a team with an electrician, a lift operator, and a Cerro Gordo old-timer who’d been down the shaft years ago. As the hoist started dropping us, the guy looked at me and said,

P R E V I O U S S P R E A D : CO U R T E S Y B R E N T U N D E R W O O D ; G E T T Y I M AG E S (B AC KG R O U N D , I , N A I L S) ; CO U R T E S Y B R E N T U N D E R W O O D (R I G H T )

travelers drive in over nearly eight miles of steep, rough gravel for self-guided tours. But it’s a lot of work to put in without any serious income.

This isn’t how I imagined my life, but I’m not complaining. Despite the challenges, I’ve never been happier. I feel a real connection to the town’s Wild West history: Miners started settling Cerro Gordo in the 1800s, and Butch Cassidy is said to have spent time here hiding out from the law. I have a view of Mt. Whitney on one side and Death Valley on the other, and every day I explore abandoned mines and hunt for artifacts left behind by the men who worked here.

The more time I spend at Cerro Gordo, the more I fall in love, and now when I leave to stock up on groceries or gather supplies, I immediately want to come back. But it’s hard work bringing a ghost town back to life. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

Clockwise from top: This building once served as one of the town’s brothels; goods line the walls of the general store; a briefcase Underwood found in town, containing bank statements, mining claims, and contracts for three miners.

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LET PEOPLE KNOW YOU’RE LOOKING A report from the analytics company GeoTab counts more than 3,800 ghost towns still standing in America. But they don’t usually receive much attention when they hit the market, says Underwood. Weird property news generally travels fastest by word of mouth.

Before he discovered Cerro Gordo, for instance, Underwood told people he was looking for a challenging hospitality project.

One day, out of the blue, a friend texted him the listing along with a note: “lol, this might be up your alley.” The friend was correct.

— GO ALL IN After contacting the broker, Underwood discovered that a hundred or so people had already expressed interest.

So he entered a bid he couldn’t afford: $1.4 million, all cash. It was 50% over asking price, and he committed to closing the deal in seven days.

“The problem was I didn’t have even 10% of $1.4 million,” he says.

“And no bank is going to lend money on a ghost town with no running water and no foreseeable way to generate revenue.”

The seller accepted the offer, and Underwood wired over a nonrefundable $50,000 deposit. Then he and his partner, Jon Bier, called everyone in their networks to raise money.

They managed to hit the goal only through the help of a short-term hard-money loan that

came in after 4 p.m. on their scheduled closing day. If the property’s that special, that’s the kind of commitment you’ll probably need.

— THINK BEYOND THE WILD WEST Underwood wasn’t looking specifically for an abandoned mining town. He just wanted something with a rich history, and if you take that approach, you’ll find more inventory. “Somebody just texted me a Craigslist listing for an old library in Vermont

that has 50,000 books from the 1700s onward,” says Underwood. “It has nine rooms, and it’s potentially haunted.”

That, he says, is the kind of property with value beyond its rickety structure. “People aren’t interested in Cerro Gordo because of the old buildings,” he says. They’re interested because it was the largest mining town in California, and it’s the source of so much mystery and lore. “If I were looking for another property, I would find one like that.”

Cerro Gordo has a number of cabins where miners would stay while they worked.

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CO U R T E S Y B R E N T U N D E R W O O D (C A B I N) ; B R I A N VA N D E R B R U G / LO S A N G E L E S T I M E S V I A G E T T Y I M AG E S (F I R E) ; G E T T Y I M AG E S (B AC KG R O U N D , N A I L S)

Lo o k i n g fo r yo u r ow n Ce r ro G o rd o? St a r t h e re.

A fire burned the American Hotel to the ground in 2020, leaving only rubble behind.

“Brent, you got to figure that every time you go down is your last.” The lift cable could break. The walls could cave in around us. I was terrified. It took nearly an hour for the rickety old lift to drop us 700 feet.

But when we arrived, we found it. The water was there. We swapped out the old chemical pump for a new one, and I now have running water into my personal cabin. The f low won’t be strong enough for guests, so I’ll still have to truck water in for overnight stays. And the pump still occasionally loses prime. I’ve had to drop back down the shaft about a dozen times to fix it.

But when the pump’s working, I can use it to fill a holding tank that helps with cleaning and projects like mixing concrete. Finding that water was probably the most exciting day I’ve had here in three years.

FIRE IS A CONSTANT THREAT.

sleeping in it, but we were devastated at the loss of our most prized building. We had to delay opening further to clean the mess and implement fire safety in the existing buildings.

A couple hundred years from now, I hope people think about the fire of 2020 as just another chapter in Cerro Gordo history. With our new plan, we’re rebuilding the American Hotel as authentically as possible. We’re replicating the interior and using 100-year-old period wood on the facade. But this time we’ll have a sprinkler system. We’ll have six rooms, and everything will be up to modern code.

I N ITS H EYDAY, CE RRO GO RDO HAD 4 0 0 WOO D E N

buildings. Today it has just 20, and most of that loss is likely due to fire from lightning strikes or shoddy electricity.

In the summer of 2020, as we got close to opening a couple of the cabins for guests, I woke up to find the American Hotel, the crown jewel of Cerro Gordo, engulfed in flames. It was the result of too many amateur electricians tinkering with wiring over the years. Something sparked, and the old wood caught like kindling.

We were lucky it happened while nobody was

EVEN GHOST TOWNS HAVE WI-FI.

tower, so I’m able to pick up spotty internet service using an AT&T hotspot.

It’s not enough to stream anything, but I can work my day job remotely—I’m a partner at a creative marketing firm. And I’m able to share Cerro Gordo with the world.

A couple years ago, after a friend kept asking how it was to

O N E O F T H E N E A R BY M O U N TA I N S H A S A C E L L

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Left: Cerro Gordo in the late 1800s; Right: Underwood stands near some of the town's remaining 20 buildings. Most of the others have been lost to fires.

mendous amount of progress. We poured the 81 feet of footers and hauled in 4,000 cinder blocks for the basement. Soon we’ll begin framing, and with luck we’ll be open for business in November.

LOCAL PRIDE IS A VITAL RESOURCE. L O N E P I N E I S A B O U T 2 5 M I L E S AWAY F R O M

Cerro Gordo, and farther on up Highway 395, you come across Independence and Bishop. Some of the locals in those towns really want to see Cerro Gordo succeed. They grew up hiking the property and visiting the old buildings, so they understand the potential.

After the fire, some of those locals saw me struggling out here alone, and they just started showing up. Some volunteered time, and others offered equipment. The guy who owns the local tow shop lent me his Bobcat, and we had an architect do building plans for free. Once we started making progress, more people offered to help. A guy from Utah showed up to truck in concrete.

It’s incredibly inspiring, and we’re making a tre-

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THERE’S ALWAYS MORE TO DISCOVER.

to every mine on the property, but then I came across a 1960s report from the United States Geological Survey. It estimated there were 30 miles of mines at Cerro Gordo. I’ve only seen about 20 percent of that, so I figure I have about 24 miles of mines left to discover.

You’d think mines would be easy to find, but they’re not.

One day the old-timer who helped me fix the water pump asked, “You ever been to San Lucas?”

I hadn’t, and for good reason. Years ago, it turns out, he purposely hid the trail that leads the way. After showing me his first secret mine, he showed me five or six others that I never would have found on my own.

That was a big breakthrough. But most of the time, I find TH E R E WA S A TI M E W H E N I TH O U G HT I ’ D B E E N

CO U R T E S Y B R E N T U N D E R W O O D (1 8 0 0 S , P O R T R A I T, M I N E) ; G E T T Y I M AG E S (B AC KG R O U N D , N A I L S)

live here, I posted a few YouTube videos. My first one now has more than 8 million views, and it caught the attention of some other big creators.

