Traditional Bows Coffee Machines Mascots Hammocks
Today on "how it's made"... Traditional bows... Coffee machines... Mascots... And hammocks. When some innovative caveman invented the bow and arrow, it was a huge breakthrough. The discovery turned the homo sapien into an efficient hunter-gatherer. These days, archery has made a comeback in the hunting community, and it's even been reclassified as an olympic sport. Today's bows are definitely not primitive devices. Crafted with calculated precision, they make it easier for you to take your best shot and hit your intended target. To make a longbow, a craftsman cuts six strips of cherry wood just under a quarter of an inch using a band saw. Then, with a belt sander, he repeatedly thins the wood strips on both sides, tapering the ends a little each time. The tapering gives the wood some flexibility, which the bow will need to launch arrows into the air. With this band saw, he now carves a handle from a piece of wood. Next he brushes superadhesive glue onto fiberglass strips and the tapered strips of cherry wood. He works swiftly because the glue will start to dry in less than an hour. Now he layers the strips. The fiberglass strips buttress the six glued wood strips on either end. This process is called lamination. Next he glues the wood handle to the fiberglass and wood lamination. And he tops it with a piece of masking tape to protect it from scratches and glue smudges during the next steps. Now the laminates are squeezed together. He places them on a carved plywood shape called a bow form. He positions a steel heat strip, a rubber hose, and another plywood form on top of the laminates. He clamps it all together, then inflates the rubber hose with an air compressor. The pressure from the hose combined with the heat from the metal strip mold the wood to the bow shape as the glue sets. One hour later, he removes the laminates, nicely pressed and glued into more bow-like curves. Now he draws the bow form onto the newly curved lamination, following a template made of fiberglass. With his band saw, he cuts the wood along the lines he's just drawn. He cuts an arrow shelf. That's the notch for the arrow to rest as the archer aims. Then he trims the handle, making it a little wider at the center for comfort. Next, using a coarse-toothed file, he hollows out little grooves in the upper and lower limbs of the bow. They're called string nocks and the string will loop around them. To strengthen the tips, he glues little pieces of fiberglass and moose horn over them and the freshly filed nocks. He clamps it in a vise grip to set. When it's dry, he files through the horn and fiberglass to bring back the nock groove. He smoothes it with sandpaper. Now he glues another piece of wood over the handle to improve the look and feel of it. He clamps it together while the glue dries, and three hours later, he sands it. Next he wraps the handle in a piece of leather and stitches it together with nylon thread called artificial sinew. Many years ago, they used the tendons of an animal for thread. The leather will make the bow easier to grip. With a gel pen, he writes a serial number on the back of the bow, along with the draw weight. This bow will hold about 44 pounds of pressure in check when it's drawn. This is a flemish string jig--  a wood fixture with posts on it. He loops nylon string around the posts. This is how he measures the string. It's always four inches shorter than the bow. He cuts it with a utility knife, then rolls wax onto it to make it easier to work with. He measures some string. Then he twists 16 strands of nylon-- 8 black and 8 white-- into a braid with loops on the ends. He hooks the string on the nocks and it's time for target practice. As he bends the bow, energy is stored. He releases it, and the energy propels the pointed projectile right on target. Coin-operated coffee machines are a staple in offices and public places. Years ago, these machines just weren't able to produce consistent brews. And there also wasn't much choice in brewing style. But today, even finicky java junkies drink machine coffee because the latest machines have mastered the art of making delicious coffee one cup at a time. This office coffee machine actually makes several different types of hot beverages. And if your employer prepays, you don't have to insert any coins. Production begins with a sheet of steel about 6 1/2 feet long by about 1 1/2 feet wide. This flat, as it's called, will become the top and side sections of the machine's casing. A computer-guided punch press makes dozens of perforations for ventilation and for the various fittings the machine will need in order to function. A worker puts another sheet of steel into a press. This press bends the metal into 90-degree angles. This piece will become the bottom of the casing. A worker uses a spot-welding machine to assemble what's called the base panel. This will later house a waste chute, overflow sensors, and wires. Another worker coats the casing with an epoxy-based paint powder. This process statically charges the powder and draws it to the metal like a magnet. Excess powder falls into a barrel below. Here a worker installs a fan that will vent the steam