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Cork – One of the most renewable and ecologically friendly materials found anywhere in the world

CORK
Cork is the bark of the cork oak tree (Quercus suber). After the cork bark is harvested from the tree, the bark immediately begins to renew itself. Not a single tree is cut down during harvest. Generally, after nine years of growth the bark is two inches thick. It is often at this point when the tree is re-harvested. Cork trees live 200-500 years.

MORE THAN RENEWABLE
Cork not only begins to renew its bark immediately after harvest but during the trees entire lifespan it is filtering carbon dioxide thereby reducing greenhouse gases. Furthermore, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) “cork oak forests support one of the highest levels of biodiversity among forest habitats, as well as the highest diversity of plants found anywhere in the world”.

NOT GOING EXTINCT
Despite rumours, cork is not going extinct. However, some winemakers are causing the cork habitat to be threatened by converting from real wine corks to synthetic and screw caps. Because of the decrease in use of real wine cork, the value of cork as a raw material has gone down. This may cause cork forest owners to sell their land, which in turn may be converted to alternative use (such as real estate development).

BY USING CORK YOU ARE HELPING OUR PLANET
The more cork that is used, the more value the farmers who own the forests get out of their land, making it less likely they will sell their land for development. By using cork you are helping to preserve the forest habitat and thereby reducing greenhouse gases and contributing to biodiversity among plant and animal life. There are many other benefits, including poverty alleviation (many cork forests are in rural North Africa and are critical to their local economy) and employment.

The construction industry has been quick to embrace cork as an acoustic underlayment in multilevel units and for flooring. The interior design industry is also on the cutting edge with unique uses of cork. Both industries also recognize that cork contributes favorably to the LEED rating system. Please encourage your favorite winemaker to support the natural solution and think how you can integrate cork into your home or office.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Please visit our website or this link to the World Wildlife Fund:
http://www.jelinek.com/wwf

via: Posted by Jelinek Cork Group

I’ve been working on a design that can replace you current workstation (aka your kitchen counter). This is a functional workstation that can also be a conversation piece in any room. Especially if hand painted doors are incorporated. I would rather sit here and stare endlessly at Facebook or Twitter. And, once you see the status you were hoping for, you can close the laptop and fold up the top door to hide your obsession from any guests that might show up in person.

This is a concept drawing that is as fluid your daily status updates. I’m currently leaning towards the bamboo and walnut plywood combination with a white melamine highlights on the interior. The painted door on “graffiti” has a very urban or industrial feel. I like this juxtaposition of a brand new satin finished piece with a loosely drawn and painted illustration. The possibilities are endless for colors and subject. Commissioning your favorite artist to paint the doors could be a reality! Let me know what you think!

Workstation Prototype: Graffiti

Workstation Prototype: Painted

Workstation Prototype: Natural

I rode the bike (with the motor) for the first time today… I think it’s going to be pretty fun and a decent commuter. Maybe a little loud, but not bad. When it’s opened up it’s about as loud as a chainsaw or lawnmower… no surprise. Here’s what I ran into when building the bike.

The bike and motor arrived no more than 5 days from the day I ordered. Bikesdirect has delivered 2 bikes to me now and they arrive as described. I would recommend them to anyone who’s interested in ordering a decent bike for less. The only downside is that you don’t get to test ride them beforehand, but if you do your research you can pick up a good bike online. The motor arrived in a small 26lb box and seemed to be in good shape.

Building the bike was straight forward. Most of the bike is already assembled in the box. The only things left to do are install the handle bars, front brake, seat and seat post, wheels, pedals, and fenders. It took about an hour. I didn’t realize this bike has a large oval type tube for the front part of the triangle on the frame. And the top tube went down farther than I thought it would. I got a little nervous about how the motor might fit.

I unpacked the motor from ZoomBicycles and everything was in the box. I set out all the parts to familiarize myself with the kit. I put the bike up on a workbench and began to fit the motor. It was obvious that it was going to be real tight. It had to be low enough to fit the carburetor. The large frame adapter that came in the kit raised the motor up an inch and would not work. It seemed that none of the mounting hardware that came with the motor was going to work for this bike. I had to take a trip to the hardware store…. and ended up getting 3 feet of threaded 6mm Rod. The same size as the threaded bolts already in the motor. There might be a better solution in the future (I might build wood mounts that work and potentially cast them or maybe even just try the wood.) For now this should do it… long bolts bent around my oval shaped frame. I used an old tube for all the parts sitting against the frame… one, to keep it from scratching and two, for vibration control.

Custom Front Mount

After a couple of hours of messing around with it I finally got it in and ended up using the smaller metal brackets from the kit on the tube under the seat.

From this point, I followed the instructions that came in the box and proceeded to install the chain ring to the rear wheel. It wasn’t too hard. Aligning it so that it didn’t wobble took a little tweaking.

Installing Chain Ring

I ran into a problem when trying to fit the throttle handle onto the handle bar. The bike came with a SRAM twist shift that would not fit with the throttle/grip. I took a trip to Recycled Cycles in Seattle and found a used 7 speed shifter for $10. It slid over the handlebar and left enough space for the grip.

Used 7-speed Shifter

The clutch install was straight forward…. I chose to leave one of the springs off of the cable… it just made it harder to pull and I didn’t see a real benefit. The carburetor install was easy too… just slip it on to the intake manifold tighten the screw and hook up the fuel line/filter. The tank mounted easily with a little layer of rubber under to hold it off the frame and one cable.

Ok… now on to the electronics. I mounted and hooked up CDI unit. I made another trip to a auto parts store and picked up a better spark plug (NKG B6HS) and a plug wire/cap. I unscrewed the original plug wire out of the CDI unit and screwed the new one in. A simple upgrade that I read about… and cost less than $10. I then plugged in the kill switch as described in the manual. All set! Well, not so fast. I mixed up my fuel at 24:1 (the manual to break in the motor with 16:1 for 2 gallons…. many blogs I visited and read said 24:1 is sufficient). I hopped on the bike and nothing… popped the clutch… rode downhill with the compression of the engine pumping and couldn’t get the bike to turnover. I tested the plug outside of the motor and could not see a spark. Checked the wiring. Then did a little research online. I found the what the OHMs should be for the Magneto and for the CDI unit. I couldn’t get a conclusive reading with my OHM meter, so I decided to email Zoom Bicycles customer service department.

To my surprise (I read many blogs that many motor companies don’t respond) they replied with in 24 hours and told me to do a couple tests to figure out which part was bad. Checking the spark in the same by pulling it, grounding it, and turning the rear wheel. The second test was to hold the black and blue wire coming from the motor (magneto) and turn the wheel. If I felt a current then the magneto would have been good… I didn’t feel anything. I still didn’t know which part was faulty. I emailed ZoomBicycles again and told them the tests that I did and asked them to send both parts if they would. Again to my surprise, I got a email that day that said, the parts were shipping that same day.
ZoomBicycles has been great responding to my problems.

I got the two parts 3 days later, put them on, turned the fuel on, pumped the primer button, put the choke up, pedaled down the road and let the clutch out… the motor started right up! After a couple miles, I adjusted the idle screw a bit… but for the most part the thing ran great. I’ll post again with an update.

If you have install questions… let me know.

Handlebars Setup