That’s allowed me to help build some attention around the mining town, which will help when I eventually have the hotel open. FaZe Clan, which are like the Yankees of e-sports, came out and shot some video. And Sam and Colby, these paranormal guys, came out looking for treasure. One of them recommended that I start posting my daily mine adventures on TikTok. I followed the advice, and within a month I had a million followers. Now that number is over 3 million.

mines with slow, patient searching. I start by scanning mountainsides from across the valley.

I look for tailing piles, which are the mounds of rock deposited outside the portal, or entrance.

When I find a pile, I pinpoint a nearby landmark that looks like a good spot to start my hike in, and then I head for that spot.

Often I arrive to find that the portal’s collapsed. It’s frustrating when you walk an hour to a mine, only to learn you can’t enter. But as I’ve grown more comfortable with mine exploration, I’ve started to occasionally dig out the entrances.

There are some mines where you can march right in, and others where you dig a hole and then squeeze yourself through.

But every mine is different. Take the Omega Tunnel. For that one, I spent two weeks digging with a loader and then blasted it with dynamite. But I still couldn’t get in. So I spent another month or so excavating, and when I finally gained entrance, I discovered it was collapsed 200 yards in.

To go deeper, I’ll need to start digging again. And I’m sure I will eventually, but there’s a lot of other work to do around here. Nothing’s ever easy, but that’s what I signed up for. And it will all be worth it as soon as I’m able to share this town with more people.

Underwood has found lots of old mining artifacts in his explorations, including dynamite, liquor bottles, Levis, and carbide tins.

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B Y STEVE N

MARK SALOWSK Y

PHOTOGR APHY BY

C H RI ST O PH E R C H U RC H I LL

V-8 TESLA WE BUILT THE WORLD’S FIRST

THE RICH REBUILDS TEAM HAD A DEAD MODEL S. THEY FIXED IT WITH A CAMARO ENGINE.

8 ▲ Our 2015 Tesla Model S and its LS3 V-8, pulled from a wrecked 2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS.

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SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME, WE’VE WANTED TO DISPLAY A FEATURED CAR AT SEMA.

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◀ Our team (from left): Bryan Maynard, Steven Mark Salowsky, Rich Benoit, Chad Hrencecin, Joshua Dodge.

Market Association trade show in Las Vegas is extravagant, it is inspiring, it is perhaps the greatest automotive pissing contest you’ll ever witness. It’s an annual gathering for every somebody in the car world to show off the fanciest thing they can create on four(ish) wheels.

My business partner, Rich Benoit, and I thought we finally had something radical and bold enough for the event. We didn’t just want to exist there. We wanted to steal the show.

That also meant we needed a car that could actually move under its own power. Most of the cars at SEMA get pushed onto the expo floor, but nobody’s happy about it. The shame of an unfinished ride is something to avoid at all costs. And yet with 30 hours until our transport truck arrived, we were approaching the city limits of Shamesville.

After two years of patiently converting a Tesla to an internal-combustion-engine muscle car—we’ll get to why on earth anyone would do this—we were down to just hooking up the fuel lines but were caught waiting for fitments to arrive in the mail. And they weren’t going to make it in time.

TH E S PECIALT Y EQ U I PM E NT

Rich and I have been revitalizing Teslas for about six years now. It started when Rich, an intrepid tinkerer, wanted a Tesla Model S but didn’t think it was reasonable to pay $100,000 for one. His solution: Take a couple of salvaged Teslas and put them together. Simple, right? Start with a

▼ We fabricated a triangular brace instead of a strut bar (above the engine) to add rigidity to the frame.

flooded electric vehicle—good for its shell, not its corroded batteries—and wait for a second Tesla with a battered shell and a good set of Duracells. After a year and a half of wrenching, our first fully functional electric car emerged for a total of $6,500. It also launched our YouTube channel (Rich Rebuilds) featuring odd and eclectic EV projects in 2017, and eventually the Electrified Garage, our sister company that performs EV maintenance, repair, and conversions for the public.

After a couple of years, we were running out of Tesla projects and started building up cars that we simply wanted to enjoy.

We resurrected a BMW i8. We gave a 1932 Ford Model A an electric powertrain from a crashed LAPD motorcycle. And we restored a neglected twin-turbo Audi RS7—too beautiful not to save. Not every project had a battery, which upset the die-hard EV hive, but we love all things automotive.

All the while we were buying up salvaged Teslas (we’re up to 17 in various stages of destruction). Despite our well-documented love for Tesla, the feeling isn’t mutual. We buy so many wrecked Teslas March/April 2022

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▼ After too much debate, we opted for a forward position S1 Sequential shifter.

▶ Ringleader Rich Benoit, laughing like he’s reading angry YouTube comments from Tesla stans.

because the company won’t sell us its housemanufactured batteries and motors. We know it’s (mostly) not personal, because Tesla won’t sell to anyone, not even a certified tech who’s outside the company.

Usually that’s not a problem, because insurance companies act like touching even a slightly damaged Tesla would result in widespread hair loss. Fools. They write the cars off as a total loss for salvage, and then we rehabilitate each Tesla for a tidy profit or part it out.

We’re never sure what we’ve bought until we can check out the internals, but most of these are low-risk purchases. There was one, however, that seemed like a true lemon.

This 2015 Tesla Model S P85D looked like it was in great shape and could be more than another parts car. We happily put down $23,000, only to discover that the insurance note of minor water damage actually meant it had gone for a swim. Just like a cellphone dropped in water for too long, the submerged electronic boards made this vehicle a very expensive paperweight that no amount of rice could revive. Worse, we had a battery

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and motor shortage for this model because it was particularly safe and seldom crashed.

So we had this gorgeous vehicle with barely a scratch on it that could not move under its own power—because there was none. So a terrible idea was born.

Well, Chevy would sell us a motor. It was a simple statement. It was also blasphemy, sacrilegious to Tesla’s environmental cause. We laughed for a good long while, and were then overtaken by deafening silence. One should not put a gas engine in an electric car. But we knew we had to do it.

We’d toyed with the idea when Tesla first emerged on the scene, and we knew we weren’t the only ones who thought of jamming a gas hog in the frunk—the front trunk. In fact, Joshua Dodge, our welder on this project, had bombarded our inbox for almost a year with emails saying he wanted to see it happen, and that if we didn’t do it, he would.

Our goals were simple: an LS small block, a manual transmission, and no discernible difference from afar. The questions that followed were not simple. Where will that motor hide? How will we cool it and feed it air? Can you cut a Tesla in half without the chassis failing? Can you still run Tesla’s computer without the Elon Duracells? Where does the new fuel cell go? Will the aluminum chassis handle the flex from the heat and torque, or reject the V-8 transplant? Will Elon Musk take us to court? Can they still track the car if we think we disabled the LTE/Wi-Fi?

In December 2019, we pulled the car out of storage and stripped the interior and computer to begin measuring everything to see where a new drivetrain might fit. The first order of business was to remove the airconditioning unit and frunk. Then we could determine how much room we had for a motor and test the space with foam engine mockups.

Instead of actually buying a crate motor from GM, we spent many a night eBaying for potential donors to keep costs down.

Eventually we landed on a 426-horsepower 6.2L Chevy LS3 motor from a wrecked 2011 Camaro SS. To everyone’s surprise, it fit like a glove in the Model S frunk-turned-engine-bay, and the hood latched in place on the first try.

While that V-8 hogs all the attention, the crux of the build was actually creating a tunnel for the transmission and driveshaft down the middle of a car that comes with a flat underside. The flat floor is most obvious when you notice the lack of a center console hump in early Teslas. This was a specific request by Musk, a subtle flex highlighting the lack of a certain bulge most every other car on the road needed.

