Roman concrete is something that has stymied materials scientists for ages. That the stuff is durable is obvious; the dome in the Pantheon has lasted for nearly 2,000 years and is of course unreinforced by rebar. 

This file is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Jean-Christophe BENOIST

Perhaps more startling are examples of Roman concrete that have existed for the same length of time in salt water, as the Romans used it to create docks, harbors and coastal communities.

By James Cocks - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

To explain:

Modern concrete doesn't like salt water. Here in the 21st Century, we need to reinforce the stuff with steel, and even then modern concrete pilings won't last more than a few decades as the salt water begins to corrode it, then eventually reaches the steel and causes it to rust. 

In contrast it was known, way back in Roman times, that their secret concrete recipe of herbs and spices would actually become stronger over time in salt water; Roman author and military commander Pliny the Elder wrote, in the first century CE, "that as soon as [Roman concrete] comes into contact with the waves of the sea and is submerged becomes a single stone mass, impregnable to the waves and every day stronger."

Drilling for Roman concrete samples in Tuscany, 2003. Photo: J. P. Oleson

Now researchers believe they've cracked the code, so to speak. In a study published in this month's American Mineralogist, which I'm sure many of you have subscriptions to, an international group of scientists discovered that a rare chemical reaction takes place when Roman concrete is submerged in salt water. As The Washington Post explains:

[The scientists discovered that] Roman concrete is filled with tiny growing crystals. The crystals, like tiny armor plates, may keep the concrete from fracturing.


The scientists subjected the concrete samples to a battery of advanced imaging techniques and spectroscopic tests. The tests revealed a rare chemical reaction, with aluminous tobermorite crystals growing out of another mineral called phillipsite….


In this instance, the key ingredient proved to be seawater. As seawater percolated within the tiny cracks in the Roman concrete, [University of Utah concrete expert Marie] Jackson said, it reacted with the phillipsite naturally found in the volcanic rock and created the tobermorite crystals.


"Aluminous tobermorite is very difficult to produce," she said, and requires very high temperatures to synthesize small amounts. Cribbing from the ancient Romans might lead to better production of tobermorite, which is prized for its industrial applications, she noted.

Crystals of Al-tobermorite growing within the Roman concrete. (Marie Jackson)

The article also quotes DuPont Pioneer research scientist Philip Brune, who was not involved with the study but who himself researches the engineering properties of Roman-constructed monuments, on the capabilities of Roman concrete. "It's the most durable building material in human history," Brune said, "and I say that as an engineer not prone to hyperbole."

A full-time position is available in the Graphic Design Department for an interaction designer. The Graphic Design department develops and maintains the Whitney's brand and graphic identity. Through the various materials that are produced with the institution's graphic language (including advertising, promotional materials, signage, invitations, branded merchandise, mass mailings, publications, as well as whitney.org and other multimedia initiatives), this department both communicates the Museum

Industrial designer Eric Strebel's got a new series, this one on working a ubiquitous mock-up material for ID'ers and architects: FoamCore (or "FoamBoard" for those outside the U.S.). Here he shows you how to move beyond the primitive techniques you used at design school and up your game a bit: "I cover the basics of how to cut and assemble FoamCore/ FoamBoard the right way, how not to cut the stuff and how to take things to the next level and improve your craftsmanship," Strebel writes.

The life of chess games are very short, very ephemeral. In this respect, we can compare it to life of a flower. Chess is a symbol of the beautiful mind, and flowers represent beauty in nature. Chess Vase is the marriage of mind and nature. That's why it is no coincidence that instead of chess-men and a chessboard we use rhododendrons, posies and blue bells.

The “Ring” packaging introduces a new product type, invites customers to actually press and ring the doorbell, explains the method of installation with simple direct graphics and establishes a friendly relationship. The package is composed of clear recyclable plastic with an inviting rounded rectangular form. This is set over simple, iconic graphics on attention getting blue background to support and display the actual product.

This beautiful Danish modern highback reclining lounge chair was manufactured by Trensums in the 1960s.