and heat generated inside the machine. Another worker assembles one of the two coffee-delivery mechanisms, called augers. When the machine's on, they move the ground coffee to the brewer. He installs the augers into what's called the dual hopper. The hopper's two sections will hold up to six pounds of different coffee blends, such as dark and light roasts. Next he installs what's called an agitation wheel. This plastic wheel helps move the ground coffee along and prevents it from getting stuck. The worker then aligns plastic couplings on the augers to mate with the ingredient dispenser. The dual hopper attaches to the ingredient dispenser with one screw in a pivoting bracket. Workers also connect power wires to the dispenser's motor and to a water-inlet valve. Next they install a heater and temperature sensor inside a plastic water tank that's nearly two gallons large. This 1,100-watt heater keeps the water at 200 degrees fahrenheit, just below boiling. That's the optimal temperature for extracting flavor from ground coffee beans. After applying stickers warning service technicians to turn off the machine before draining it, a worker installs three outlet valves-- one to dispense hot water for tea, one for coffee, and another for hot chocolate. Next come stainless-steel rods to monitor the water level inside the tank. They trigger an automatic refill mechanism. The worker connects power wires to the brewer motor. Then she mounts what's called the whipper mixing bowl. This aligns with the chocolate-syrup dispenser to prepare the hot chocolate. Next she installs the brewer-motor assembly into the machine's casing. This is the coffee machine's 15-button selection panel. It lets you select what type of hot drink to brew, in what cup size, and when to start. The panel also displays the prices when the coffee's not on the house. Once that's hooked up, workers test the chocolate-syrup delivery system. They run water through it to ensure it doesn't leak. They also test to see if the system dispenses the correct dose of syrup. One dose is a half ounce--  a tablespoon. A small cup of hot chocolate requires two doses. A large cup requires four. Now they install the brewer. It works much like a french press coffee maker, brewing a separate batch for each cup. To test it, they run water through it and make sure the selection panel works properly. By testing the panel with the coffee machine closed, they ensure the circuits are properly aligned behind the selection buttons. Depending on how strong you select your coffee, a dispenser releases between . 2 and . 6 ounces of ground coffee into a re-usable nylon filter. A piston then forces hot water through the filter for 10 to 20 seconds, depending on the size of the cup. This process extracts the flavor of the ground beans. The machine then scrapes away the coffee grinds and throws them down the built-in waste chute. Then it prepares for the next customer, and the next delicious cup. Mascots are supposed to bring luck, but the people who wear mascot costumes have had a few lucky breaks themselves in recent years. The outfits are much lighter now, and there's even an exhaust system complete with a tiny fan inside the head so it's not so hot in there. That helps the mascot keep his energy up for the entire game. This dinosaur mascot for the lung association is part of a new breed. It's really evolved into something that's relatively easy to work in. To make this dinosaur, they sketch him out. Then the artist modifies the figure to human proportions, targeting a height of 5'10", which means the costume would fit performers 5'8" to 6' tall. The artist designs huge eyes and a very extravagant mouth, and not just for creative reasons. The large openings will give the mascot performer room to see and to breathe through screens. Now a sculptor carves big pieces of lightweight, uncrushable foam. With a utility knife, he shapes the dinosaur's head, based on the design pattern. Traditionally, fiberglass has been used for mascot heads but foam is half the weight. He attaches a battery pack to the inside of the head, at the back of the neck, using velcro. He tests it to make sure it has enough juice to power this tiny, square exhaust fan, which is to be placed inside the head at the top. Then he sprays glue on the foam, sticking the sculpted layers of foam together. Now the dinosaur head is starting to shape up. He cuts out those enormous eye holes. Then he tries on the head for size. He checks visibility and ease of movement. Next the sculptor slices into a very dense piece of foam. It's dense because it will need to hold up to heavy traffic. This is the dinosaur's foot. He scoops out foam in the center of the foot, hollowing out an area. Then he carves out more, following a pattern of a size-12 shoe so that a human foot could fit inside this big mascot claw. He rounds the outside of the foam foot with a belt sander. Now the foot is fully sculpted and ready for the fabric department. There, a worker sprays heavy-duty glue onto the outside of the foot, and stretches a nylon fleece fabric over it. The fabric has a lot of give so that it can be tightly pulled into the grooves of the foam. Now she sprays adhesive onto the