The “living hinge” you see molded into clamshell packaging has always been the domain of plastic; metal and wood don’t like the repetitive stress of bending. But Bavarian fabrication firm Ackermann has worked out a way to do a living hinge in plywood. The trick is to laminate a sheet of synthetic leather into the center of the veneer stack. With miters precisely cut just shy of the leather layer, it yields a tough, hardware-free hinge. The leather can also be laminated to the outside of a material like MDF. Larger corner radii can be achieved by inserting a tube. As for what the practical applications are, Ackermann isn’t saying; the techniques were either developed as contract work for a client—”We provide services for craftsmen, trade fair and interior construction industries [ranging] from the simple milling of an individual component to the serial production of entire objects, ” they write—or out of pure experimentation. The company has some 120 employees and 14 apprentices, with traditional carpenters, designers, CNC operators and fabrication technicians all working side by side to master various materials. “I enjoy nothing more than the discovery of new techniques, ” says Manfred Weid, Manager of Technical Operations. “With permanent development we stay in proximity to the pulse of the times.”
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Leather-Core Plywood!
Amazon’s running another one of their signature Android app giveaways , highlighted this time around by the likes of Plants vs. Zombies , Wolfram|Alpha , Runtastic PRO , and Osmos HD . If you own an Android device, take a minute to check out the full list and download anything you might want before the deal ends. [ Amazon Appstore ] Read more…
To continue to compete with the likes of Google Drive, OneDrive and iCloud, Dropbox really needs an online office suite to call its own—so it’s borrowed Microsoft’s. You can now edit any .docx, .xlsx or .pptx file from right inside the Dropbox web interface, with no extra software required, and here’s how to go about it. Read more…
There’s just nothing quite like the sound and feel of typing away on a keyboard with genuine mechanical switches under each key. But while most mechanical keyboards are giant and designed to permanently live on your desk, the TEX Yoda has a much smaller form factor and footprint making it easier to travel with so you’ll never have to settle for typing on a portable keyboard’s Chiclet keys ever again. Read more…
Having played Grand Theft Auto V on the Xbox 360 and again on the Xbox One, I didn;t grab a copy of the PC version for the story or the multiplayer—I got it for those sweet 3840 x 2160 ultra HD graphics. So far I’m very pleased. Read more…
DolphinSafe.gov . CouldIHaveLupus.gov . GovGab.gov . These were real, registered websites at one time until they were terminated. In some cases—take CyberSafe.gov or Americorpse.gov for example—it’s easy to see why. Read more…
Being able to carbonate water in your own home is awesome. Not being able to inject the same magic bubbles into every other liquid you can get your hands on? That’s a drag. But no longer! The SodaStream Mix is a new machine that can bubblify anything . Are you quaking with glee yet? I know I am. Read more…