Siheyuan: Starting from the driver

Chapter 781 A Stroke of Minutes
With the blueprints and data all ready, the responsibility of manufacturing a brand-new high-precision gear set undoubtedly fell on the shoulders of the factory's top-notch level eight fitter.

And this person is none other than Yi Zhonghai.

Engineer Ling handed Yi Zhonghai a stack of drawings and detailed process requirements, and solemnly asked, "Engineer Yi, I'm leaving the rest to you."

Whether the grinding machine can be started again depends on the workpiece you are working on.

Yi Zhonghai picked up the blueprints, which were covered with densely packed data requirements and astonishing precision.

In the most prominent position on the drawing, use a striking red pen to circle several key dimensional requirements:

Tooth profile tolerance: ±0.005mm
Tooth direction error: ≤0.007mm
"hiss--"

Even though Yi Zhonghai had spent his entire life in the fitter's trade, weathering countless storms and seeing all sorts of difficult workpieces, he couldn't help but gasp in shock at this moment.

This level of difficulty is even more demanding than the test pieces he assesses for level eight work hours.

"Mr. Ling, this job is really tough."

"It's tough, but we have to do it. This is a major event for our steel rolling mill, and we must accomplish it no matter what!" Engineer Ling said without room for argument.

Others might give him, a level eight worker, some respect, but engineers like Ling might not.

The thing that hurt him the most was that he did it for Li Kailang!
"After it's finished, Xiao Li will come back to check if it's up to standard. If it's not up to standard, we'll redo it. This batch of workpieces must be made with the highest precision; better to have fewer than to have substandard ones!"

Since Engineer Ling had already said all that, Yi Zhonghai didn't try to cheat or shirk responsibility.

Li Kailang remained silent, but kept smiling as he looked at him.

This made Yi Zhonghai even more upset. It hadn't been long, and Li Kailang was already standing above him.

Helpless, Yi Zhonghai could only accept his fate: "Okay, but what about the materials? The special alloy steel required by the drawings may not be in stock in the factory's warehouse."

“It’s already been coordinated,” Engineer Ling said, his tone leaving no room for doubt. “The raw materials allocated from our sister factory will arrive soon.”

"Yi Gong, whether we can fix this machine or not depends entirely on you! Put everything else aside and focus on this."

Ling Gong slapped Yi Zhonghai hard on the shoulder.

Upon hearing this, Guo Da Piezi quickly added, "Don't worry, Engineer Ling, I won't assign Engineer Yi any other work these next few days."

After giving the order, Engineer Ling and Li Kailang left together.

As soon as the two left, the senior worker in the workshop couldn't help but curiously approach them to ask what had happened.

"Go away, go away, go do what you're supposed to do! This is something Engineer Ling personally instructed us to do, what are you asking about!" Guo Da Piezi scolded.

The senior workers had no choice but to abandon the idea.

After all, most of them had been involved in confidential matters and knew that there were some things they shouldn't pry into.

Qin Huairu and the others from the same courtyard saw that Li Kailang had also come with Engineer Ling, and ordered Engineer Yi to do his work.

Although it wasn't his order, I can't help but sigh a bit.

Yi Zhonghai's lofty image was shattered by a third at this moment.

"It's so much better to go to university. It's only been a short time, and I'm already following Engineer Ling around and giving orders to an old man."

"Yes, no matter how powerful we are, we're only on equal footing with this old man. How can we order him around?"

Qin Huairu stared intently at Li Kailang's retreating figure until he left.

"If only I had married him back then."

When Qin Huairu saw that scene, her heart was naturally stirred.

She could only 'live' in the workshop under Yi Zhonghai's protection, while Li Kailang could order Yi Zhonghai around.

The two are worlds apart.

Closer to home.

Once the task was assigned, the area surrounding Yi Zhonghai was designated as a top-tier processing zone.

Do not disturb him unless necessary, and do not touch his workbench or the tools on it.

In less than an hour, a batch of special alloy steel billets was delivered to the fitter's workshop.

The material is of good quality, but it is extremely hard and difficult to process.

Yi Zhonghai personally took to the field!
He originally wanted to find a capable apprentice to help him, but unfortunately he didn't have one!
After calming himself down, Yi Zhonghai immediately threw himself into the battle.

He meticulously performed each step, from marking lines to rough milling.

After the rough processing is completed, we move on to the fine finishing stage, which is the most demanding test of manual skills—scraping the base surface.

Yi Zhonghai focused his mind and leaned forward slightly, patiently scraping and rubbing.

Finally, feeling that he had scraped it enough, Yi Zhonghai took it for testing.

"The difference is so huge!"

The requirements were exceeded; 7 extra threads were scraped off, rendering this material unusable.

Seeing this, Yi Zhonghai was not discouraged. He took a deep breath and started again.

For his second attempt, Yi Zhonghai pulled out all the stops.

He no longer relied on his sense of touch and began using instruments to assist him, precisely calculating the depth of cut with each stroke.

