A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

"Ten, twenty..."

What, you think that silly kid was swinging a hammer in there?

Give me a break!

The drive shaft compartment is so narrow that you can't even straighten your arm, let alone wield a large sledgehammer, you can't even wield a small hand hammer the size of your palm.

Jiangxia wasn't swinging a hammer at all; he was clearly holding a piece of cotton soaked in kerosene and wiping it back and forth along the grooves of the drive shaft, muttering to himself as he counted the number of times he wiped it.

He would take a closer look after each wipe to make sure there was no oil or scratches on the surface of the shaft. His seriousness was like that of someone drawing eyebrows on a girl.

The cleaned area revealed the cold, raw luster of the metal.

Jiang Xia reinstalled the oil-stained dial gauge. The magnetic base clicked firmly onto a solid protrusion on the bulkhead, and the probe precisely rested on the smooth shaft surface.

Well, it doesn't matter if the watch body is dirty, as long as the probe is shiny!

Jiang Xia squinted at the clock hands, a small flashlight dangling from his mouth, its beam sweeping back and forth between the axis and the bearing housing: "Offset by 0.3 millimeters, axial offset, deviating towards the 3 o'clock position..."

This tiny deviation of 0.3 millimeters may seem insignificant to the average person, but it can be fatal to a submarine's propulsion shaft system!

The mating surface of the tail shaft main sealing ring requires a precision of 0.02 mm. Even a tiny error can have disastrous consequences; this 0.3 mm deviation is enough to render any attempt at static sealing futile, and oil leakage will become an incurable problem.

Use a hammer to correct it?

That's the most reckless fantasy of an amateur.

Within this confined space, let alone swinging a hammer, even large movements are difficult. More importantly, the long axis system is like a flexible metal "noodle," making the transmission of force complex and unpredictable.

With one hammer blow, the deformation will be transmitted along the axis. It may dent in one place and bulge in another, or even cause unpredictable secondary bending. That's what you call "the more you try to fix it, the worse it gets, and even a god can't save it."

Jiang Xia spat out the flashlight he was holding in his mouth, letting it roll onto the tarpaulin beside him.

He freed one hand and rummaged through his oil-stained military green satchel, pulling out a palm-sized, flat box with a dull metallic sheen.

The box's outer shell is milled, with traces of hand-polishing on the edges, and several neat turns of dark-colored high-pressure hose are wrapped around it. On one side of the box, there are two interfaces with precision regulating valves welded on, next to a small pressure gauge.

Next are two semi-circular steel blocks, resembling a heavy bracelet that has been cut open. The inner sides are milled with arc-shaped grooves that perfectly match the diameter of the propulsion shaft, ensuring a tight fit against the shaft. Regularly drilled holes are drilled into the steel blocks for connecting hydraulic hoses.

This is called a shaft-mounted hydraulic jack!

Combined with the aforementioned micro hydraulic fine-tuning device, then...

Dang Dang Dang...

A micro-displacement correction device based on the principle of manual hydraulic servo has emerged!

The creation of this thing was purely a flash of inspiration that Jiang Xia had when he was desperate.

The core of the miniature hydraulic pump comes from the hydraulic chuck control unit of a scrapped instrument lathe. Jiang Xia disassembled it completely, keeping only the most precise plunger pump part.

The pressure regulating valve was modified from a small pressure reducing valve removed from the fire-fighting equipment of the Haiying minesweeper, which was still out of service in the dock. He had the valve core re-machined to make the adjustment more precise.

Those high-pressure hoses were cut from the pressure testing lines on the hydraulic press of the minesweeper's sonar deployment traction device. The two most crucial semi-circular top blocks were made from two thick mold steel billets.

Without CNC machine tools, he used the oldest horizontal milling machine, relying on a hand-cranked indexing head to precisely index each tooth, and with his own hands and eyes, he milled out a perfect arc surface and internal oil passage that matched the shaft diameter.

Well, that's the official statement. In reality, with a scanner, using machine tools to process components is a piece of cake for him.

Well, don't let his tinkering with welding fool you; he does have a unique advantage when it comes to operating machine tools...

Using sandpaper and chamois leather, the surface of the area to be corrected on the shaft and the inner arc surface of the hydraulic jacks were carefully cleaned again to ensure that no dust or oil film could directly affect the shaft. Jiang Xia carefully closed the two semi-circular jacks, firmly "hugging" them at the highest point of the bending protrusion measured by the dial indicator, and used several specially made high-strength spring clamps to firmly fix them to the shaft to ensure that they would not slip under high pressure.

about there……

"Old Wang! Pass the high-pressure hose in, and hold the pump from the outside!"