Once the 1,200-pound battery pack and its 16 corroded modules were dropped, the real fun began. We brought the shell to Joshua’s garage to go under the knife. Technically, Joshua was a stranger we’d only met on the internet. But he said he had significant welding experience and really enjoyed our YouTube channel. Seemed legit enough that we didn’t worry about being murdered in an alley. On our first visit to his garage, we saw walls covered with the body panels of Nascar vehicles Joshua had built. We knew then that we’d make this daydream a reality.

The Tesla body is mostly aluminum to offset the batteries’ weight. But aluminum is softer than the typical carbon steel used for auto frames, and we needed to cut a seam down 70 percent of the length of the car to make way for a driveshaft. This posed the challenge of maintaining the structural integrity of an area that was also never designed to absorb the heat and torque of an LS motor. So to avoid creating a frame that wanted to fold in half, Joshua added a rib cage of bracings to the underside.

Our team fabricated and fitted motor and transmission mounts and had a custom rear axle built. Once the drivetrain lined up, we saw one last major complication: How would

“WE NEEDED TO CUT A SEAM DOWN 70 PERCENT OF THE LENGTH OF THE CAR TO MAKE WAY FOR A DRIVESHAFT.” March/April 2022

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“THE SOUND WAS SNAPPY, THROATY, AND DOWNRIGHT MEAN.” 68

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CO U R T E S Y S T E V E N S A LO W S K Y

we install a shifter that didn’t smash your fist into that 17-inch touchscreen? Our intention was to keep the vehicle looking as close to stock as possible on all fronts, so that at least from a glance, if you didn’t hear the thunderous babble of a V-8 idling, you would assume it was a regular Tesla. The touchscreen had to keep its spot, and if we couldn’t hide the shifter, at the very least it needed to look good. Originally we thought it funny to have a huge gated shifter with a Tesla battery cell as the grip, but ultimately we installed a short throw shifter to keep a safe distance from the screen.

Once this was in place, we felt confident not just that our build was in the homestretch but that we finally had a car that could mark our arrival at SEMA. Four months remained until the show. Surely that was enough time.

While we were piecing together the drivetrain in one garage, Chad Hrencecin and Bryan Maynard from the Elec-

trified Garage had the shell in another.

They pulled out nearly 3,000 feet of wiring, keeping only what was needed to power the normal features of the car from its touchscreen, and wired up a new fuse block in the glove box.

Bryan also fabricated our heat shield, a 10mm aluminum face with a 1⁄8-inch composite glass-fiber core. Despite pulling the engine in and out a dozen times to perfect the fit, we needed to finish the wiring when it was time for the shielding to go in. So Bryan had to cut and mold the shielding around the motor by hand while it was in place.

An LS3 doesn’t move on the power of our hopes and dreams, so we needed a fuel cell. Fortunately, the Model S’s trunk has a sub-level void that can also be used for a seven-seater configuration to let two kids in reverse jump seats dangle their feet into the rear hatch. Sorry, kiddos, we filled the space with a 14-gallon gas tank and chased a line to the filler cap into the Tesla’s rear taillight, where the charge port used to be.

Then there was the problem of how to cool the motor. Another flex in this Tesla’s designs are the solid, no-grille front ends. It’s more aerodynamic and signifies that they don’t need air flowing to a motor. We wanted to keep that appearance, but our motor very much needed air. EVs do, however, have giant batteries that need to be cooled, lest they start a fire. Our Tesla has an air duct for the batteries’ radiator tucked into the bumper, so we kept the original vents and rerouted the air to the engine and its radiator.

We now had something that looked like a functioning vehicle. The drivetrain was installed, and the body had been “upgraded” for it. But with a month to go, there was still a lot to do before we could arrive at SEMA with a motor that made noise. Stock Teslas are largely silent; ours had to be different.

◀ Stopping for a quick break and photo op at Zion National Park en route to SEMA in Las Vegas.

We had to put together an exhaust system, wire up a Haltech tuner to communicate with the motor, reupholster the interior for the transmission hump, and add structural bracing above the LS3. All the while we were waiting for at least 24 more parts to arrive, most being fitments for the fuel lines— nonnegotiable for firing up the motor. Great. We could alter or fabricate our way out of most problems, but not this one.

Normally we’re a chipper group of people, but two weeks out, our garage felt like a funeral home. We were eating meals in there, napping on-site in a Mercedes Sprinter van conversion, and showers? Meh, no one was coming near us anyway.

The lack of sleep started to make us feel numb inside, but we could see the finish line again. Then we got a call that the fitments were delayed. There was no way our Tesla could drive onto the trailer under its own power for the trip to Vegas.

There was one last option. We didn’t like it, but it gave us a shot. We could buy three days by driving the Tesla ourselves from the Electrified Garage in New Hampshire to SEMA. Truckers are required by law to stop every eight hours, but as a group of madmen we could drive around the clock and then finish it with Geddy Getz, a local LS specialist.

After 2,733 mind-bending miles (seriously, check out how weird it gets on our YouTube), we pulled into Geddy’s driveway on Monday morning at 8 a.m. We had until 5 p.m. to deliver the car 20 minutes down the road to the SEMA floor. Taking our box of fitments, Geddy tuned the motor

▼ Taking our showstopper for a drive near Plum Island, Massachusetts.

so that it didn’t run too lean and sound like a clangorous mess of sputters and backfires, or too rich that it bogged itself down and smelled like a BP tanker spill. Either option would be as embarrassing as pushing the car to its booth. We had precious few hours to find the balance, and then...the cylinders started to align like the planets to an astrologer. The sound was snappy, throaty, and downright mean.

We drove into SEMA with two hours to spare. It was time to scare and confuse people with something they’d never seen or heard before. Our work isn’t conventional, but you have to respect it—we received praise and admiration from a lot of our industry heroes that week.

It’s funny, we’ve been looking at the Tesla T on hoods of ever-so-quiet cars for the better part of a decade. But when our eyes drift to the side exhaust on our Model S, they begin to moisten from the inky smoke of 376 cubic inches ready to lay down now-444 ponies. We’re brought back to the thing that made us love automobiles in the first place: the thunderous sound of power.

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THIS FOR THE DOERS

You need tools to build, repair, and maintain.

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SAWS 1 . B E S T L I G H T- D U T Y C I R C U L A R S A W

Hart HPCS2 $128 We test homeowner and professional circular saws the same way. In the case of this 20-volt Hart, that meant cutting Douglas fir framing lumber, sawing through the 1.5-inch thickness and also with the board turned on edge so the blade was fully submerged at its maximum depth in the lumber.

Our verdict: You won’t confuse this saw with one used to frame houses; push it too hard and you’ll trip its thermal cutoff.

But it’s got enough oomph for cutting some lumber, including a 4x4. We liked the lock button (officially, the spindle lock); press it to hold the blade in place to more quickly turn off the nut that tightens down on the blade. We also liked its safety latch designed for rightor left-handed users.

1

2. BEST MID-DUTY CIRCULAR SAW

2

→ BEST SAW FOR LAMINATE FLOORING

Ryobi PGC21B $175 Thin-plank laminate flooring is popular for its ease of installation. But if you’re a homeowner, you may not have the tools to accurately rip and crosscut the material should you need to. And that’s where this 18-volt, 5.5-inch circular saw comes in. It sits on a guide rail and is supported on a trolley (somewhat like that found on a gantry crane), free to slide back and forth to enable crosscuts. Or you can fix its position with the flip of a lever. We tried the saw in ripping, crosscutting, and miter cuts. Powered by an amazingly fast 6,500-rpm motor, it did everything we asked of it.

It’s actually fun to use, accomplishing the rare feat of making flooring work, dare we say, enjoyable.

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Worx WX520L $199 This petite saw weighs a mere 8.6 pounds, yet we found it to be unusually capable. Equipped with a 7.25-inch blade, it made short work of 4x6 pressure-treated lumber, 2x10 Douglas fir, ¾-inch plywood, and laminate flooring. And with the 4-Ah battery, this saw will do a significant amount of work before you need to swap in a new battery or give it a recharge.