This time, the requirements were finally met.

"Phew~" Yi Zhonghai let out a long sigh, and couldn't help but remark with a slight sigh, "My skills haven't gotten rusty!"

However, there are still more than a dozen such workpieces.

This one alone took an hour or two, and I'll be busy afterwards.

This is assuming no errors occur, and it's not over yet.

It's just that the materials have reached the foundation for proceeding to the next step.

Li Kailang wanted a finished gear assembly, not just a piece of material that met the requirements.

Suddenly, the emotions I felt earlier vanished like a bucket of ice water had been poured over my head!
After two days, Yi Zhonghai finally finished making the materials for the required gear set, and even made a few extra.

I was afraid that if I messed up a few of them, I would have to start all over again.

The next step is to machine the gears.

The gear hobbing machine emitted a continuous, low rumble.

Yi Zhonghai personally checked the hobbing cutter and adjusted the gear train before starting the turning process.

With each cut, he made sure to be absolutely sure.

Of course, several cars broke down during this incident, but fortunately he had backups.

After the gear hobbing is completed, although the tooth surface has taken initial shape, it still retains fine tool marks and burrs.

The next step is a more delicate process—shaving and honing.

Beside the tooth shaving machine, Yi Zhonghai held his breath and used a specially made tooth shaving blade to carefully scrape away excess material along the tooth profile, correcting microscopic tooth shape and direction errors.

Honing uses a honing wheel containing extremely fine diamond abrasive to achieve a mirror-like finish and a perfect meshing curve.

This process is extremely tedious, repeated thousands of times, yet it requires the operator to maintain extreme stability and consistency.

Yi Zhonghai would work for hours on end, his arms remaining almost stiff for long periods, with only his fingertips making extremely subtle adjustments to the force of the control lever.

Everyone in the workshop had left, and it was already dark, leaving him all alone.

After working tirelessly for five days and nights, exhausting almost all of his physical and mental strength, Yi Zhonghai finally completed the mission.

Yi Zhonghai practically lived in the workshop. His apprentices would bring him food from the canteen, and he would quickly eat a few bites next to the machines. When he was extremely tired, he would take a nap fully clothed on the bench next to the fitter's table.

The high-intensity, high-precision, and continuous work caused him to visibly lose weight.

His eyes were sunken, his cheekbones were prominent, and his already gray hair seemed to have a few more strands.

Fortunately, hard work pays off, and the gear set was finally made according to the requirements.

Immediately, Guo Da Piezi ordered the seventh-level workers to conduct tests one by one.

The seventh-level worker meticulously measured the cumulative error of tooth pitch, tooth profile error, and tooth direction error.
Someone else was recording the data simultaneously.

"How is it? Is it compliant?"

The recorder nodded emphatically: "They're all up to standard, within the margin of error!"

"Good! Good!"

Immediately, the workers in the entire workshop couldn't help but cheer.

Everyone has witnessed how hard Yi Zhonghai has worked over these five days.

"Heaven helps those who help themselves! We finally succeeded!"

"Quick! Go and notify the technical department to come and inspect!" Meanwhile, on the other side...

Li Kailang has been taking it easy these past few days.

He has been thinking about what to do next these past few days.

The first issue is the 'persona'.

He had many questions about the high-precision grinding machine, so he planned to just install the gear set and consider it a temporary solution.

As for other issues, we'll deal with them when they arise later.

This way, you won't seem out of place; instead, you'll highlight your talent by solving problems time and time again.

What he wanted was something that was neither too abrupt nor too drastic, but rather a steady and reliable way to achieve results.

In terms of actions, he has been going in and out of the workshop these past few days, discussing grinding machine issues with the masters, and occasionally seeking advice from Engineer Ling.

His professional, pragmatic, and eager-to-learn attitude gradually won him the favor of many people in the workshop.

People whispered among themselves, "This young technician, Li, isn't like some students who are all talk and no action; he's a real worker!"

"Look at those notes! They're even more detailed than those of the veteran technicians!"

"Engineer Ling has a sharp eye; he's found a gem."

Director Sun almost always put Li Kailang's needs first in the workshop.

"Xiao Wang, you'll be working with Technician Li today. Whatever he needs, you'll coordinate it!"

"The pre-shift meeting this afternoon emphasized that no one is allowed to interfere with Technician Li's work!"

Director Sun knew perfectly well that repairing this grinding machine would be his greatest achievement as the workshop director, and would also greatly alleviate production pressure.

Next, I looked at the information.

Every day, I would spend several hours "pinned" to the documents, looking at the repair records from previous repairs.

He kept writing and drawing in his notebook, pretending to be seriously analyzing and recording.

When Engineer Ling occasionally came to inspect, he would always see Li Kailang so engrossed in studying the materials, trying to find the root cause of the problem.

Moreover, his thinking was clear and his direction was well-defined, and my satisfaction and expectations for him grew day by day.

