29x05 - Office Chairs, Vinobrew, Reconditioned Sander Drums, Lithographs

[bunniefuu]

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Narrator: thomas jefferson, one
of america's founding fathers,

Came up with the first swiveling
mechanism for office chairs.

Decades later,
charles darwin

Added small wheels,
called casters,

To his chair to roll it
around the study

As he worked
on the theory of evolution.

Today, office chairs
still swivel and roll.

The office chair
has become a status symbol.

Executive versions have
kingly dimensions.

They're extremely plush
and have serious lumbar support.

Using a hydraulically
powered machine,

A worker bends 14-gauge
steel tubing to form

The bottom cushion frame.

He joins the ends and welds
steel bars to the middle.

The bars will support
the mechanism

For adjusting
the position of the seat.

He hooks s-shaped steel
springs from the front

To the back of the seat frame.

These sinuous springs
will eventually provide

A flexible web
of suspension in the seat.

He positions the rods laterally

And clips them to the springs

For additional stability
and support.

The office chair seat frame
is now complete.

Next, a worker builds
the chair's back frame.

The frame includes
a spine lumbar support,

Armrest attachments,
and other parts.

He grinds burrs and other
rough spots from the steel.

In the upholstery department,

Another worker smoothes
a leather hide

So that it sits evenly
on the cutting table.

He cuts out the patterns
following cardboard templates.

As he cuts, he works around
the natural flaws in the hide,

Making calculated decisions
to minimize waste.

By cutting carefully,

He'll be able to get
all the leather

He needs for one chair
from this large hide.

That's important

Because color and grain

Can vary from hide to hide.

Using pieces from the same
one will give the chair

A consistent look and texture.

Once all the leather pattern
pieces have been accumulated,

Another worker cuts foam
cushioning for backing.

The density of the foam
in the chair varies.

He uses more rigid foam

For the chair's
contoured cushioning

So it will hold its shape.

Another worker selects softer
foam for the part of the chair

That the occupant's back
will rest against.

He cuts slits into this
softer back padding.

This creates channels
that will ultimately

Become a design feature.

Using chalk, he draws lines

Onto the corresponding leather

That match up with
the slits in the foam.

A worker aligns the chalk lines
in the leather

With the slits
and puckers

The leather as he sews
the backing to it.

This forms a ribbed pattern

In the upper half
of the chair upholstery.

He stitches the padding flat

To many of the other
pattern pieces.

This particular part
is a side panel

For the back of the chair.

Returning to the upholstery
with the ribbing now,

He sews contoured
casings to each side.

To complete the back
of the chair,

Workers add a chipboard panel

And encase the structure
with foam,

Then cover it
with the leather upholstery.

Once the chair seat
has been upholstered,

An employee installs
a plastic cover

To enclose the back.

He screws a sliding
plate to the base.

This mechanism will work
in conjunction with the plate

To slide the seat forward
and backward,

Depending on legroom needs.

It also has features
for adjusting

The tilt and height of the seat.

The hydraulic cylinder
for adjusting

The seat height is next.

The cylinder also doubles
as the chair's stem,

And it swivels to allow the seat
to rotate 360 degrees.

He attaches the aluminum
base to the cylinder.

He snaps the casters
into slots in the aluminum base.

He equips the back
of the office chair

With an automobile-style
headrest.

The prongs fit into the brackets
in the chair frame.

Finally, he locks
the armrests into the frame.

This office chair is now ready

To make someone's desk job

A lot more comfortable.

Narrator: vinobrew is just what
the name implies --

Vino, meaning wine,

And brew,
referring to beer.

This hybrid beverage
is part of a fledgling trend

By some adventurous breweries
and wineries

To merge their two otherwise
separate worlds of alcohol

And create
a unique drink.

This vinobrew is made
from port-style sweet wine,

Dark strong beer known as stout,

And another ingredient
that's brewed -- coffee.

This concoction is
the collaborative creation

Of a winery, microbrewery,
and coffee producer.

The microbrewery grows
some 20 different varieties

Of hop plants
whose flowers contain

The resins and essential oils
that give beer its bitter

And aromatic characteristics.

To begin
the beer-making process,

The brewmaster fills a tank,
called a mash tun,

With water,
then ignites a burner.

When the water heats to around


He pours in a blend of different
types of malts.

Malts are cereal grains
such as barley

Or corn which have been soaked

To kick-start germination,
then, once sprouted,

Dried with hot air
to halt germination.

Stirring the malt into
the hot water

Activates enzymes
that convert the starches

In the grain
into fermentable sugars.

After an hour or so,
he transfers just the liquid,

Called wort,
to the boil kettle

And gradually adds
different varieties of hops.

He brings the wort to a boil

To k*ll off bacteria
and sterilize it.

Next, he cools
the wort and transfers

It to the fermentation tank.

