Plasma Gems Special Effects Snow Piano Restoration
These gemstones aren't mined. They're made from garbage. Using plasma technology, organic waste can be turned into energy, and inorganic waste can be made into a hard black glass. Artisans then turn the glass into beautiful jewelry. Black jewels glitter like genuine gemstones and are as hard as quartz. But they aren't precious or even semiprecious. They're pure garbage. They're called plasma gems because of the plasma technology that creates them from waste. This patented system converts almost any type of waste into clean energy without creating any harmful byproducts. The process produces two useful materials-- energy and a hard black glass that artisans can cut into gemstones. The process begins by shredding waste and placing it into the system's plasma reactor. Inside the reactor, two electrodes generate an electrically-conductive gas. These plasma arcs create temperatures exceeding 2,900 degrees, converting the carbon-based matter into a gas that can be used to produce electric power. At the same time, the plasma arcs melt the non-carbon-based matter, such as glass, metal, and ceramics. The gas fuels engines that produce electric power. Once melted, the waste separates into two layers. Metal oxides float to the top, and metals sink to the bottom. The company casts the metals into ingots, which go to a recycling facility. The metal oxides seen here solidify into glass rocks as hard as granite. The company sells these glass rocks to artisans who use it to make gemstones for jewelry. First, the artisan grinds a chunk of the rock down to a smaller starting shape with a flat side. Then she glues on a brass dowel called a dob stick. She activates the glue with a u.v. light. She returns to the grinding wheel to further reduce the size of the stone and round it as much as possible. Then she mounts the dob stick on a fastening machine. She presses the stone against an abrasive disc called a lathe to file down the diameter. The lathe's surface is made of diamond dust. It's the only material strong enough to cut through hard black glass. The artisan measures the stone numerous times as she works, ensuring the diameter is consistent all around. Once the diameter is perfect, she adjusts the dob stick diagonally and begins cutting symmetrical facets that will reflect light. You cannot set this machine to cut and polish at an exact angle, so the artisan has to work by feel, sensing how hard she must press the stone against the disc. She checks her work with a magnification loupe to make sure all the facets meet at a precise point. Once she finishes faceting the bottom of the stone, she glues a dob stick to the top of the stone. Then she removes the first dob stick by softening the glue with a propane torch. Now the artisan begins faceting the top of the stone, called the crown. Once the sides are faceted, she flattens the pointed top, forming what's called the table. She repositions the dob stick horizontally to polish a flat edge around the middle called the girdle. She removes the dob stick and cleans off any glue residue with acetone. She carefully centers the stone in a sterling-silver pendant. The pendant is being held upright in a wad of shellac. She uses a prong pusher to bend the prongs securely over the girdle, then rounds off and softens the prongs with a file. To remove the pendant, she softens the shellac over a flame, then submerges the pendant in acetone to remove any shellac residue. On the hardness scale used in gemology, plasma gems are equivalent to many varieties of quartz. Not bad for garbage that would otherwise be in a landfill. Mother nature does not deliver on cue. So when a film or television script calls for flurries, they use a snow machine to generate fake snowflakes. The flakes are actually tiny soap bubbles that look surprisingly realistic on camera. It's a sweltering day outside, but inside on the film set, it's winter. These soapy flakes look like real snow. They hang around just long enough to show up on screen before they evaporate. To create these snowflakes, workers start with the same chemicals that are used in soap and shampoo. A chemist combines the chemicals in a big mixing vat and adds purified water. This produces a snow-making concentrate. A machine pumps the concentrate into jugs. Each jug contains enough base material to make it snow for up to 16 hours. Now work begins on the snow-making machine. A worker drills holes into the back of the snow head using a template as a guide. He threads plastic tubing and wires through the front part of the snow head. The wires are for a blower, and the tubing will be used to deliver the snow solution. He applies silicone caulking around the rim and places the blower in the cavity. This blower will introduce air to mix with the snow solution. The caulking acts as a sealant to keep the air from escaping. Next, he routes the wiring and tubing through the back part of the snow head. Then he joins the two components. He secures the two components with eight long bolts. He encases the wiring and tubing in a polymer jacket that shrinks when heat is applied. Next, a worker carves a hole in the center of a pre-manufactured blower guard. He inserts the snow head in the hole so that the blower guard surrounds the back. He ties the wiring and snow-solution tubing to the guard. Next, he maps out screw holes and drills them into a big fan that will blow the fake snow around. He screws in brackets that will be used to hang the machine high above a movie set. He installs a metal guard in the front of the fan... And attaches more brackets to the side. These brackets act as a holder for the snow-solution pump. Now he assembles the snow-head unit to the fan. He ties the snow-solution hose to the snow-head nozzle using wires. He flattens the wires to the nozzle and covers them with vinyl tape. He fits a specially-designed fabric sock over the nozzle. Liquid snow will be forced through the pores of the sock to form fake snowflakes. He connects the snow-solution tubing to the pump and pulls the wiring through the top of the fan. Next, a metal box that contains the controller for the electronics must be installed. He runs the snow-solution tubing through it and makes all the necessary wiring connections. The controller box is lowered onto the fan assembly and screwed in place. He installs a weight on the end of the snow-solution tubing. The weight will keep the tubing submerged in the snow-solution container. This snow machine is now fully assembled. It's over to the test station. Here, a technician runs it for hours. He checks that it generates a sufficient number of snowflakes and that the flakes are the right size and shape. With his approval, these machines are