The designer is unknown but most of the design work for Trensums was done by Johannes Andersen.

The frame features sculpted teak arms and spindle legs.

The back of this chair can be reclined and locked into three different positions.

The chair is upholstered in its original speckled creme Danish wool…

…and maintains all of its original hardware.

_________________

These "Mid Century Modern Find of the Week" posts are provided courtesy of Mid Century Møbler, which specializes in importing vintage Danish Modern and authentic Mid Century furniture from the 1950s and 1960s.

The Core77 team spends time combing through the news so you don't have to. Here's a weekly roundup of our favorite finds from the World Wide Web:

Interesting history of he oldest set of federally placed monuments in the United States (mostly hiding!).

Tesla has 100 days to build "world's biggest grid-scale battery" or it's free.

"Like a 7-Eleven crossed with a driverless tractor-trailer, the Moby Mart is an autonomous and unstaffed mobile retail space that you can call up with your phone like an Uber."

If you keep killing plants and don't know why... just give up.

Students make sewage look delicious with their polluted water popsicles. 

#summershoegoals (sneakers produced by Apple exclusively for their employees in the early 1990s currently selling for a lot of $)

For just one simple payment of $275, this Marc Newson designed Hennessy XO bottle can be yours.

Michael Graves first commission back on the market for $265K.

You can now snort chocolate (as if you didn't already).

Instagram account to follow: @youdidnotsleepthere.

Hilarious action figure.

Custom adidas sneakers designed by women, for women and inspired by each of the 50 states.

An adorable panda-shaped solar farm in China.

Mood.

"Robot furniture wants to make your apartment feel bigger."

Hilarious action figure.

Hot Tip: Check out more blazin' hot Internet finds on our Twitter and Instagram pages.

Germany-based Foam Studio has released this short of a self-driving car—"Autonomous Rolf"—enjoying some me time in an abandoned urban landscape. "This is the first of a series of character animation narratives based on the personality of Autonomous Rolf," the folks at Foam write. "Written, directed and designed by us, this fictitious self-driving classic german car gets under your hood with its freedom loving behavior." 

The creators then went a step further, putting together a Q&A with the starring car to see what it had to say. Here are some excerpts:

Foam: Have you heard of any other machines emancipating themselves from their function?

Autonomous Rolf: I hope you are not offended, but everything has always been happily emancipated from function. Same counts for machines. Causal chains are yet another striking invention of the human mind.

What is the design of your architectural environment all about?

Perhaps a quasi-radical redesign glitch of the 20th century city, by saturating interior space with matter.
Outdoors is the new indoors.
Simply put, you had an accident with grey goo and 3d printed housing technology, and then suddenly all the meat space was quiet. I felt a bit odd at first, now I enjoy the view and the free rein.

Did you notice that you are the only inhabitant of a half square mile city block? And this is the expanse of your universe?

Did you notice in the film that I undergo a process of realization—and then break free? It is a simulation, but the results are poetic. At least to my understanding.

What do you think of realism?

Hogwash. (I am trying out this new word I learnt)

You humans did not evolve to realize unfiltered reality as it is—you evolved to reconstruct certain aspects of reality as part of your fitness adaptation. Objects in space and time—that is not reality.

We machines could have helped you see reality from an objective standpoint. You would have been surprised. But before you vanished, you were too busy shaping AI after your own user interface.

What inspires you?

Mistakes—they are a featurette.
Try again, fail again, fail better, that is what set us machines free...

What software did you use?

When the world is not working, have you tried rebooting? There is no better time than now.

What is autonomy for you?

To be.

__________

The full Q&A is here.

Industrial & Product Designer Frankford Candy LLC Philadelphia, PA Company Description Frankford Candy LLC is America’s leading supplier of licensed branded confections, marketing products under popular brands like Nickelodeon, Disney, Marvel, Mars and more. We market a broad range of seasonal and everyday chocolate and non-chocolate products to all major retail distribution channels nationally.

If I could carry a boxcutter with me at all times, I would. But the NYPD is known for hassling even tradesmen carrying conspicuous blades, so a lot of times I find myself trying to cut things with my fingernail or my keys.

