Fur Coats Hearses Outdoor Lighting Fixtures Golf Tees
Today on "how it's made"... Fur coats... Hearses... Outdoor lighting fixtures... And golf tees. Fur coats have been around through thick and thin. They used to be very bulky, but today's garment is much thinner because of new manufacturing techniques. The new lightweight fur coats are also cut closer to the body, but they still provide old-fashioned warmth. Today fur coats are made for a changing market that values less bulk and more texture. The beaver pelt now undergoes multiple transformations until it doesn't even resemble the original pelt. They steam the fur to fluff it up. Then they give it a static charge to make the hair stand on end. The pelt then goes under a row of little blades several times. This shears the fur so the hairs are uniform and the pelt less bulky. But because the downy undercoat is the most insulating part, this fur will still be warm. Grooving is a new technique that involves carving a pattern into the dyed fur. The blades cut a zigzag pattern down the length of the fur, giving the beaver pelt a unique look and feel. Now the furrier demonstrates a process called letting out. He feeds a pelt to a machine that slices it into diagonal ribbons. Yes, he's cutting it to shreds, but when this process is complete, they'll have a new and improved fur. They sew the diagonal strips together, arranging each a little lower than the last. They use a special fur-sewing machine. As the operator feeds the strips, he pushes the fur down so it doesn't get caught in the seam and ruin the look. It's something that takes skill and experience. The narrow strips of fur created by this letting-out process will run the full length of a coat. It's a more flowing look than simply sewing whole pelts together, but it also makes the fur a bit rippled. A process called blocking will correct that. They wet down the leather of the pelt. Then they split it a bit at the end to fit the pattern that's been traced onto a board underneath. They staple the fur onto the pattern. After leaving it to dry overnight, they trace the original pattern onto the leather side of the fur, now smoothed out from the stretching. They mark a spot for a pocket and trim the fur to the pattern so the dimensions are now exact. Specialized finishers sew a cloth pocket into the slit prepared for it. They stitch in the zipper and then cut out pieces of silk to line the coat. Before they sew in that lining, they build up the front edges of the garment by tacking lamb's wool on the inside edging. This will add structure and help the fur hold its form as they put it in the lining. Starch-cotton tape now goes into the hem of the coat to keep the fur from stretching. Handcraftsmanship has always been a key element of the fur industry. Every fur gets these hand-stitched finishing touches. Once the label goes on, this fur coat is ready for a night on the town. We all have to go sometime, and when it's our time, a hearse will likely be waiting to take us away in style. Hearses are all about luxury, because luxury says dignity and respect. From the plush custom interior to the stretched and streamlined design, it's nothing but the best for our dearly departed. It's the final journey, and the vehicle is custom-made for the occasion. They start with a cadillac chassis. It's been built without rear doors, rear windows, backseats, trunk, or rear bumper. They park in a master-framer jig and immediately slice it in two, using a reciprocating saw that cuts through metal like butter. The jig allows the two halves to be pulled apart so there's just under 31 inches between them. Then they weld rails to join the two halves. They encase each new frame rail with a support piece. The framework for a hearse has to be extremely solid because it will carry heavy loads for many years. The base cadillac also has more structural reinforcements than a regular vehicle, like stronger wheels and suspension. They hoist the steel rear cage and roof frame onto the car, and they build up the roof with steel rails. The framework for the casket-loading door goes on next. Once the rear cage and chassis extensions are in position, they mount the panels, which are made of a blend of fiberglass and space-age materials. Adhesive seals the panels to the steel skeleton... And they secure all the panels in place with screws. This is a made-to-measure job. The panels precisely fit to the welded cage. Meanwhile, over in the press room, they roll a nonstick coating onto a die, then place a sheet of steel over it. They also give the steel a coat of the nonstick agent. An 850-ton press then pushes the steel into the die to shape the door of the funeral coach. The nonstick coating allows them to remove the door easily without damaging it. They attach the door to the back of the hearse using superstrong hinges because they'll have to stand up to a lot of wear. This door is high and wide and opens 135 degrees to allow for easy loading of the casket. After smoothing out the seams in the body and giving it a high-gloss paint job, they cover the roof with a foam pad. They place vinyl material over it and pull it snugly around the corners. They line the deck of the hearse with a heavy-duty laminate. Next they put up the head liner, the fabric that covers the ceiling of the hearse. They mount the hardware that will allow the casket to easily roll in and out of the coach. Finally, the "custom built" sign. From the lustrous paint job to the lush, curtained interior, the funeral coach has an ethereal look-- appropriate since it's designed to make an exit that's out of this world. Day