ready to whip up a snowstorm when the director says "action". A piano is a complex instrument. The inner workings operate with exact precision. Regular maintenance is required to ensure its longevity. But even with proper care, a piano deteriorates with age. This is where a talented team of specialists come in to restore a piano to its former glory. a piano that's untunable, has sticking keys, or malfunctioning pedals is a pianist's worst nightmare. These problems are quite common in older pianos, and the only cure is through a major restoration. After decades of use, wood, leather, and wool felt components naturally deteriorate. Metal pins develop cavities, screws rust, dust and dirt inhibit moving parts. An old piano may require anything from minor touch-ups to a complete rebuild. It takes up to two days just to take apart the piano. This component, called the action, is the heart of the instrument. It has thousands of parts, including 88 piano keys and the felt-covered hammers the keys activate. Behind the action is the damper action. The dampers stop the strings from vibrating, ending the piano note. The restorers begin removing the dampers. Every component must be laid out in an organized fashion. This is so they know how to reassemble the instrument. They separate the keyboard frame from the action. The self-contained part that remains is called the action stack. Like the dampers, the other wooden parts of the action stack deteriorate with age. The felts are usually worn, and everything's caked in dust. The restorers replace these components with custom-made replicas. After cleaning and polishing the ornate brass structure, they begin reassembling the action stack. Next, the restorers remove and discard any worn parts on the keyboard. They clean the wood thoroughly and install replacement parts as needed. The black keys are made of ebony wood. They can be refinished to look brand-new. Older white keys are covered with ivory, which is no longer used. So instead, they install new synthetic coverings made of white acrylic or a similar material. The steel and copper piano strings have rusted, tarnished, and fatigued with age. The tuning pins can no longer maintain the tension on the strings. This can change the sound of the instrument, so both the strings and tuning pins must be replaced. The piano will also receive a new pin block. The pin block is a laminated piece of wood that holds the pins in place. To access the pin block, they have to remove a heavy cast-iron plate. The plate holds the strings at a tremendous amount of tension. Once they've removed the plate, they can take out the pin block. They restore the ornate cast-iron plate by stripping off the old paint finish with chemicals. Then they prime, repaint, and apply a protective coat of clear polyester. Back in the reconstruction area, a restorer removes the piano's wooden soundboard and its support structure. They use these original parts as a template for the new ones. If the action is the heart of the piano, then the soundboard is its soul. When the strings vibrate against the soundboard, it resonates with sound. On every soundboard, the strings pass over a wooden bridge staggered by pins. The height and positioning of the bridge and pins are critical for producing fine tone. After removing the pins, the restorers use the old bridge to make a template for a new one. Now they install all of the replacement parts-- soundboard, bridge, bridge pins, pin block, and tuning pins. They install the newly-refurbished cast-iron plate and are ready to perform some cosmetic restoration. A piano's wooden cabinet or case is constructed from hardwood. To give the piano the look of fine furniture, the surface is covered in a thin layer of fancier wood such as mahogany, rosewood, or walnut. This veneer usually requires restoration in older pianos. Over time, paint peels and varnish darkens. There's often fading from exposure to direct sunlight or cracking due to dry indoor air. To restore the veneer, they begin by using a chemical stripper to remove the old finish. Once they've stripped the piano-case parts down to the bare veneer, they sand away any imperfections. Then they apply aniline dye. It's a type of stain that penetrates deep into the veneer and enhances the grain of the wood. Several coats of clear lacquer are applied over the aniline dye. This piano was originally black, so they sand, stain, then paint the wood black. They apply several coats of paint, letting each one dry overnight before sanding the surface and applying the next coat. After the final coat, they let the paint cure for two weeks, then do a fine sanding. To make the painted surface glossy, they use a high-speed buffer and a series of progressively-finer polishing compounds. This is a slow and painstaking process. It takes two or three days to complete work on a concert grand piano like this. With the 20-plus parts of the case now refinished, the restorers are now ready to reassemble the piano. They start by hooking the looped end of each new string onto a hitch pin. Then they run the string over the bridge to the opposite end of the cast-iron plate, winding it around a tuning pin. Restorers must wear gloves while restringing. Natural oils and perspiration on the hands can tarnish the wires. Next, they install the refurbished dampers. The original wood has been sanded and refinished. They also have new felts and new wires. The dampers go into a brand-new damper action. The restorers make minute adjustments and alignments, a meticulous process that can take a few days to complete. But that's nothing compared to regulating the larger and more complex action, which can take several weeks. They make more than a dozen precision adjustments to each of the 88 notes. After they reinstall the action, they bookend the keyboard with wooden cheekblocks. These are the originals, stripped, sanded, and stained. The cheekblocks help align the keyboard so that the hammers strike in the right place. The restorer checks the action one last time to ensure it's performing perfectly. Then he's ready to tune the piano. He weaves a strip of wool cloth through the strings to mute all but the one string they're tuning. once he's tuned all the strings, the inner workings of the piano are as good as new. restorers finish reassembling the piano case and give it a final dusting. Except for the legs, all of the piano-case parts have a solid wood core covered in a newly-restored veneer. This veneer isn't just for aesthetics. It prevents the wood core from expanding and contracting with changes in humidity. restoring an old piano is part technical challenge, part labor of love. After many weeks of hard work, this instrument looks and sounds just as it did in its heyday.