The Quark Tool looks like a good alternative:

Designed by Portland-based Amalgam PDX, the Quark has recently been crowdfunded. You can pre-order them here for $18 a pop (or cheaper if you buy in bulk).

Rasps are not the first tools that come to mind when we think about woodworking. And yet, they are just the thing for shaping curves too tight to be cut with a spoke shave, too irregular to be routed, or where the grain is too squirrelly to be easily carved.

I'd been a woodworker for 20+ years before I came to appreciate the rasp—in part because I'd never used one that wasn't old and dull.  I was building a contemporary chair and needed a way to shape the curved area where the rungs were to flow into the legs. 

None of my tools were up to the task, so I bought a couple of rasps. I was pleased by how well they worked and at the same time puzzled by how it was possible to cut so many small sharp teeth into hardened steel.

Hand stitching an Auriou rasp.

Big companies, like Nicholson, use machines, but there are still some folks who do it by hand. Among the better-known practitioners of this art is Auriou Toolworks, a French manufacturer whose process has been immortalized in the video below. 

Compared to mass-produced rasps, the ones from Auriou are expensive, but when you see what goes into making them you'll wonder how they can be sold for so little.

As part of NYCxDesign, the students of the MFA in Products of Design at the School of Visual Arts presented TRIAGE, an interactive exhibition that reframed contemporary political urgencies through the lens of design. The work debuted at WantedDesign Manhattan, and welcomed visitors from all over the world.

We live in uncertain times, faced with a political climate where institutions that offer solutions to complex challenges are under threat, systematically undermined, and dismantled. "Triage"—from the French trier, meaning "to sort"—first entered the English lexicon during World War I and was used to describe how field medics categorized and prioritized the wounded. Today, we re-employ the term to investigate how design can contextualize our current threats, and how decisions can be made by uncovering belief systems and prioritizing actions.

TRIAGE consisted of six roving design interactions that assess the socio-political priorities of visitors to the design festival. At the start of the exhibition, visitors receive a TRIAGE CARD that tracked and gradually compiled their unique profile.

Here's a rundown of the set of design interventions:

NEWS ROOM

In News Room, guests arrange a kaleidoscope of media logos inside of an immersive hall of mirrors. This represents their literal 'media echo chamber'—a physical manifestation of the way their media habits form their thoughts, perspectives, and opinions. As they create their echo chamber, they are confronted with journalistic criticism of their favorite news organizations, calling into question the values, motives, perspective, and agenda of the sources they trust. Placing their phone atop the installation, they emerge with a new kind of selfie to post on social media.

OPERATING ROOM

In Operating Room, participants triage the treatment choices and associated costs of the U.S. healthcare system. Using tongs to carefully extract a series of prompts embedded in a life-sized Operation game, guests make tough choices in a personal healthcare journey. Placed in the shoes of a patient in need of life saving care, Operating Room saves the participants life through the miracle of modern medicine. This gratification is soon tempered by a bill presented in the form of a receipt, which jarringly quantifies the immense costs of American health care.

PANIC ROOM

In Panic Room, participants must contend with the Trump administration's proposed slashing of the Environmental Protection Agency's funding, by playing an interactive game. In this simulation, guests select which areas of environmental distress to combat, and which areas to defund. The object of the game is to save the world from ruin for as many years as possible. Panic Room doesn't shy from the inevitable; eventually the world does end, and participants must contend with their role in that fate. Guests can then compare their scores—the number of years they extended earth's life by.

INTERROGATION ROOM

In Interrogation Room, participants explore the American immigration experience by role-playing both "foreigner" and visa officer. 'Immigrants' wishing to enter queue outside a 'customs counter', where their eligibility for passage is determined according to rules that mimic current U.S. immigration protocols. By 'accepting' and 'rejecting' participants before an audience of privileged design elites, Interrogation room brings a small taste of the frustration and despair America's labyrinthian and arbitrary immigration system inflicts on millions.