Old Wang quickly pushed the high-pressure hose through the hatch gap. The hose meandered and twisted in the narrow passage, with the other end firmly connected to the manual hydraulic pump outside the hatch.

"Shall we start increasing the pressure?"

"and many more……"

Jiang Xia rubbed his chin, feeling that the current components were not very stable. So he took out two more adjustable threaded struts, placed one end against the angle steel and the other end against the force-bearing platform on the back of the hydraulic jack, quickly building a stable triangular support system.

"This is the right thing!"

Only then did the boy with the dazed hair nod in satisfaction.

See that? That's why we wanted him to come in. If it weren't for his spatial storage, those odds and ends probably wouldn't have been able to get here...

"Press the pressure to 5MPa first, then open the valve slowly! Don't pressurize too quickly!"

"Received!" Old Wang replied, and began to turn the handle rhythmically.

High-pressure oil flows in the hose, and the piston inside the top block slowly pushes out, causing the propulsion axis to shift slightly to the other side.

Jiang Xia stared intently at the dial indicator: as the pointer slowly dropped from the initial "0.3mm" to "0.2mm" and then "0.1mm", he quickly tapped the bulkhead.

"Stop! Stop! Maintain the pressure!"

Jiang Xia shouted, freed his finger, dipped it in some engine oil, and smeared it on the mating surfaces of the drive shaft and bearing housing. Then he used a feeler gauge to push it into the gap.

A 0.05mm feeler gauge can be barely inserted, but a 0.03mm feeler gauge gets stuck completely.

Jiang Xia frowned: "Add another 0.5 MPa, slowly!"

Old Wang slowly turned the handle half a turn again, the "creaking" sound of the hydraulic pump paused for a moment, and the top block pushed out a little more.

This time, Jiangxia didn't look at the dial indicator. Instead, he directly removed the 0.05mm feeler gauge and replaced it with a 0.02mm one. The feeler gauge could be easily inserted 1/3 of the way in, but there was resistance when pushing it further in. This was exactly the required fit clearance for the sealing ring!

Should we stop?

Do not!

Of course we need to keep increasing the pressure!

As Lao Wang continued his movements, the dial indicator Jiang Xia used to measure slowly began to return to the "zero" position. When the indicator was close to zero, Jiang Xia not only did not ask Lao Wang to stop, but instead had him increase the system pressure by about 5%, causing the indicator to deflect slightly in the opposite direction by 0.01 millimeters.

"Maintain pressure for five minutes."

This is to allow the metal lattice to undergo sufficient plastic creep under continuous and constant stress, adapt to the new morphology, and reduce elastic rebound.

Time seemed to stretch out in the narrow, greasy examination chamber, thanks to the thick, sticky air.

Every second was accompanied by the almost inaudible yet ubiquitous "buzzing" sound of the hydraulic system at work, and...

The clear "plop" sound of sweat dripping from Jiang Xia's forehead onto the cold metal component was a testament to the weight of the sweat that had finally given way.

hot……

It felt like being wrapped in a cotton quilt soaked in hot oil, with every breath burning my trachea.

闷！

The murky air seemed to solidify, its heavy, oily, and rusty smell pressing down on Jiang Xia's chest.

A dizzying sensation, like being deprived of oxygen, began to rise from the edge of consciousness. The illusion of being swallowed by a deep-sea monster and slowly being dissolved spread uncontrollably.

To combat this suffocating physical discomfort, he forced himself to focus almost all his attention on the virtual scanning interface in front of him.

The data stream became his only anchor point: green lines, red boxes, and fluctuating numbers...

This was his only way to fight against this steel cage.

The sounds of the outside world, the passage of time, and even the intense beating of one's own heart gradually faded away, blurring into a distant background noise.

He had no idea that his almost "rigid" concentration was frightening the people outside the inspection gate.

Old Wang, who was lying by the entrance, had already shouted into the room at least a dozen times.

From the initial "Jiang Xia? How's it going?", to the middle "Brother! Say something!", and then to the later voice that changed completely: "You little idiot! You fucking answer me!"

Apart from the continuous, low-pitched hydraulic sound, there was no other response from inside.

Jiang Xia's huddled figure remained motionless in the dim light, with only thin streams of sweat running down his neck and back, leaving bright streaks on his oily skin, which were constantly covered by new oil and sweat.

……

Meanwhile, Jalan Sabang No. 8, Jakarta Pusat.

A two-story Dutch-style arcade building with a wooden sign at the entrance that reads "Representative Office of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in the Land of a Thousand Islands".