or night, streetlights light up our lives. Typically standing as high as 26 feet above the sidewalk, they cast a warm glow in the darkness and continue to provide street decor during the day. This fixture, called a luminaire, starts as a technical drawing. To make certain parts of the luminaire, the factory uses a process called sand-casting. To create the internal features of the sand mold, workers take a wooden mold for the part and fill it with a mixture made of white sand. They insert a wire into the center to make an opening... Then inject carbon dioxide into the opening. This causes a chemical reaction that hardens the sand. They remove the white-sand piece, called the core, from the wooden mold. To cast the external parts of the luminaire, workers start with a mold made of aluminum. Inside it, they build another mold made of brown soil. They place a wood block on top and pack down the soil. They do the same on the other half of the mold. Now, with a copper pipe, they make holes in the soil mold-- one in which they pour molten aluminum, the other to vent air. They spray the inside with compressed air so no particles will stick to the cast piece. They position the core into the soil mold. Keys in the soil mold help them position it exactly. Then they pour molten aluminum into the mold. Aluminum is an ideal metal for streetlights because it's lightweight, rust-resistant, and it won't stick to the soil mold. After two to five minutes, they open the metal frame and shatter the mold. They use a drill to remove the white sand piece from the inside of the cast-aluminum part. Next they sand down the part to make it smooth. Automated drills then pierce pilot holes for various hardware. A welder places a bracket in a vise, then welds a decorative tube onto it. Next he welds an anchor plate onto a pole. The upper part of the pole is welded to a larger bottom part. All the poles, brackets, and luminaire parts go into a series of chemical baths to prepare them for painting. The model shown here comes with tempered-glass or polycarbonate lens finishes on all four sides. They install the lighting system. First they position the bowl-shaped aluminum piece. Then the lamp socket is mounted with the electrical components inside the aluminum bowl. Finally they install a reflector inside the hood to project the light toward the street. They apply labels with product and maintenance information into the fixture's hood. Now they can close up the luminaire and mount it on a pole or bracket. And let there be light. Before golf tees became popular, players would tee up their ball on a little mound of sand. The first peg-style tees were invented more than a century ago, but they didn't really catch on until the 1920s, when one company marketed them aggressively, using professional golfers to promote them. That wooden peg you stick in the ground to hold the ball is almost as important as your golf club. You use a tee on the first stroke of each hole to give your drive shot extra distance. At the sawmill, white birch logs are scaled at the small end. Just one 8-inch diameter log yields close to 3,000 golf tees. The logs go into what's called a step feeder. This conveyor transports them to a debarking machine. Then a slasher saws the log into shorter lengths. The thumper roll, a roller with steel teeth, secures each log to a sharp chain. This holds the log in place as it heads for the saws. Four saws work their magic, carving the 4-1/2-foot boards into shorter dowel boards, each measuring 18 inches. Then a series of chains lay down the dowel boards in a single file on what's called a molder-and-feed roll. The molder's two rotating heads transform the rectangular board into round dowels. An outfeed roll drops each dowel onto a belt for several quality-control checks. An inspector examines the dowels, removing defective pieces and setting aside dowels that need more cutting. A single inspector sorts close to 19,000 dowels per hour. They go into racks that hold 8,900 dowels each. Rack after rack now travels into a lathe. A blade whittles the dowel to a preliminary shape. This tool, called a trumpet, moves over the dowels, sculpting the tee's final shape. A blade simultaneously slices the tee from the dowel and forms the cup. The metamorphosis is almost complete from wooden boards... To dowels... To tees. Next the tees go for a tumble in a sanding drum. This cascading action has the tees sanding each other's surface until they're smooth. The slots on this machine separate the good tees from the bad ones and screen out the waste. Long, nail-like bumps on the machine divide the tees so that only one drops down at a time. The tee fits through only if it's perfectly shaped. The rejects and wood shavings roll across the top and land elsewhere. The good tees land in a big bin, called a tote. Golf tees come in a few different lengths, but your average one is 2 1/2 inches long and weighs . 02 grams, so a tote typically holds some 100,000 tees. A tote dumper then dumps two totes of tees into a paint drum. Small steel flights inside the drum send the tees cascading in a uniform direction. With each turn, they pick up paint. It takes 2 hours and 10 gallons of water-based paint to fully coat the tees, then another two hours to dry the paint. A trapdoor releases the tees into a vibrating conveyor and into a tote. If these tees will have printing on them, there's still one more step. They get an extra coat of enamel paint to create a smooth surface for the ink. Shiny or mat, plain or printed, the golf tee has sure come a long way since the days of teeing off on a mound of sand.