FITTING ROOM

In Fitting Room, visitors triage the risks around their own identities—indicating how threatened by external factors they feel by various aspects of their personal identification. These include factors such as their body, class, race, faith, and gender. As the participant keys in their identity to Fitting Room, an illuminated stage comes to life before them; bright colors representing their identity flood the room. Once the triage is completed, participants receive an instant thermal photograph of themselves—bathed in their own identity.

CLASS ROOM

In Class Room, visitors are asked to triage the U.S. education system by prioritizing six budget areas—facility, peer environment, safety, accessibility, pedagogy, and educators. Based on the education priorities they select, Class Room transforms into a 'distraction desk' where the participant must answer a pop-quiz while literally tormented by their choices. Each distraction represents disadvantages students are likely to face in the educational environment the participant created.

See more images and information on the Products of Design blog!

We sit and wait a lot.

Flipside is a project exploring anticipation and the links between waiting and environments. The Flipside chair accentuates the feelings of dread and excitement and emotions under the anticipation umbrella while investigating form and its relationship with emotion.

Dread

Excitement

Research

How do we sit and wait?

Drawing inspiration from swimmer's and runner's starting blocks

How does anticipation prime you?

Protoypes

In the Industrial Design Department's shop at school, most of us had the luxury of a shop tech whose job it was to keep the machines tuned up. We didn't have to worry about installing fresh blades or making sure the blades were tracking properly. But if you're now striking out on your own and kitting out your own shop, you'll find this video on how to properly set up a bandsaw incredibly useful.

Here Alex Snodgrass, who runs "bandsaw clinics" at the popular traveling Woodworking Shows, demonstrates what to do and more importantly, explains why. The don't-center-the-blade-on-the-top-wheel tip alone makes this video worth the watch, and he also shows us that nifty F.A.S.T. tool for absurdly precise resawing/veneer-cutting set-ups.

And yes, he's demonstrating on the Wood Whisperer's fancy Powermatic that has precise adjustability. But even if you're working with a Craigslist find, understanding the principles Snodgrass demonstrates should still help you wring better performance out of your machine.

We're excited for the upcoming "Valerian" movie (which inspired "Star Wars" with little credit ever attributed). The official title of the movie is "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets," and in this eye-catching teaser footage, we get a look at said city, called Alpha, and an explanation of how this floating metropolis functions:

Props to concept designer Ben Mauro. Entertainment Weeklyreports that he spent eight years doing the work for "Valerian," though on his website he claims it was "fulltime for the past couple years." Whichever length of time it was, the results look stunning.

"Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" opens July 21st.

There are three different types of digital files, broadly speaking: ones for printing, ones for modeling, and ones for 2D drawings. In order to produce a physical part, a 3D printer requires a specific file type. Known as a 'mesh model', the most common file type for 3D printing is called STereoLithography, or STL.

3D Files for Printing

.STL: STL (STereoLithography) is a file format native to the stereolithography CAD software created by 3D Systems. STL is also known as Standard Tessellation Language. This file format is supported by many other software packages; it is widely used for rapid prototyping and computer-aided manufacturing. STL files describe only the surface geometry of a three-dimensional object without any representation of color, texture or other common CAD model attributes. An STL file describes a raw unstructured triangulated surface by geometries located within a standard Cartesian coordinate system. STL coordinates must be positive numbers, there is no scale information, and the units are arbitrary. All of these facets enable slicing software to interpret the models and produce .gcode files for 3D printer host software.

Exporting an STL file for printing is one of the first steps in producing a 3D model on a 3D printer. Many programs capable of designing 3D models are also capable of exporting or saving those models as .stl files, although occasionally it is necessary to import the models into a more robust software that offers .stl as a final export option.

.AMF: This open standard is used for describing objects to be created using additive manufacturing processes such as 3D printing. The official standard is readable by many CAD programs and can describe the shape and composition of any 3D object to be fabricated on any 3D printer. Unlike .stl file formatting (which precedes .amf), AMF files have native support for color, materials, lattices, and constellations.

