Multi
Having a multi-tool on hand is like having a toolbox in your pocket. It contains anywhere from 5 to 21 basic implements, from screwdrivers and scissors to can openers and pliers. They all fold in and out of the handles, forming a case that's compact enough to be carried in your pocket. This multi-tool contains 14 different tools, including scissors, a knife, wire cutters, two types of pliers, three different screwdrivers, and much more. Most of these tools and the handle into which they conveniently fold are made of stainless steel. The strip of stainless steel winds off a reel and moves through a 300-ton punch press. It works like a giant cookie cutter, striking a series of dies against the passing metal, progressively stamping out, in this case, one part of the multi-tool's two-part handle. 17 strikes later, it's fully formed and ready to go through a heat-treatment process to strengthen the stainless steel. Next, a polishing robot runs the handle against a grinding wheel. It does so with specific programmed movements which produce a delicate lined pattern on the metal surface. Certain tools, like knife blades, are made of premium steel that is too hard for the press to punch through, so they have to be cut out by a computer-guided laser. The laser's heat literally melts through the metal. The knife blades go into a polishing machine, where they vibrate among ceramic stones for several hours. This smoothes out the rough edges by abrasion. A magnet then removes the blades from the machine. The knife blades, still dull at this point, go onto a motorized table that runs them back and forth under a grinding wheel. This finalizes the dimensions. The two jaws that form the plier head are cast in steel. Workers assemble them with a spring... A pin... And a rivet. Then a robot performs a two-stage polishing, first against a grinding belt with the rough grit, then against one with a finer grit. The plier head is at last ready to be assembled to the multi-tool's two-part handle. They align the holes of the handle with holes of the plier head, slipping a spacer in between. They put a pin and screw fastener through the aligned holes to connect handle to head. Back to the knife blade now. Until this point, the blade's cutting edge has been dull. Now a robot sharpens it against two grinding wheels. This is what the knife blade looks like before... And after. With the handle and all 14 tools formed, heat treated, and polished, and the pliers connected to the handles, final assembly can begin-- the remaining tools stacked together inside the two handles with the stainless-steel ring to fill up the excess width. The assemblers thread a rod all the way through the holes of the base of the handle and tools to hold the alignment until they secure the setup with the stainless-steel pin and rivet. They repeat this process in the other handle with the remaining tools, except for the knife blade and scissors, which go in later. They apply a few drops of thread lock to immobilize the pins in each handle. A bronze washer makes the handle housing the knife blade open smoothly to prevent injury. They install a safety cover on that same handle to shield the sharp knife when it's not in use. Now the knife blade itself. They rivet the scissors to the other handle, and the assembly is finished. This multi-tool, with its 14 different implements, is ready to be folded up and tucked in a pocket or unfolded, offering up the right tool for the task. Jojoba oil isn't actually an oil. It's a liquid wax from the seed of the jojoba plant, native to the sonoran desert areas in arizona, california, and mexico. Jojoba oil is a common ingredient in soaps, shampoos, moisturizers, eye makeup, lip products, and color cosmetics. Cosmetics manufacturers buy refined jojoba oil from a processing facility. Jojoba in its natural state is golden and has a slightly nutty odor. Once refined, it can be rendered colorless and odorless. The jojoba farm takes selected cuttings from mature jojoba shrubs, roots and grows them for 18 months to 2 years in a greenhouse, then transplants them into the fields. The wind carries pollen from the male plants to fertilize female plants, after which the female seed starts developing. Each seed is housed inside a hull that gradually dries out and separates, dropping the seed to the ground. The fallen seeds are mature for harvest. The mechanical harvester works like a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking the seeds off the ground, along with a lot of sand, twigs, and rocks. The harvester then dumps its collection into a large hopper that feeds an elaborate seed-cleaning machine. In it, the seeds and debris move from conveyor to conveyor through a series of vibrating screens, each made of increasingly smaller mesh. The process gradually sifts out smaller and smaller bits of debris... Until only the seeds are left. They go into huge polyethylene bags, then off to the processing plant where workers empty the bags into a holding area called a seed pit. From here, conveyors take the seeds to the presses. The liquid wax is contained within the hard, white flesh, called the cotyledon. They expel the liquid wax with conventional expeller press. A long screw conveyor feeds the seeds into the press, then crushes them against a shaft. This forces out the liquid wax that makes up about half a seed's weight. The mashed seed-solids, called cake, are put to good use. Some are used for compost. Some will be processed into exfoliates-- abrasives used in face and body products to remove dead skin cells. Meanwhile, a second screw conveyor moves the expelled liquid wax into a holding container, and from there, a pump pushes it through a filter press. This press consists of several plates and frames, each one covered with a filter cloth. As the liquid wax passes through, the cloth catches the last remaining solids. This buildup of seed particles and other minute debris is biodegradable waste. To make exfoliates, machines grind the cake into particles, then vibrating sifters divide the particles by size. What's too big or small goes back to the farm for compost. The extracted liquid wax isn't yet fully refined. It's still cloudy and yellowish, so workers add natural powdered absorbents, then filter them out. This clarifies the jojoba oil to its finished state. The company lab runs extensive quality tests on every batch. Technicians analyze several criteria, including color, odor, and chemical composition, ensuring the oil meets strict product specifications. As the jojoba oil flows from storage tanks into shipping drums, it passes through a final ultra-sensitive cartridge filter that removes any minute particles that might have slipped through the filter press. This processor makes two varieties of refined jojoba oil-- one golden, with a mild, nutty aroma, the other, colorless and odorless. The texture and