Then he adds yeast.

Over the next 10 to 14 days,

The yeast consumes
the fermentable sugars

In the wort,
converting them into alcohol

And producing carbon dioxide
gas, which creates bubbles.

This process transforms
the wort into beer.

At the coffee company,

The hot coffee beans
must be cooled quickly

After coming out of the roaster
so that they don't overcook.

This perforated
cooling pan stirs

The beans to help
dissipate the heat,

Then a commercial
coffee grinder grinds

The beans into
coarse-ground coffee.

To prepare coffee
for the vinobrew,

A worker puts grounds
into a filter bag,

Saturates the bag
with cold water,

Then submerges the bag in water,

Letting the grounds soak
for about 16 hours.

Then he pours the coffee
into a large jar.

At the winery,
winemakers harvest

And press the grapes,

Add yeast and ferment them,

Then age the port wine

For at least 2 years
in oak barrels.

To prepare to make vinobrew,

The winemakers test samples

From different barrels
for acidity

And sweetness to help decide

Which wines to potentially use.

The winemaker
and the coffeemaker

Then experiment with amounts
of those wines

And different cold-brew coffees

Made from various
types of beans.

The brewmaster also joins in,

Measuring out beer.

This process is
as much art as science.

For each batch of vinobrew,

The respective makers play
with a selection of ingredients

And with the proportions,

Tasting and smelling
the samples

To evaluate aroma, sweetness,
bitterness, and acidity.

What they try to create

Is a harmonious blend
of the three elements,

A new flavor without the taste

Of any one element
dominating the others.

Once they pin down
the winning formula,

They replicate it on
a large scale for production.

The winery pumps
the selected wine

From storage tanks into barrels
for transport to the brewery.

At the brewery,
the brewmaster pumps

The required amount of wine

From those barrels
into a blending tank.

He pours the required amount

Of cold-brewed coffee
into the blending tank.

Then he pumps
the required volume

Of beer into the tank.

Beer makes up the largest
proportion of the recipe,

Followed by wine,
then coffee.

After blending
the ingredients in the tank,

The brewmaster pumps
the vinobrew into a beer keg.

Then he injects
carbon dioxide gas

To add more carbonation.

When you pour
a glass of vinobrew,

The bubbles rise
to the top,

Producing foam known
as beer head.

But while this might look
and feel like regular beer,

One sip tells you that vinobrew
is uniquely different.

Narrator:
to refinish a hardwood floor,

One has to sand it
with a floor-sanding machine.

After a few thousand hours
of operation,

The machine's drum, which drives
the sandpaper, wears out.

The contractor
can either replace

It with a new one
or send the worn

One out to be reconditioned.

This company specializes

In reconditioning
worn sander drums,

That means restoring them
to like-new condition.

A drum can be reconditioned
as many as eight times

Before it has to be replaced.

The first step is to grind off

What's left of the aluminum
drum's worn rubber surface.

It gets worn down
due to the drum rotation speed

Of up to 2,600
revolutions per minute

And often gets damaged by
running over protruding nails

Or carpet tacks.

A worn drum doesn't hold
the belt of sandpaper taut,

Which causes the machine
to slip to the left and right,

Rather than sand smoothly
in a straight line.

A worker places the drum
on a press to detach

The arbor shaft, which attaches
the drum to the sanding machine.

When the drum was new,

Its aluminum sides
were freshly painted.

That paint is now
mostly worn away.

Sawdust and rubber residue fill
the drum's nooks and crannies,

So a worker places the drum
inside a sandblast cabinet

And puts his hands through
gloves that reach inside.

He holds the drum in one hand,

A sandblasting nozzle
in the other,

And in a few minutes,
the drum is pristine.

But it still has an ever-so-thin
layer of rubber remaining,

So another worker mounts
the drum on a lathe

And shears off the rubber
with a knife.

Then he passes
the knife again,

Removing a mere tenth
of a millimeter of aluminum.

This exposes a new smooth
aluminum surface.

Then a worker cuts a sheet

Of brand-new rubber
to the exact length

Needed to cover
the circumference of the drum.

The rubber is nearly two-thirds
of an inch think,

Roughly twice the thickness

Of the worn layer
they grinded off.

After clamping
it down flat,

The worker applies an adhesive
designed for rubber.

Then he sprays
an accelerant

Onto the drum's primed surface

To strengthen its bond
with the rubber.

He lets the accelerant
dry for 6 hours,

Then spreads a second coat
of adhesive on the rubber

And wraps it around the drum.

Twenty-four hours later,
with the adhesive cured,

Another worker mounts
the drum on a lathe and trims

Off the excess rubber
from both sides.

He then sands the trimmed edges

To make them perfectly flush
with the sides of the drum.

The drum goes back
on the grinder now

To finalize the overall
diameter of the drum.