VISES & SUPPORTS

← BEST MACHINIST’S VISE

Wilton 450P $190 A top-quality vise with a rotating head at this price is a rare thing. We’ve seen a bunch of pretenders; their heads don’t rotate smoothly, or they come loose while you’re working. Not the 450P. This 21-pound vise is professional quality and a lot of tool for the money. It’s built with hardened steel (replaceable) jaw inserts and a body made from cast iron and ductile iron. It’s as tough as it looks, and its grip is tenacious. ↓ BEST WORK SUPPORT

Disston 30140 $169 We’ve never seen anything like the 30140 from Disston. It’s a worktable, a sawhorse, a creeper, a dolly for transporting loads, and a low work platform that’s strong enough to stand on. One side of its work surface has a protractor built in; the other side is a ribbed general-purpose worktable. The whole shebang folds into this suitcase thing that you can carry around or store neatly in your garage. We’re not sure how to categorize it. Maybe “amazing” will suffice.

↑ BEST PLUMBER’S TOOL

Pipe Vise APV02 $215 Everyone from plumbers to DIYers who spend a lot of time tightening and loosening pipe fittings will appreciate this well-made tool.

Cast aluminum, with hardened steel jaws, it amounts to a flattened fast-action pipe wrench. Lay the tool down on any working surface and slip a pipe and fitting into its jaws. The tool’s spring-loaded jaws hold the pipe while you tighten or loosen the fitting using a pipe wrench. With a little practice, it’s an amazingly rapid way to assemble and disassemble pipe and fittings without a lot of tightening of vise jaws and positioning and repositioning of parts.

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HAND TOOLS 1. BEST ALLEN WRENCHES

Craftsman CMHT26161V $65 Each of these eight T-handle Allen wrenches has grooves in two of the flats, near the tip, which Craftsman calls “X-Tract” technology. The brand claims that these enable the wrenches to remove a socket-head Allen screw that’s been half ground away from removal, retightening, or abuse. With the 5mm wrench, we removed a badly rounded fastener on one of our bikes in a jiffy. Bonus: The handles are superbly comfortable.

2. BEST WRENCH SET

Craftsman CMMT87350V $80 Craftsman put a 72-tooth ratchet with a 5-degree swing at one end and an open-end wrench at the other, then covered the tool with a thick, polished chrome plating. But wait, there’s more, as they say on TV. Spanning the tool is a nicely dished beam handle.

The raised Craftsman V lettering on it provides a nice grip, while the hinged storage rack keeps the eight wrenches in the kit securely stowed.

1

2

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ← BEST MARKING TOOL

DuraMark Chalk Shot $12 We admit this small pneumatic marking tool is a bit esoteric, in that it’s primarily intended for carpenters and masons who spend a lot of time marking out locations of building components. But man, is it handy.

Rotate the nozzle to the unlock position, and then place its tip where you want to mark. Press down on the pneumatic container to leave a bright green X mark. We tried it on wood, metal, concrete, asphalt, and drywall, both shiny and dirty.

The results were all the same: a nice, crisp X with each push.

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THE ELUSIVE GOAL OF CRAFTSMANSHIP A craftsman once told us that no matter how good your saw is, you’ll need a hand plane, because no sawn edge will ever compare to one that’s been surfaced by a sharp plane.

A hand plane leaves a glass-smooth surface behind it. While that may be true, our tests indicate that manufacturers continue to close the elusive gap between hand-tool perfection and machine precision. We find that newer saws and saw blades are leaving cleaner and better edges. Of course, it’s also true that the better your sawn edge, the more refined your own perception of it is and the more demanding you become.

And this may bring you back to using a hand plane after it’s all said and done—or sawn.

HAND TOOLS → BEST MEASURING TOOL

Bosch GLM20 Blaze $40 We have a bit of an old-school streak.

But we’ve also gotten to the point where we can’t get along without current tech. Which brings us to the Bosch Blaze. It’s the easiest, fastest, and most intuitive laser measuring device we’ve used. It reads distances and angles in meters, feet, and inches to various tolerances that you adjust, plus calculates surface area and volume. Then the accompanying free app lets you export and store all that data in the cloud.

3. BEST SCREWDRIVER

5

Klein 32307 $25 There are more extensive bit kits for installing and removing tamperproof fasteners, but none handier than this 27-in-1 screwdriver from Klein. A pullout carousel in its handle holds two rows of double-end bits that include the usual center-pin Torx and hex types, along with double-pin (snake eyes) and security Phillips bits.

4. BEST PLIERS

3

4

Knipex 82-01-200 $34 We gave these unusual pliers a thorough workout on pipe and bar stock, and then handed them off to various testers here who are known for their strong grip. Everyone came away impressed. Knipex forges the German-made slip-joint pliers out of a tool steel that provides the necessary hardness, ductility, and edge retention. The 82-01-200 pliers are tough, versatile, and capable of gripping a rounded bolt or pipe.

5. BEST SCRAPER

ToughBuilt TB-H4S5-01 $18 Combining a utility knife and razor scraper in one tool is a neat trick that ToughBuilt has accomplished amazingly well.

One easy push-button latch stops the blade at the utility knife position or allows it to slide forward and turn sideways to become a razor scraper.

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NAILERS 1. QUIETEST IMPACT DRIVER

2

Milwaukee DB303552 $329 The DB303552 is in a class by itself in terms of how quietly it operates. It uses a hydraulic drive technology that eliminates metal-on-metal contact, making it much quieter than traditional impact drivers. It also requires less torque, and because the torque is sustained much longer, it can drive tough fasteners more quickly. The driver features three speed settings and a dedicated, effective, self-tapping screw mode, which helped us get screws started and prevented them from stripping out.

2 . B E S T L I G H T- D U T Y IMPACT DRIVER

Hart HPID25 $69 We’re awarding this Hart based on its combination of price and performance. It drove 3-inch No. 10 construction screws with no trouble and has the typical ¼-inch collet backed up by a brushless motor and variable speeds from 0 to 3,000 rpm.

Walmart states its torque output as 2,200 in.-lb. Those specs put it in the same performance class with well-known brands famous on construction sites— impressive for the in-house line of the big box retailer.

1

1 1. BEST FINISH NAILER

Metabo-HPT NT1850DF $301 Picture a brad nailer that’s as light as a pneumatic tool, but without the air hose. That’s what you get with this 18-volt power tool. It’s small, it’s lightweight, and it shoots a finish nail into softwoods and hardwoods alike—sinking all of its nails in our maple and red oak tests. A brushless motor increases its longevity as it improves its (already impressive) firing speed.

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2. BEST CORDLESS FRAMING NAILER

Paslode CFN325XP $399 Lightning fast. That’s how we’d describe this nailer. No hose, no cord. Drop some nails into its rear-load magazine, pull the follower back, and let it go. Assuming you’ve got the butane cartridge loaded and the rechargeable battery in place, let it rip. The CFN325XP fired dozens of 3-inch nails, sinking most to the head. Its slim profile, excellent weight distribution, and lack of recoil aren’t bad, either.

2

DRILLS & IMPACT DRIVERS

3

4

5

3. FASTEST CORDLESS DRILL

Makita GPH01D $389 This is one of the best power tools we’ve ever used. It’s the first one we’ve tried in Makita’s new 40-volt XGT series, power tools with 40-volt motors but batteries that are the same size as a large 18-volt. It drills through Douglas fir in a flash.

Press the trigger, point it, and a moment later you have a hole, and then another and another.

But all that power would be useless without control. Electronic speed control maintains motor speed under load, helping you be more productive and safer.

That’s helpful drilling wood, but even more important drilling steel, where it’s difficult to balance variables of motor speed, bit diameter, and steel hardness and thickness.