consistency are identical. Manufacturers buy whichever variety better suits their product. String puppets, also known as marionettes, are an ancient form of performance. It's not known exactly when or where the first string puppets made an appearance, but it was thousands of years ago. Today, they've still got what it takes to entertain audiences worldwide. digitized characters may rule in the movies, but onstage, there's no doubt that string-animated ones can still dazzle audiences. A few movements of the puppeteer's hands, and some fantastical characters are brought to life. Behind the scenes, making these marionettes is a major production. Each one is painstakingly hand-crafted in a process that takes weeks. It all starts with an idea. The puppet maker draws several sketches of the character, tweaking the features until he's satisfied. He then draws a full-scale version of the marionette. Referring to that scaled drawing, he sculpts the head in clay, building it into a wooden framework known as the armature. The clay is oil-based. It doesn't dry out as fast as the water-based kind, so there's time to tweak the sculpture and perfect it. Lines drawn for reference make it easier to position the nose, eyes, and mouth. He defines the mouth a little more to give it a petulant expression. He smoothes the top of the clay head, using a looped sculpting tool and his thumb. With a caliper tool, he constantly compares the dimensions of the sketch to the sculpture to ensure the head won't end up too large or too small. Once the lips and other features have been smoothed out, he prepares to make a plaster mold of the sculpture. He divides the head into four sections, and he outlines a trap door at the back of the head for easy access later. He now inserts metal shims along the dividing lines. He's essentially building walls to contain molding plaster. The shims will also ensure that the plaster, once hardened, can be removed from the clay sculpture in four intact pieces. The plaster has been mixed to the consistency of cake batter. He scoops a generous amount into a walled-in section of the clay sculpture. The plaster generates heat as it hardens and sets. It then cools for about half an hour. He removes the shims that surround it. He then uses those shims to wall-in the next section. He adds more plaster to build up this part of the mold. When all four sections are complete, he gently chisels them at the seams to separate them. He opens the mold and removes the sculpture. Its image has been transferred to the inside of the mold. The sculpture is no longer needed, and he's ready to cast the puppet head, using the mold. For that, he uses plastic-infused cloth squares, softened by solvent. He transfers the squares to the mold sections and layers them papier-mâché style. A release agent applied to the mold keeps the squares from sticking to it as they begin to adhere to each other, and, in the process, conform to the mold's curves and crevices. With squares now applied to all four sections, he puts the mold back together and joins them at the seams. After 10 hours, it's time for the big reveal. All those little squares are now one solid marionette head. The casting looks pretty rough at this point, so he covers the entire surface with plastic wood. What a difference sanding the plastic wood makes. He then paints the head and cuts holes for the eyes and mouth. From the inside of the puppet head, he attaches springs to enable the mouth and eyes to open and close. Over in the paint department, with every stroke of the brush, the puppet becomes a more colorful character. Coming up next, the marionette gets its moving parts, and, of course, they come with strings attached. With their string-operated limbs, marionettes can imitate almost every human or animal gesture. The more joints and strings the puppet has, the wider the range of movement and the more lifelike the character becomes. Before the head of the penguin puppet can be attached to the body, it just needs a few more dramatic touches, like curly fur. Yes, in the fantasy world of puppetry, anything is possible--  even fur on a penguin. He traces the pattern on the reverse side of the furry fabric and cuts it out from that side, too, to prevent any snipping of the fur on the front. He stitches the darts together to conform to the shape of the penguin head. This process must be repeated for each fur-covered part. He checks out the fit and confirms that it achieves the desired effect. Satisfied with the results, he moves on to the eyelashes. He traces the pattern onto rubber and cuts the lashes out. To accentuate the eyes, the lashes are substantial. He inserts a pair of lashes into slits in each wooden eyeball. From head to toe, no detail is overlooked. Here, he glues rhinestones to shoes for some serious onstage bling. He's now ready to build the torso and limbs of the marionette. He traces the pattern of those parts onto blocks of poplar wood and then carefully cuts them out with a band saw. This particular part is a hand for the penguin character. The initial cut is rough and needs fine-tuning, so he chisels away at it to remove excess wood and define the shape. He files it with a rasp to round the profile. It takes about five hours to produce just one puppet hand. The other parts receive an equal amount of attention, because with ball-and-socket-style joints, each limb must fit smoothly to the next. He attaches the two limb segments with a hinge made from a kind of fiber board-- the same material used to make steamer trunks. He confirms that the joints will move freely under the costume. When the marionette body has all its moving parts, it's time to stretch those limbs. So they suit him up and thread the strings from the puppet to the correct spot on the controls. The control bars are shaped like an airplane. They're known in the world of puppetry as an airplane control. The thread they use is fishing line because of its strength. They run nine strings or more, depending on the complexity of the marionette. Some of these strings are for support, some for movement, and others for effects like nose growing or ear wiggling. Of course, the string placement is crucial for proper movement. With the strings strung and well knotted, the marionette body comes to life. And now the defining moment. They attach the head to the body. It's a good fit. This new character is almost ready to meet his audience. All that's left is to run the strings for controlling his head and facial expressions. And a little accessorizing. They now manipulate the strings to check his limb dexterity and the movement of his mouth, eyes, and eyebrows. This marionette is now ready for the stage. Between shows, he reclines. After all, you can't always be on. Incredibly, it takes up to 1,500 hours to create each one of these marionettes. After all that work, they're ready to cue the talent.