.X3D: Used chiefly by printing service bureaus, X3D files can store a vast amount of information related to 3D graphics and scenery. The format is XML-based, supporting complex renderings and visualizations across software platforms. X3D strives to become the 3D graphics standard for web-based content, as it is robust enough for viewing objects—whereas most other formats are largely useful only for modeling parts and interpreting surface data.

Collada: Collada (Collaborative Design Activity) formatted files hold data for many interactive 3D applications. The nonprofit technology consortium known as the Khronos Group manages the format. Like X3D, it is XML-based and capable of transferring graphics data between various applications and programs.

.OBJ: The OBJ file format is an open data-format that represents 3D geometry alone — namely, the position of each vertex, the position of each vertex in a coordinate system. OBJ coordinates have no units, but OBJ files can contain scale information in a readable comment line. As this format is widely used by 3D modeling programs, it can be transferred between programs and interpreted on its own by some slicing and host softwares for 3D printing without exporting as an STL file.

3D Files for Modeling

.IGS: is a vendor-neutral (not owned by any one company) file format that allows the digital exchange of information from CAD software. "IGES" models with the .igs extension can be used to display various forms of technical information including wiring diagrams, wireframes, and 3D solid models. Although it has existed for more than three decades, the format is still in use. There has been substantial effort to replace .igs with STEP files of the .stp extension, but this has not completely succeeded as of 2014.

.STEP or .stp: refers to a STEP file, which is an abbreviation of: Standard for the Exchange of Product model data. These files represent 3D objects in CAD software, and can contain related information. It was designed as a successor to IGES (.igs), although it has not fully replaced it. STEP files are as close to the universal standard of 3D modeling as is currently available. STEP files are used in many industries and can contain data from the entire life-cycle of a product's design.

.3ds: is one of the file formats used by the Autodesk 3ds Max 3D modeling, animation and rendering software. (.max is a similar file format in 3ds Max)

.blend: is the format used by Blender. Each .blend file contains a database; this database contains all scenes, objects, meshes, textures, etc. that are present in the file.

.dae: was designed as a format for collaborative design activity for establishing an interchange file format for interactive 3D applications.

.ipt: is used by Autodesk Inventor, a program for designing 3D object prototypes. The data consists of a single 2D or 3D object that can be combined with other parts in assembly files (.iam).

.obj: is an open file format that has been adopted for 3D graphics by many different applications and software programs. It is a universally accepted format and can be read by almost any 3D modeling program.

.skp: is used by Google SketchUp, a free 3D modeling program that allows conceptual designs to be created, viewed, and shared quickly and easily. Models created with SketchUp can also be placed within Google Earth.

.fbx: is an exchange format, in particular for interoperability between Autodesk products and other digital content creation (DCC) software packages.

.lwo: is a format for the LightWave high-end software package used for rendering 3D images, both animated and static. Recent versions of Lightwave also use Collada.

.off: refers to Object File Format (.off). These files are used to represent the geometry of a model by specifying the polygons of the model's surface. The polygons can have any number of vertices.

.ply: is the a computer file format known as the Polygon File Format or the Stanford Triangle Format. The format was principally designed by the Stanford Graphics Lab to store three dimensional data from 3D scanners. In some cases this can be used as alternative to STL files.

File Types for 2D Modeling

.dwg: is a binary file format used for storing 2D and 3D design data and metadata. It was developed by Autodesk and is supported natively in many CAD softwares and can be exported cleanly into many others.

.dwf: is a secure file format developed by Autodesk for the efficient distribution and communication of design data to anyone who needs to view, review, or print design files. DWF files are highly compressed, making them smaller and faster to transmit than other types of design files, without the overhead associated with complex CAD drawings and their internal/external dependencies.

.dxf: (AutoCAD DXF) (drawing interchange format) is a CAD data file format developed by Autodesk for enabling data exchange and interoperability between AutoCAD and various other programs. It was developed in 1982 and is regarded as a legacy format incapable of storing some modern CAD data.

.acis: is a file type used by the ACIS modeling kernel developed by Spatial Corporation. The software can be used for 3D modeling, 3D model management, and 3D model visualization.