4. BEST SAFETY FEATURE

Flex FX1171T $179 Flex, short for Flex Elektrowerkzeuge, is a German power tool company muscling its way into the American market. And

when we say “muscling in,” we’re not being cute. The Flex drill blasted out 229 holes in one battery charge, helped by a turbo mode setting that bumps its top speed from 2,000 to 2,500 rpm. It was also aided by the tool’s circuitry, which has an anti-kickback feature. Despite pushing the FX1171T very hard, we felt no recoil during our time testing it. Just know that, with a 5-Ah battery and weight of 5.8 pounds, this is clearly a heavyduty tool intended for those who need maximum power and battery life to match.

5. BEST MID-DUTY DRILL

Metabo-HPT DS18DBFL2 $170

Lightweight but not light on performance. That’s this Metabo-HPT subcompact drill, as it punched out 39 holes, clearing each in an effortless display of chip-throwing confidence. The small, lightweight battery (1.5 Ah) means the whole package weighs just 3.6 pounds. And don’t be fooled by the relatively modest number of holes it drilled. It’s efficient, and it did its job without stalling or overheating.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

This pandemic has tested everyone’s mettle. And for many of us, having a space where we could grind and work away proved necessary. Not just to get away from it all, but to think. We start out working on a lawnmower and end up repairing ourselves. Every home and office should have such a shop—a repair facility, if you will. Get outside, go down to the basement, take the wheel, work on things, sharpen something. Build something beautiful. We need our shops, wherever and whatever they may be. There’s a world out there waiting to be restored. We can start with ourselves and go on from there.

IN PRAISE OF THE SHOP

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ACCESSORIES

→ BEST HOLE SAW

Disston E0100231 $80 The E0100231 is one of the best hole saws we’ve used. Each body snaps easily onto and off the mandrel (the base that holds the saw blade and centers the drill bit in it). The feature allows you to quickly change sizes and makes disc removal a breeze.

Remove the saw from the mandrel and you have access to the disc from the front, the back, and even the side because of screwdriver access slots cut into the side of the saw body. ↓ BEST SANDING ACCESSORY

← BEST POCKET HOLE GUIDE

Kreg 520 Pro $100 Our test of this Kreg proved that it’s fast, versatile, and reliable. Pocket screws are specialized fasteners that slope at a shallow angle to join two pieces of wood.

The key to any pocket screw tool is that it must hold the wood securely and angle the drill bit precisely. Here, a unique pistol-grip clamp holds the wood upright while guiding a specialized drill bit through hardened-steel sleeves. The design enables you to quickly bring the wood to the jig or the jig to the wood. The tool’s pistol grip can turn 360 degrees, providing you access from any angle, while a trigger permits rapid clamp-andrelease action for repeat hole drilling.

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Diablo Sand Net DFB234DUOH01G $9 Calling the Diablo a sanding block doesn’t give it enough credit. Maybe “sanding wizard” is better. It comes with six abrasive sheets, two each in 80, 120, and 220 grit. One side of the block is a soft foam to help it bend around and sand curved surfaces. The other is rigid for aggressively removing material from flat areas. And we love that the abrasive sheets are washable, extending their life and sanding power.

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11

The Test // BY ROY BEREN DSOH N A N D BR A DLE Y FOR D //

Plotting the Lot: Which Cordless Lawn Mowers Cut the Most Grass

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C

O R D L E S S WA L K M OW E R S H AV E N E V E R P E R FO R M E D

as well as they do right now—and according to our testing, they’ve reached parity with gas mowers in many cases. While we rate cut quality, ease of use, and other features, one of the most important data points in our testing is cut area. Running out of battery life in the middle of mowing is one of the biggest concerns people express to us about cordless mowers. (This is also known in the electric vehicle world as “range anxiety.”) So for each model we test, we determine exactly how much lawn you can really cut on a single charge. We also looked at a typical yard to figure out how much grass, on average, you actually need to mow, so you can be sure a dead battery won’t prevent you from finishing the job.

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY L A KOTA G A B M I L L

HOW WE TESTED One t h i ng we’ve lea r ned f rom decades of mower testing: You’ve got to cut a lot of grass and mow under a wide range of conditions to get a sense of what a mower is worth. We test uphill and down, on flats and along hillsides. We’ve cut pristine areas planted with bluegrass and fine fescue, and tackled the weed-covered wall of a retention basin. We bag, side discharge, and mulch, evaluating handle comfort, the ease of raising and lowering the deck, and how intuitive mounting and dismounting the grass bag is. Every aspect gets a thorough analysis, from power and cut quality to battery life and total area cut.

We even look at whether the tires have a tendency to pick up wet grass clippings. It’s a lot of dogged, tiring testing. And it’s the best way we know how to test a mower.

Makita

NOISE LEVEL DROP-OFF (dB)

Skil

Wen

80

60

40

20

25

50

75

DISTANCE (ft)

KEEPING THE PEACE: MOWER NOISE LEVELS

Noise abatement is a compelling argument for switching to a cordless mower. While gaspowered mowers usually average around 90 decibels (dB), the cordless models we recorded in our test fell between 73 and 76, measured at the operator. (For reference, a typical vacuum cleaner comes in at 75 dB.) While you may debate whether that’s impressive or not, what we found most interesting was how quickly noise levels dropped off as we moved away from the mowers. At 25 feet, noise dipped to 55.1 dB for the Skil, 59.3 dB for the Makita, and 60.5 dB for the Wen. That’s at or below the level of an average conversation (about 60 dB). From 75 feet, noise levels fell even further to 42.9 dB for the Skil, 46.8 dB for the Wen, and 49.1 dB for the Makita. We also kept track of ambient noise in our semi-rural test area, which averaged around 38 dB— accounting for wind, birds, and distant traffic.

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The Test

Lot size ¼ acre, or 10,890 sq ft, or roughly 100 x 109 ft

Deck/patio 300 sq ft, or 30 x 10 ft

ABOUT YOUR QUARTER ACRE

GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR BATTERIES As we mentioned, range anxiety is directly applicable to cordless mowers. One of the biggest concerns people have is running out of battery life before all the grass is cut.

We’re all used to the processes involved with gas mowers—going out to get fuel, checking the oil and gas before starting, seasonal servicing. Cordless mowers have their own set of considerations to keep in mind in order to eke the most functionality out of them. Anything that creates more resistance for the mower can eat up battery life. Here are a few tips to optimize your run time.

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House footprint 1,320 sq ft, or 44 x 30 ft

Rear walkway 156 sq ft, or 3 x 52 ft

Driveway for 2 cars 800 sq ft, or 20 x 40 ft

TOTAL COVERED = 3,456 sq ft

|

Sidewalk 320 sq ft, or 4 x 80 ft

Front walkway 128 sq ft, or 4 x 32 ft

Garden/ landscaping 432 sq ft, 4 ft deep around house

10,890 sq ft – 3,456 sq ft = 7,434 SQ FT OF GRASS

* The national median lot size as of 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is 8,690 square feet, or about one fifth of an acre.

1

Clean off the deck after mowing. A smooth, clean deck allows air and cut grass to discharge more easily.

2

Avoid cutting wet grass. Water adds weight to the grass, demanding more power to chop it.

3

Keep mower blades sharp. A sharp blade passes through the grass more easily as it cuts.

4

Don’t let grass get too tall, and don’t try to cut too much at once.

Cutting overgrown grass will deplete your battery’s charge faster than just about anything else.

5

Work out a mowing pattern to avoid passing over the same areas twice, which runs down the battery unnecessarily.

6

If cutting and bagging, blow out the bag with a leaf blower occasionally to ensure decent air movement through it. If the bag gets clogged or restricted, the resistance from trying to force air through will run the battery down prematurely.

ELENI ARPINO

To address one of the biggest concerns with cordless mowers—being able to finish the job on one charge—we took a close look at exactly how much grass the average homeowner actually has.