Using a ruler, a worker adjusts
a measuring instrument,

Called a caliper,
to the diameter measurement.

He then grinds down the rubber
a bit at a time,

Spot-checking
with the caliper regularly.

The worker stops grinding
once the caliper

Check tells them
the drum diameter is correct.

If a sanding drum
isn't perfectly balanced,

It vibrates
and disfigures the floor,

So a worker mounts the drum
on a balancing machine.

He applies a band
of masking tape

And draws a black line
on the tape

To give the machine
a reference point

From which to start measuring.

As the machine rotates the drum,

A sensor measures velocity
on both sides simultaneously.

If the velocity
is inconsistent

On either side,
he balances the drum

By adding or reducing
weight on the problem side.

To reduce weight,

A worker drills a hole
to remove aluminum.

To add weight, he fills
the drilled hole with tin,

A metal that's far heavier
than the aluminum he removed.

The final step
is to repaint the sides.

A worker masks the rubber
with a template

Then sprays the aluminum with
rust-inhibiting metal paint.

Now this main component
of a floor sander

Is as good as new,

Ready to bring a worn wood
floor back to life.

Narrator:
lithography was discovered

When german playwright
alois senefelder

Had no paper handy
for writing a laundry list.

So he wrote it down on a stone
using a grease pencil

And stumbled onto a new method
of printing,

One that relies
on the chemical aversion

Of grease and water.

Lithographs can rival paintings
for detail and mood.

They have a unique
visual quality,

And that's why making them
hasn't become a lost art.

A lithograph starts
with a flat limestone slab.

The artist confirms
the same thickness

All the way around the slab.

She now resurfaces the stone

Using a grinding tool
called a levigator.

She wets down
the surface of the stone

And the levigator
to allow the levigator

To move freely across
the stone during grinding.

The artist sprinkles silicon
carbide grit on the stone.

She spins the levigator
across the stone and,

Together with the grit,
it grinds off the top layer.

This process removes
the previous

Drawing and preps the stone
for the next one.

She finishes the grinding
with a finer abrasive

To give the limestone
a smooth finish.

Once the residue
has been rinsed off,

The stone is ready
for a fresh image.

She brushes a natural gum,
called gum arabic,

Around the edges,
creating a border

That will be receptive to water

But not the printing ink.

This process makes
a non-image area.

The artist marks up
a piece of paper

With a crayon made of wax,
charcoal, and clay.

She places the paper
on the stone, crayon-side down,

And sets a drawing
upside down on top.

She tapes the drawing
to the stone.

She now follows the lines
of the figure on the paper

With a pencil,
pressing firmly.

This transfers the drawing

To the stone and creates
a reversed image on it.

The artist simulates
specks of snow,

With a technique
called stippling,

With gum arabic and a brush.

She fills in the drawing
using a greasy crayon.

The stone picks up
and holds the greasy substance.

These crayons come
in varying degrees of hardness.

Once the artwork is complete,

She dusts the image with rosin

Which is a tree sap powder,
followed by a talc powder.

This will ultimately protect
the image during etching.

The artist then
brushes gum arabic

Onto the art
to protect the stone

From the corrosive nature
of the etching material,

A mix of nitric acid
and gum arabic.

This mixture alters
the surface of the stone

So that the image areas
will attract ink,

And the non-image areas
will repel it.

She places a sheet of paper
on the print stone

And applies lubricant
to the bottom

Of the scraper bar on the press.

She spreads more lubricant
onto a tympan,

A thin sheet of durable plastic,

That she's placed on
the paper-covered print stone.

This allows the stone to slide
under the pressure of the press.

The artist moves
the sliding press bed forward

So that the lithography
stone sits

Directly under the scraper bar.

She turns the mechanism to
tighten the bar to the stone.

She moves the press bed forward

To test the pressure
of the scraper bar.

She confirms that the pressure
is sufficient for printing

But not too tight.

Satisfied,
she removes the tympan.

She washes the crayon
from the stone

Using highly refined
mineral spirits.

What remains is
a ghost of the image.

The artist then rubs
a petroleum-based substance

Onto the stone that will serve
as a base for the ink.

The substance attaches
to the image on the stone.

Using a big leather roller,
she picks up oil-based ink.

An assistant dampens
the stone with a wet sponge.

The artist transfers
the ink to the damp stone.

The greasy parts
of the stone pick up the ink

While the wet parts don't.

The assistant moistens
the stone again.

The artist places
a sheet of print paper

Cut to size over the image.

She covers the stone
with clear plastic tympan.

The press bed rolls forward

Until the stone sits directly
under the scraper bar.

The preset bar applies
the exact pressure

Needed to print
the image onto the paper.

The artist carefully
lifts the paper,

Revealing a perfect mirror
image of the art.

Using the same stone,

She can make hundreds more,

Each one a work of art.