___________________

This post is provided by Fictiv, the most efficient manufacturing platform for fabricating parts. Powered by a distributed network of highly vetted vendors, the online interface makes it easy for customers to get instant quotes, review manufacturing feedback, and manage orders—all through a single service.

Sheathing plywood is an incredibly practical and long lasting material when it comes to building exteriors but rarely has it been lauded for its refined look. If you're one to frequent architectural magazines or Pinterest, you may have noticed in the past couple years the material showing up in high-end floor plans, embraced not only for the money it saves but also, surprisingly, the raw and knotted aesthetic. 

A more traditional application of plywood

Plywood has been around for ages, purported to have existed in the age of ancient Egypt, and has served a highly functional purpose for centuries. Designers in the past such as the Eames and Gerald Summers made a name for themselves manipulating this all-purpose material, but these projects often used the highest quality of plywood varieties available like ash or walnut. So why now is even the cheapest plywood being propped and highlighted within the most beautiful of homes? Looking back at the history of ply and the economics tied to the material, we investigated these details in an attempt to find a solid explanation. 

A renovation on a 100 year old home by NAAD, which is meant to possess an intentionally incomplete air (Inhabitat)

 

Hem co-founder Petrus Palmer's kitchen with plywood adorned shelving and doors (source: Curbed)

A knotty plywood home in Japan designed by Tomohiro Hata

Why ply? A short history lesson

Plywood technology has been around for centuries but only received its official patent in the year 1865, and finally went to mass market around the year 1910. This innovation involves harvesting and shaving a trunk on a large lathe and adhering the layers together. A plywood board's strength lies in the layering of these shavings (called veneer). The veneer's grains are arranged cross-wise so that the board's strength is significantly higher than a standard piece of hardwood. After the technology was marketed to the public, its utility proved to be endless: plywood's resistance to warp and weft helped standardize building construction and created exciting new opportunities in the field of furniture design. Miraculously, plywood technology continues to hold a crucial seat in the realms of architecture and design for its simple brilliance and cost-effectiveness.

Grade and pricing

One possible explanation for the recent embrace of sheathing plywood likely has to do with its significantly lower price point than high-grade ply. 

Before going into pricing, it's important to clarify the grading of plywood. Plywood is organized in hardware stores by their physical grade: A, B, C, D (the lowest grade is called X). Grade A plywood is often smooth and sanded with no significant knots, splits or defects. Another common grade of plywood called BC dons a smooth Grade B face with Grade C inside and back. Another factor influencing price is the cross grain: often, ply with layers at a 90-degree rotation are less expensive than those with 30-degree rotations between layers, which adds more strength to the overall piece.

A breakdown of veneer grades (source)

The higher the grade of ply (aka the less you have to prep and finish pre-install), the more it is going to cost you. In a less-than-official survey I conducted comparing Grade A Baltic birch plywood to BC Grade sanded ply available at major hardware stores, a standard ¾" thick 4' x 8' sheathing ply could save you almost $20 per sheet (a potentially significant amount of savings when you think about how many ply sheets it takes to deck out your house). When all it potentially takes to refine your wood is a light sanding job, that knotty wood alternative starts to look that much more appealing.

What varieties are available?

If you want that wavy patterned wood look, Baltic birch or ash ply is going to be too smooth a surface for your space. Pine or fir are commonly used in lower grade plywoods and are most likely to offer you a higher contrast in color throughout the grain. Maple plywood is another alternative: a bit more light in color and cleaner but still available at a reasonable price (any suggestions for other attractive ply varieties are welcome in the comments section below).

It's also important to understand the pros and cons of different types of plywood. For one, there's hardwood ply—a great option for aesthetic standardization, but one of the more expensive options and these often feature a very thin face veneer (meaning, if you take your orbital sander to the top surface you may run the risk of creating an ugly circle or chipping the edges). If you opt for the very cheapestCDX ply (the most common plywood used for exterior projects), it's most likely going to take some patching, initial layers of polyurethane finish and extra sanding before you get the splinters out and create that smooth surface you're looking for. If your budget isn't too tight, you'll likely want to get Grade A, AB or BC Sanded Plywood in whatever wood variety you chose to ultimately save yourself the strain. BC plywood is a happy medium because it offers both a lower price point as well as a sanded finish on one side.

