How It's Made

lexible films are layered with microscopic electronic components and electronic ink to create thin electrophoretic displays. Porcelain-coated steel is bonded to a rigid backing for dry-erase boards, compressed-air mechanisms are assembled and accuracy-tested in air rifles, and quartz is mixed with resin and decorative materials before being moulded, cured and polished into countertops.

Wooden blocks are copied from precisely fitted models, hollowed, divided and hinged to create custom shoe trees. The episode also follows petroleum pitch and mineral powder as they are moulded into breakable clay targets, steel components as they become livestock squeeze chutes, and fibre-reinforced composite as it is injection-moulded into boat-propeller blades.

Digital dental scans produce models around which wires and acrylic are shaped into orthodontic retainers. Fresh oranges are washed, inspected, extracted and immediately chilled for juice, insulated wooden panels are joined into retractable sauna enclosures, and discarded carbon-steel saw blades are cut, heat-treated, sharpened and fitted with handles to become knives.

Aluminum and engineered wood are pressed together, coated and mounted on folding steel frames to produce outdoor table-tennis tables. Detailed designs are converted into steel moulds for injection-moulded model-kit parts, while optical glass is cut, ground, polished and carefully cleaned before the finished lenses are assembled into light microscopes.

Heated steel is forged, punched, ground and heat-treated before a shaped hickory handle completes a traditional hammer. Nutritional mixtures are tested and deposited into gummy moulds, aluminium frames are equipped with axles, bunks, winches and lighting to become boat trailers, and prepared wax is moulded or poured around fitted wicks to produce tea lights and jar candles.

Thousands of turns of fine copper wire are wound around a bobbin, combined with magnets and sealed to produce a guitar pickup. Heating cables are embedded in cast concrete furniture, brass tubes and valves are assembled into water-well cylinders, and resin-coated glass fibres are drawn into insulated handles that are fitted with tool heads and tested against high voltage.

Steel wire is formed into coils and combined with layers of cotton, polyester and upholstered fabric to build innerspring mattresses. Fibreglass and resin are laminated around moulds to form stand-up paddle boards, while electric motors, fans, filters, housings and controls are assembled and tested in both bagged and bagless vacuum cleaners.

Carefully inspected cowhide is cut into strips, bevelled, dyed, decorated and fitted with buckles to produce leather belts. Precision components are assembled into machines that deposit and laser-fuse metal powder, glass-reinforced resin is compression-moulded into tactile warning panels, and finely machined pistons, cylinders, crankshafts and flywheels are combined in working model Stirling engines.

Computer-controlled machinery coils and shapes steel wire into compression and extension springs before heat treatment and finishing. Carbide blanks are diamond-ground into extremely small drill bits, lightweight composite layers are vacuum-infused to form fishing skiffs, and low-iron glass is cut, tempered and coated on the reverse to create painted backsplashes.

Steel mesh is pressed, welded and padded to create protective fencing masks, while metal type, folded signatures, thread and handcrafted covers are brought together in traditionally bound books. Composite hulls, electronic controls and renewable power systems are assembled into autonomous ocean drones, and printed artwork is laminated to foam board before being die-cut into interlocking three-dimensional puzzles.

Stamped tinplate is rolled into a tapered tube, soldered, painted and fitted with a wooden mouthpiece before each whistle is tuned. Cattle horn is cut, heated, reshaped and polished into useful objects, while a lightweight steel space frame receives its engine, transmission, suspension, steering, safety equipment and removable body panels to become a Formula F race car.

Stamped brass frames, laminated glass lenses and padded leather surrounds are assembled into traditional motorcycle goggles. Curved wooden cabinets, decorative lighting, speakers and music-playing mechanisms come together in handbuilt jukeboxes; steel tanks, pumps and hoses become vacuum excavators; and cast or rolled pewter is shaped, soldered and polished into coordinated shaving sets.

Wool, foam, lining, plastic stiffeners and decorative fittings are carefully sewn together to produce uniform peaked caps. Copper or stainless-steel tanks are formed around internal heating coils and pressure-tested, fibreglass hulls receive batteries and electric propulsion systems, and flexible steel bars are forged, heat-treated, wired and fitted with pressure-sensitive tips to become fencing foils.