He seemed to see his younger self in Li Kailang, but Li Kailang's theoretical foundation and systematic thinking seemed to be even stronger than his own back then.

This "newborn calf" is not only daring to do things, but also thinking things through!
This pragmatic yet in-depth attitude is exactly to his liking.

Finally, Li Kailang naturally didn't forget to check out the grinding machine.

Next, we need to install the gear set, so we'll have to clean the grinder a bit first.

Disassemble all the gear assembly components and clean them thoroughly.

Taking a break, Li Kailang then used the maintenance panel to thoroughly inspect the grinder.

There are only a few major problems, and although there are quite a few minor problems, they don't affect usability.

"Now we're just waiting for Yi Zhonghai to finish the gear set and send it over."

After Li Kailang finished his examination, he took a leisurely two-day rest.

Soon, Engineer Ling, Director Sun, Li Kailang, and others gathered in the workshop.

Guo Dapie handed the measurement report to Engineer Ling.

"Engineer Ling, you have lived up to expectations. All targets have been met, and some even have a little left over."

As Engineer Ling carefully reviewed the report, he couldn't help but feel pleased as he looked at each and every qualified piece of data.

"Great job, Yi! Thank you for your hard work!"

Director Sun rubbed his hands together excitedly: "That's wonderful! Master Yi, you've done a great job! Quickly, sit down and rest!"

I've read the report, but ultimately, we'll see how the final product turns out.

The group immediately went to see all the finished products.

Engineer Ling and Director Sun checked and confirmed each item.

Li Kailang also went for a check-up.

The vast majority of the newly manufactured gears meet the accuracy requirements, but there are still a few with a local error of 3 microns.

Fortunately, it was an extra one, and it can be used after being cut back by 3 mils. There are other gears that can be used as substitutes.

Li Kailang merely frowned and said nothing.

'A level eight worker truly lives up to his name.'

Although Yi Zhonghai's eighth-grade worker status was achieved through some small favors, his skills were genuine.

He might not pass the overall assessment, but at least in terms of practical skills, Yi Zhonghai is quite capable!
After inspecting the gears, Ling Gong turned to Li Kailang and asked, "Li, how is it? Are these gear sets usable?"

Under everyone's gaze, Li Kailang nodded: "It can be used. The gears made by Yi Gong meet the requirements perfectly."

Director Sun breathed a sigh of relief: "That's great!"

At the sound of Ling's command, "Director Sun, organize the manpower and prepare for installation immediately!"

"Yes!" Director Sun replied, and immediately went to the workshop to call on the workers to get ready.

"Let's go." Engineer Ling went back to the technical department first and called over a few assistant technicians to help.

The technical staff arrived quickly with specialized installation tools and precision measuring instruments.

As the technical advisor, Li Kailang naturally stood at the core.

Engineer Ling also personally oversaw the operation, demonstrating the high importance he placed on this matter.

Director Sun acted like a housekeeper, directing the workers to clean up the site, remove unnecessary clutter, and ensure that the installation area was well-lit, clean, and orderly.

"Get it done! Clear this area completely, make sure you can see people! Take away all the unnecessary debris! And add two more lights!"

His instructions were completely unnecessary.

Everything has been taken care of these past few days, and there's nothing to move.

Yi Zhonghai finished making the gear set, and it felt like all his energy had been drained.

A group of workers surrounded him, saying things like "Thank you for your hard work, Engineer Yi" and "Engineer Yi is really awesome."

Yi Zhonghai made no comment.

Watching the gear assembly he had painstakingly created being taken away, he suddenly wondered what Li Kailang was going to do.

"No, I have to see it. I have to see with my own eyes how he installs it."

He forced himself to go to the precision machining workshop.

When Engineer Ling and Director Sun saw him arrive, their instinct was to prevent him from entering, since this workshop was considered one of the classified workshops.

However, considering that he was the one who made the gear set, he didn't say anything.

Guo Da Piezi and the other workers also wanted to come and see, but they were all scolded and forced to leave.

"Xiao Li, everyone's here, let's begin."

"Okay!" Li Kailang nodded.

The gear set has been made; the next step is to install it.

Li Kailang was, after all, a technician, so he didn't need to personally do the installation; that was done by the workers, and he was in charge of directing.

He only intervenes when it's in important areas or when the workers haven't installed it properly.

The grinding machine has been cleaned and wiped with a clean silk cloth before installation to ensure that there is no oil or metal shavings left.

"Xiao Wang, please write this down."

"Okay, Technician Li." Xiao Wang, who had been assigned to assist Director Sun, immediately got ready.

everything's ready.

"Engineer Ling, Engineer Li, may we begin?"

Director Sun rubbed his hands together, his voice filled with barely suppressed excitement and a hint of barely perceptible tension.

Ling Gong looked at Li Kailang.

Li Kailang took a deep breath, nodded, and said in a calm and clear voice, "We can begin."

"Everyone get ready!"

(End of this chapter)