We started with a quarter-acre lot (10,890 square feet), which is slightly larger than the national median size.* Taking into account what’s covered by a modest house, driveway, sidewalks, decks/patios, walkways, and landscaping, there’s 7,434 square feet left. According to our testing, the Skil PWRCORE will mow this area with over 700 square feet to spare, while the Makita XML08 will have just 15 left.

The Wen 40441 will come up about 800 square feet short, but an extra battery ($75 for the 40441) would easily cover that. Note that if you have other cordless tools on the same platform, you likely have additional capacity sitting on a charger in your garage.

TH E B E ST O F TH E TE ST

P R O F E S S I O N A L- G R A D E

MOST GRASS CUT

BEST VALUE

M A K I TA X M L 0 8

S K I L PW R CO R E S M 4 91 0 - 0 0

W E N 4 0 4 41

Price: $850 / Voltage: 36 / Batteries: 4, 18-volt, 5-Ah / Weight: 96.2 lb with batteries / Noise: 73.9 dB / Cut area per charge: 7,449 sq ft

Price $450 / Voltage: 40 / Batteries: 1, 40-volt, 5-Ah / Weight: 52 lb with battery / Noise: 75.4 dB / Cut area per charge: 8,184 sq ft

Price: $318 / Voltage: 40 / Batteries: 1, 40-volt, 4-Ah, and 1, 40-volt, 2-Ah / Weight: 53.4 lb with batteries / Noise: 75.9 dB / Cut area per charge: 6,600 sq ft

Makita built the XML08 for contractors, but it’s a good choice for anyone with a lot of grass to mow and a need to mulch, bag, and side discharge. Its credentials are solid: 21-inch steel deck, 9-inch tires, singlelever deck-height adjustment, and outstanding cut quality. Plus, it bags as well as gas-engine mowers. There are tradeoffs with the design emphasis on simplicity and durability. First, the handle is bolted in place, so it doesn’t fold for easy storage.

Second, you manually switch between battery banks, which is tedious but reminds you you’re halfway through the batteries.

We were pleased with two-function performance of the PWRCORE (note that it does not side discharge). Its cut quality was very good, and bagging was also respectable. The handle folds forward for storage, telescopes, and has three height settings; the bag doesn’t lift up through the handle, however. Our testers found the handle was widely adaptable for people of different heights. The deck has up to 4 inches of clearance for when the grass gets tall.

Wen’s manual push mower is a journeyman that mulches, bags, and side discharges, leaving a quality cut swath behind. Its bag was about three quarters full after almost 500 feet of mowing—good bagging performance, even if it’s not in the same league as the Makita. Other nice attributes: a well-built bag that lifts straight up through the handle, automatic switching between batteries, and a charge level indicator on the motor housing.

R e a d a b o u t a l l t h e m owe r s we te s ted a t p o p u l a r m e c h a n i c s . co m .

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Big Important Product // BY H U NTER FENOLLOL //

TCL’s Latest 6-Series Television Is the First Affordable 8K TV 84

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A

S 4 K TE LE V I S I O N S S ET TH E N E W D E F I -

nition standard, manufacturers are already shifting their efforts toward production of 8K units. But in a race to build a competitive 8K set, no brand has been able to balance the unprecedented resolution with a reasonable price. According to Ross Young, CEO of the screen-centric market research firm Display Supply Chain Consultants, “8K TVs are expensive to make because panel yields are lower, there’s more pixels, and driver IC costs are higher since they scale with resolution.” In layman’s terms, the manufacturing cost is high due to the panel and component requirements needed to hit the 7,680 by 4,320 resolution.

(That’s quadruple the number of pixels in 4K.) You can best see this in texture definitions and patterns, along with a wider dynamic color range.

Sharp introduced the first 8K TV in 2015 for the staggering price of $133,000. And while you no longer have to take out a second mortgage to buy

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY T R E VO R R A A B

an 8K-capable television, up until 2021 you could expect to shell out at least $3,500 for one. Even as an avid gamer and weekend cinephile, I wouldn’t dare spend that kind of money—and neither would the average buyer.

“Generally, manufacturers like to launch their next resolution bump in TVs in larger sizes to justify the stratospheric costs that usually come with the new sets,” says Anshel Sag, an analyst specializing in consumer tech trends for the research firm Moor Insights & Strategy. These larger panel fabrications drive up the price, putting an 8K TV further out of reach for the average consumer— with the additional drawback of stif ling the incentive to create 8K content. Even 4K media isn’t the official standard just yet. “While most streaming services do support 4K natively, especially with their own original content, it still isn’t as common as one would expect with the current price of 4K TVs,” notes Sag. Given the prohibitively expensive pricing and lack of content, there hasn’t been a push for mainstream 8K TVs. At least that was the case until last year’s arrival of 8K-capable computer graphics cards, gaming consoles, and cameras on flagship phones, which drove a need for affordable 8K displays on which to view the influx of content. TCL released its new 8K 6-Series TV last fall to meet this new demand. The China-based company has a history of advancements in display technology; it created the first mini LED TV in 2019. Combining large 8K displays with mini LED backlighting and QLED color technology, TCL has built an impressive 8K set for just under $2,000.

Despite a global chip shortage, TCL has managed to pull this off through simple supply-chain management. It cuts expenses by crafting each component in-house, eliminating a heavy reliance on external manufacturers. Cost-efficiently creating its own driver ICs and streamlining the display production for televisions 65 inches and up translate to a lower retail price. “TCL has invested in building seven panel fabs in recent years, including the newest completed just this year that uses the latest gen-11 panel fab layout,” says Aaron Dew, director of product development for TCL North America. A large part of TCL’s business is selling components such as displays to other television manufacturers, and Dew says that’s no different with 8K panels.

THE 4K AND 8K DIFFERENCE VISUALIZED The much higher pixel density of 8K retains better fine detail up close. With 33 million pixels forming an 8K image, a 4K’s 8 million pixels can seem a bit blurry from two feet away. While this difference is pronounced in these images, the naked eye would have trouble spotting it from farther away.

But as screens get larger and people sit closer to their televisions for a more encompassing view, that lower clarity becomes obvious.

The rule of thumb is that TVs over 50 inches should display a 4K image. Within the next decade, TVs 65 inches or larger will demand a higher 8K resolution for pixel density.

↑ 4K

↑ 8K

We spent a week cycling through both native and upscaled 8K content on the 6-Series (65R648) alongside an equally large 65-inch Samsung TU-8000 4K TV. The clarity difference was apparent. Straight out of the box and set to the “Normal” picture setting, the 8K 6-Series offered some of the best sharpness and color range we’ve seen from an LCD panel. In an 8K nature video, textures like the cracks in a hippo’s skin or the fur on an otter were easier to make out. Micro details, like droplets rolling down goose feathers and the reflection of light playing in a bead of water, were sharper.

Across all media, pattern recreation is less muddy in 8K as opposed to a 4K screen. Beyond animals, that meant details in outfits, facial features, and environments looked more lifelike.

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Big Important Product

Starting up close and stepping farther away, we could see that the 8K television’s resolution fared better than the 4K model, showing less noticeable pixelation while up close. Amplified by refinements in QLED nanomaterial and over 160 local dimming zones filled with thousands of micrometer LEDs, the resulting picture is incredibly bright and able to reproduce a full 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color space (the standard for sets of colors used in moviemaking).

The level of luminance and color accuracy for all 33 million pixels in the R648 6-Series is a feat in itself, since each pixel blocks light. A 4K TV needs enough lighting to fight through just 8 million pixels. But a higher-density 8K display needs a more powerful backlight, and this is where the mini LED technology—which TCL does well— shines. Vibrant QLED colors especially popped in the greens of plants and red hues of flowers in the nature film, and were further enhanced by the high level of contrast.

The screen isn’t perfect, though. Relying on mini LED tech, TCL’s 8K QLED display can’t reproduce the true blacks and individual pixel control of an OLED panel. As Young puts it, “More zones create better contrast and improved HDR performance. Think of fireworks in a dark sky.