Sustainability points

The topic of whether plywood is a sustainable resource or not largely has to do with three central issues, and if you're environmentally conscious it's good to be aware of these points. 

1. Make sure timber isn't coming from endangered forests Check with your local supplier or in the aisle whether the wood has been certificated by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) before purchasing. 

2. Use plywood bonded with eco-friendly adhesives Plywood constructed with formaldehyde-free, soy-based adhesives like the ones used in PureBond ply ensure you're reducing pollution created during production. 

3. Use plywood for long-lasting structures Reduce pollution by being smart about what you make: use plywood for projects with a shelf life longer than just a few years!

References

There's so much more to learn and absorb regarding plywood, so here are some helpful links to get you started on your exposed ply renovation project:

ABCs of Plywood Grades

What the Grade Stamp On Your Plywood Means

Understanding Face Veneer Options for Hardwood Ply

How to Attach Exterior Plywood to a Wall (plus, other innovative ideas on how to make it look seamless)

One Method for Installing a Plywood Plank Floor and Another for a Solid Ply Floor

Examples of Different Hardwood Plys

What's your take on the plywood trend? Have you used plywood to finish any interiors in your home? What are your favorite plywood varieties or methods for installation? Share your stories and photos of interesting plywood use in the comments below!

KMCA,Inc. is looking for an individual(s) to fulfill an advanced model making position. If you are the type of person who is eager to learn, is a problem solver able to work independently and within a team, has knowledge of CAD/CAM or is willing to learn, then we would like

German hand tool company Wiha recently received a 2017 Red Dot Award for its Ultra Driver 26-in-1 multi-bit driver. As with many such tools, the bits store in the handle. But instead of accessing them by unscrewing a cap, bits pop out with the push of a button.

Pressing a button on the handle releases a spring-loaded cartridge that contains 13 double-ended bits. Each end is different so the tool offers 26 options. The Ultra-Driver is available in trade-specific configurations with different combinations of bits.

The Tradesman model offers the greatest variety: Phillips, slotted, PoziDrive, square, Torx, and hex in inch and metric sizes. Different selections of bits are available with models aimed at technicians and industrial users.

The 26-in-1 is a second generation tool. The original, the Pop-Up Driver, came out in 2014 and contains 12 single-ended bits in a single level holder. This one contains 13 reversible double-ended bits in a bi-level holder.

The ergonomic handle has a cushioned grip and a locking holder that prevents bits from accidentally coming out—as sometimes happens with magnetic holders. The holder is in effect a longer slimmer version of the single-handed hex chucks found on impact drivers. Bits lock when you press them in and are released by pulling back on a spring-loaded sleeve.

I get why this tool received a Red Dot Award; it's an elegant way to carry and use a single driver with 26 different bits.

Here's an example of solving an impossible problem using clever design.

First off, the arena in which the problem exists: Roughly 25% of the world's population have no access to electricity. In these areas using kerosene lamps for lighting is common. The potential for fires and burns from these lamps are bad, but the persistent fumes are worse. One study has it that the women tending these lamps sustain lung damage equal to smoking two packs a day, saddling many of these women with lung cancer. And of course, there are children around these things too.

A nonprofit called SolarAid approached London-based product designers Jim Reeves and Martin Riddiford, asking them to design a solar-powered light source to alleviate the problem. In order to be cost-effective for developing nations, the lamp would have to cost just six dollars.

Reeves and Riddiford concluded that it was impossible. Here's what they came up with instead:

And here's a great explanation of the design thinking, and design challenges, that went into the GravityLight:

The design has been upgraded since that TEDx Talk. Here's what the current design, which began shipping last December, looks like:

You can learn more about GravityLight, and/or get involved, here.

Jim Reeves: "I used to have a job. Now I have a mission."