bottom of it and cuts off the excess fabric. She sews the seams with a very tough thread. Then a worker glues a rugged rubber sole onto the bottom of the dinosaur foot. This is a toenail made of nylon stuffed with polyfill. It takes three hours to make a foot. Now it's back to the other end. He glues an eye onto the mascot head. The eye is made of breathable nylon stretched over a plastic frame. Another worker sews on a horn, which is made of fabric-covered foam. Then she stitches on the nostrils. And now the mascot has some expression. But there's one more step. He glues a white nylon screen over the mouth and sticks black fabric strips over it to give the mascot its smile. Now a worker drafts a pattern for the outer body. It will go over an inner-body suit that will give the mascot its rotund shape. She cuts the liner fabric for the outer body, following the pattern... And then follows the same pattern for the outside fleece. She sews three layers-- fleece, foam, and liner-- all together. This serger machine cuts off excess fabric, and it sews and binds the edges. She hand-stitches the scales onto the back of the dinosaur mascot. And now it's time to give this mascot suit a test run. It fits like a glove. But what's the view like from the insideof that head? Hmm. Not too bad. This dinosaur mascot suit is ready to help its user excite the crowd. When christopher columbus discovered the new world back in the 15th century, he also discovered the hammock. It was in the west indies that columbus found natives lounging in what he later described as sleeping nets. And when hammocks were introduced to the europeans, they really caught on. Hammocks are still used centuries later. Hammocks were once called hamacks because they were woven with fibers from the hamack tree. Today they're made of braided polyester. To make a hammock, a worker measures and marks the spots for holes to be drilled in a hardwood spreader bar. He spaces the 22 holes almost 3 inches apart. He rounds the edges of the wooden bar with a shaped cutter called a router, smoothing out any sharp edges that could jab you when you climb into the hammock. Using an electric drill, he makes holes a half inch in size in the spreader bar. Then, with a countersink, he scoops out the wood around the edges of the holes, to make a gentler slope for the polyester rope. He adheres the company's prepasted label onto the bar. Next, 16 bobbins turn at a speed that could make you dizzy just watching. They're spinning the polyester cord. The bobbins twist the 16 polyester strands, braiding the strands into a herringbone pattern while electrical pulleys draw them up. The pulleys drop the cord in a drum. Now it's all in the wrist action. A weaver deftly intertwines the thick cord into a triangular shape. She's making the hammock's harness. It's called a clew. She tugs each row tightly to a ring at the top to ensure that the weave is steadfast. As she weaves, she drapes the long pieces of cord over a wood frame, to keep them from tangling. After the triangle is formed, she checks for errors in the weave. Now she threads the clew cords through the holes in the spreader bar. She snares a cord with a large crochet hook. Using the hook, she threads a cord through the hole at the furthest end of the spreader bar and then knots it. And she does the same on the other end of the bar. While the bar hangs by the two cords, she pulls the rest of the clew cords through all 22 holes in the bar. Next she positions the spreader bar under a guide bar to ensure everything's level. And she knots the rest of the cords tightly onto the underside of the spreader bar. It's a critical step. If there's any slack in the clew, the yarn will stretch and the hammock will be misshapen. This hammock harness is now strong enough to support a 450-pound person. Next she uses a 10-foot-long cord to make a chain of small links by pulling each link through the previous one. The top of the chain rope hangs from a hook, stabilizing it, and allowing the weaver to quickly turn the simple cord into an intricate-looking chain. Now she hooks each end of the chain onto pins on a loom. She weaves another cord into the chain, threading it with a crochet hook. She makes one loop in about every sixth link in the chain rope, and she hooks that cord onto the same pin as the chain. There's no rest for the hammock weaver. She takes a shuttle, which is a piece of wood with 656 feet of cord wrapped around it. She pulls it from below up through the available loops and then back down, expertly weaving the web that is the hammock bed. She hooks a second chain rope on the loom, and threads the edge of the woven bed to this chain. Now she places the spreader bar of a finished harness on one end of the loom. She lines up the pins of the loom with the holes of the bar. She knots the cord on each pin to a cord from the spreader bar. She repeats the process at the other end of the loom, binding the second harness to the hammock bed. She makes one last knot in the chain... And then removes the excess cord with the heat gun. The heat gun makes a clean cut with no ragged edges to unravel. With high-quality construction, this hammock will surely provide years of relaxation.