OLEDs can turn on or off each pixel. Mini LEDs do this in zones, and there are 160 zones for the 65-inch TCL versus the 33 million of an 8K OLED panel.” Despite this, the 6-Series’s brightness capabilities ensure that the screen looks crisp in various lighting conditions. OLED excels specifically in dark room performance, but struggles against natural lighting and carries the risk of burn-in for static elements. TCL’s R648 can

THE 8K TRICKLE DOWN—AND HOW IT COULD BOOST YOUR INTERNET SPEED 86

March/April 2022

play games with a heads-up display, leave videos paused, and display news tickers without the accompanying worry of destroying the panel.

TCL took a future-forward stance on this TV by including the latest display technology features, like Variable Refresh Rate and a THX-certified game mode. That makes the company’s decision to limit HDMI 2.1 to just two of the four ports a tad disappointing. This latest specification allows for higher resolutions and refresh rates on content playing from devices connected over HDMI. As someone who already owns both next-generation gaming consoles, I would be unable to reach a 4K resolution at 120 frames per second or 8K at 60 frames per second with another HDMI 2.1 device.

Meanwhile, the 4K LG C1 includes the higher bandwidth standard in all four HDMI ports.

Audiophiles will want to purchase a separate sound bar for punchier bass. While the TV’s two 15-watt speakers and 30-watt subwoofer can get loud, a good sound bar can better balance the audio and bring things like explosions or rumbling in movies and games to life.

At $1,999, the 65-inch 8K TCL model costs less than the highest-rated 4K TVs, such as the Samsung QN90A or LG C1 OLED. Yet it boasts competitive performance, with features like 120-hertz refresh rates and vivid HDR. With the ability to display native 8K and upscale 4K content without artifacts, the 6-Series surpasses TV rivals in this price range as a future-proof investment.

This picture for the money is a first for the 8K market and is likely to bring down the cost of the competition. And as more people get their hands on this higher resolution, we’ll see films, games, and streams jump to new heights of clarity.

The proliferation of 8K could impact our everyday gadgets, from routers to streaming devices. Higher-resolution content requires more bandwidth to stream smoothly. The average American home receives internet speeds of only 100 Mbps, which doesn’t cut it for streaming 8K. This will possibly accelerate the installation of fiber-optic wire throughout the country. As the cable companies get to work on fiber installa-

tions, we may finally witness the death of the cable box, with providers opting for internet TV distribution to support 8K resolutions through apps on streaming devices. With the resulting faster internet speeds for routers to tap into, networking product manufacturers may advance their system on a chip (SoC) configurations for more powerful processors, extensive storage, and antennas to meet the growing bandwidth needs.

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My house is a veritable coatings laboratory, at least on the outside. Aside from the vinyl siding, there’s a wide variety of surfaces that are painted or will soon need paint. It’s a struggle to keep the place looking good.

In the latest round of the battle, a few months ago I walked into my local Benjamin Moore dealer. Close by the front door I noticed a display for the brand’s Corotech Command line, highperformance coatings formulated with a waterborne acrylic-urethane resin. The company says this product can cover concrete, wood, vinyl, tile, galvanized steel, PVC moldings, and aluminum.

Right there I was hooked. But I was intrigued by its other properties, too. It dries to the touch in 15 minutes, is extremely flexible and wear-resistant, and has a high block resistance—so two adjoining 88

March/April 2022

mutual painted surfaces, such as a door and its jamb, won’t stick to each other where they meet.

That’s a lot of problem-solving potential for one paint, which explains why this material is expensive. I paid $50 for the gallon that I bought for a test run. But it’s an investment in my house. From what I’ve seen of it so far, it doesn’t have a potent odor, it cleans up with water, and it applies smoothly.

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How to Use It // BY H U NTER FENOLLOL //

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March/April 2022

a single router, you may notice that your network lacks both range and power outside or in the farthest reaches of your house. And it’s not just physical distance that’s problematic.

Barriers like walls and subflooring can inhibit the signal. Network extenders may help here, but while they add range, they can throttle speeds, degrading overall performance. If you want to expand your coverage and provide each internetconnected device with equally fast speed, a mesh Wi-Fi system is your best bet. These systems consist of a main router connected directly to your modem, plus a series of nodes—or satellites—each of which produces its own strong, fast Wi-Fi signal throughout your property. This router-and-node combination blankets your house in signals from each device, eliminating any gaps in your network coverage. But, as with many things related to Wi-Fi, there’s still some mystique around how this encompassing internet coverage works. Here’s our expert guide to making the most of your system.

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A Secret Any Man Can Use…

This month I got a letter from a reader in Texas about a “little secret” that has renewed her sex life with her husband!

Tina writes: Dear Karen, For years my husband and I had a wonderful love life, but when he reached his 50s, he lost some of his old spark, especially in the bedroom.

He tried every product available, but nothing worked. For the past few years, it’s felt like we were roommates, not husband and wife.

Well, last month he came home from a business trip in Europe and shocked me with more energy and passion than he’s had in years. He took me in the bedroom like we were newlyweds and gave me a night I’ll never forget. It was just incredible, and our love life has been like that ever since. So here we are, closer than ever and enjoying the best sex of our lives… in our 50’s!

On his trip, my husband stayed in a hotel room next to an Italian nutritionist and his wife and heard them passionately making love every night. He figured they must be in their twenties, but one morning he encountered them in the hallway and it turns out, they were in their 70s!

“My husband shocked me with more passion than he’s had in years. He took me in the bedroom like we were newlyweds and gave me a night I’ll never forget!”

Karen, my husband has been taking one tablet each morning with breakfast, but the pack is almost empty and we both desperately want more. Do you know about these European tablets and how to get some in the States?

Sincerely, Tina D., Fort Worth, TX

Tina, you’re in luck, I do know about them. Ever wonder why older men from Italy and all over Europe are famous for staying energized, passionate, and sexually active well into their golden Instead of being embarrassed that they’d years? For decades, these men have been found out, they were positively relied on a unique blossom seed glowing and happy to share their “secret.” extract to enhance their bedroom The man pulled out a small pack from his power and performance. satchel, gave it to my husband and said Milled on the fertile northern plains, ‘’These tablets come from a small town and sold under the brand name up north and are made from naturally pure extracts, packed with densely Provarin, these pure plant extracts rich sexual nutrients. They will give you have a legendary reputation throughout powerful erections and you will perform Europe for naturally fueling extremely in the bedroom even better than you did hard erections. As Giovanni from Milan as a young man. Then he laughed and put it, “It’s like bedroom rocket fuel said, “You will become an Italian Stallion, especially for us older guys!” like me!”

All-natural and safe to take, Provarin is a well-kept secret for those in the know.

An old-school, family business, they still harvest product by hand and don’t do any advertising. Long-time customers and word of mouth ensures their limited stock is sold out every year.

They do have a distributor here in the U.S. and Provarin is surprisingly inexpensive. A spokesman told me they were proud to produce the highest quality product for men and couples.

He went on to say that if any of my readers call and mention this article, they’ll get a special one time doublediscount, plus free shipping and a bonus pack of 30 tablets free!

Wow, so there you go, Tina - and the rest of you readers! The offer is only good while supplies last so give them a call today. The number is 1-800-585-8503.

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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Dramatic portrayal. Results atypical. Your results may vary. In order to assure confidentiality, identifying details, scenarios have been changed, modified or fictionalized. Always consult your health care provider before taking any supplement. Offer not available to Iowa residents.

14

How to Use It

OPTIMIZE YOUR PLACEMENT 1

2

1 | A N AV E R AG E A PA R TM E NT

Apartments aren’t as spacious as houses and often have small balconies instead of backyards. If your living space is 2,000 square feet or less, a single Wi-Fi 6 router placed in the center of your apartment offers plenty of coverage for all your devices. (The latest generation, Wi-Fi 6 is a faster protocol, reduces congestion, and increases overall network efficiency.) If the apartment happens to have a loft or basement, the ideal placement for this router is on the ground floor, since most traffic will come from internet-connected devices in your living room, bedrooms, and kitchen.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from a mesh system, like in cases where the modem is wired in an undesirable spot. In my apartment, for example, the modem is confined to my upstairs loft despite all my gaming consoles, smart displays, and smart

3

home-security equipment living downstairs. By placing a satellite node in the center of my ground floor, I’m able to diffuse coverage so that each device receives a speedy and stable connection from the main router in the loft.

A newer mesh router, such as the Eero Pro 6 (page 94), can connect up to 75 devices simultaneously by itself.

2 | A N AV E R AG E H O U S E

The typical American house sits around 2,200 square feet, so for most people, the 4,000 square feet of coverage provided by a router and a satellite point is enough for the whole home. It’s best to think of each node’s network signal output as a 30-foot-wide bubble surrounding the device. You want to overlap the main router’s and node’s coverage like a Venn diagram, with the edge of each range converging in the center of your living area or whatever space you’re

likely to have more devices in. That way this centralized point is enveloped in signals, which get even stronger as you get closer to the nodes placed on the opposite ends of your home.

3 | A PRO PE R T Y L A RG E R TH A N 3 , 0 0 0 SQ UA R E F E E T

Say you live in something bigger still.

You should opt for a mesh system with three components—one main router and two nodes—as this will allow for up to 6,000 square feet of coverage.

This signal is strong enough for a larger house as well as the front yard and backyard. You’re going to want to make sure the widest part of the house is covered with two of the nodes. If that’s the ground floor, place a router and satellite on opposite ends of it, and a single node upstairs. If you’re in a wide ranch, place your router in the center of your home and a node on each end.

When placing a router and satellite, make sure nodes are within two rooms’ distance of each other. This is the rule of thumb for ensuring that your device has a strong connection. But the apps included with newer mesh setups will let you know where the routers are at an optimal distance apart for a far-reaching, fast, and stable connection. While you can expand your network with a node-to-node connection, linking each satellite directly to the main router offers the strongest performance, since it doesn’t need to piggyback signals from an 92

March/April 2022

indirect source. For example, in a setup with one router and three nodes, place the router in the center and each node equidistant from it to create a pyramid.

If you need still more coverage, mesh systems are scalable, meaning most brands sell individual nodes that integrate into your existing system. As you move devices around your property, they automatically connect to the node with the strongest signal. This is especially helpful for bandwidth-heavy tasks like streaming, gaming, and videoconferencing.

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How to Use It

THE BEST MESH WI-FI SYSTEMS BEST OVERALL

G O O G LE N E ST W I - F I Price: $269 | Includes 1 router, 1 node with Google Assistant | Speed: Up to 2,200 Mbps | Coverage: Up to 3,800 square feet Google’s Nest Wi-Fi system covers 3,800 square feet with a router and a single node.

Inside of that node is a built-in Google Assistant, helpful for getting information on the fly or kicking off smart home actions, and the Google Home app makes it easy to use and manage your network.

While it lacks the Wi-Fi 6 standard, this system can handle up to 200 connected devices and is fast enough to stream multiple 4K videos at a time.

E E R O PR O 6 Price: $399 | Includes 2 routers | Speed: Up to 4,200 Mbps | Coverage: Up to 3,500 square feet The Eero Pro 6 delivers gigabit speeds, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, and

BEST VALUE

T P - LI N K D E CO X 2 0 A X1 8 0 0 Price: $179 | Includes 1 router, 1 satellite | Speed: Up to 1,775 Mbps | Coverage: Up to 4,000 square feet Offering the stability of Wi-Fi 6 and wide coverage, the Deco system is both affordable and simple to expand over time. Unlike many other mesh systems, it provides two gigabit Ethernet ports in every node, so any can act as a wireless router. The system’s expansive coverage comes at the cost of slower overall speeds. But this is a great option for creating a comprehensive network if your internet demands are less than 300 Mbps.

94

March/April 2022

tri-band coverage for up to 150 devices. If your internet speeds are above 500 Mbps and you have a gadget-heavy household, the Pro lineup ensures better support for simultaneous device usage.

Naturally, if you want the best in performance, you’re going to have to pay for it.

T R E VO R R A A B (N E S T ) ; CO U R T E S Y T P - L I N K (D E CO) ; CO U R T S E Y A M A ZO N (P R O 6)

BEST PERFORMANCE

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WHY SO MUCH EXCITEMENT? Despite the billions men spend annually on older nitric oxide therapies, there’s one well-known problem with them.

They don’t always work.

A world renown physician explains why.

He’s studied nitric oxide for over 43 years.

He is the physician-in-chief at a notable hospital in Boston. He says a “deficiency of bioactive nitric oxide… leads to impaired endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation.”

In plain English, these older products may increase levels of nitric oxide. But that’s only half the battle. If it’s not bioactively available then your body can’t absorb it and won’t perform.

Experts simply call it the nitric oxide “glitch.” And until now, there’s never been a solution.

5th GENERATION NITRIC OXIDE FORMULA FLYING OFF SHELVES Upon further research, America’s No. 1 men’s health expert Dr. Al Sears discovered certain nutrients fix this “glitch” resulting in significantly better improvement in blood flow.

He’s combined those nutrients with proven nitric oxide boosters in a new formula called Primal Max Red. In clinical

trials, 5,000 mg is required for satisfying performance. Primal Max Red contains a bigger, 9,000 mg per serving dose. It’s become so popular, he’s having trouble keeping it in stock.

Dr. Sears is the author of more than 500 scientific papers. Thousands of people listened to him speak at the recent Palm Beach Health & Wellness Festival featuring Dr. Oz. NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath visited his clinic, the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine.

Primal Max Red has only been available for a few months — but everyone who takes it reports a big difference. “I have the energy to perform three times in one day, WOW! That has not happened in years. Oh, by the way I am 62,” says Jonathan K. from Birmingham, AL.

HOW IT WORKS Loss of staying power starts with your blood vessels. Specifically, the inside layer called the endothelium where nitric oxide is made.

The problem is various factors thicken your blood vessels as you age. This blocks availability causing the nitric oxide “glitch.”

The result is difficulty in getting and sustaining healthy blood flow.

How bad is the problem?

Researcher shows the typical 40-year-old man absorbs 50% less nitric oxide. At 50, that drops to 25%. And once you pass 60 just a measly 15% gets through.

To make matters worse, nitric oxide levels start declining in your 30s. And by 70, nitric oxide production is down an alarming 75%.

Primal Max Red is the first formula to tackle both problems. Combining powerful nitric oxide boosters and a proven delivery mechanism that defeats the nitric oxide “glitch” resulting in significantly better blood flow. There’s not enough space here to fully explain how it works, so Dr. Sears will send anyone who orders Primal Max Red a free special report that explains everything.

MORE CLINICAL RESULTS Nutrients in Primal Max Red have logged impressive results.

In a Journal of Applied Physiology study, one resulted in 6 times MORE nitric oxide.

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FREE BONUS TESTOSTERONE BOOSTER Every order also gets Dr. Sears testosterone boosting formula Primal Max Black for free.

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// L AUREN W OODS LIMBACH, 51, W OOD CELL A R DIRECTOR A N D BLEN DER AT NE W BELGIU M BRE WERY, FORT COLLINS, COLOR A DO //

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J U L I A N A B R O S T E (S T I L L S)

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We humans are the most sensitive tasting machines, but we’re flawed by our subjective likes and dislikes.

When I walk in the wood cellar to taste through a set of barrels, I use my science background and training but also bring in a human element. I’m looking to evoke a response from the drinker, to ask for their full attention, to wow them. I do this by building complex and sometimes unexpected layers to each glass, and even each sip.

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