A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Master Ning continued, "The factory used to have a set of this too, but unfortunately the former factory manager took it away and we haven't seen it since."

Jiang Xia handed the micrometer to Master Ning, indicating that he should take the measurement himself.

"3.009"

"3.010"

"2.917!"

"this!"

Master Ning, unconvinced, measured again, but the dimensions remained unchanged, neither increasing nor decreasing. Unless your hand slipped while holding the ruler.

Jiang Xia then took out a magnifying glass and gestured for Master Ning to take a look at the workpiece. Under the magnifying glass, a slight slope appeared before Master Ning's eyes.

"That's right. There's a difference between a powered spindle and an idle spindle. Master Ning used to process large workpieces, so he might not be very sensitive to minute details."

Master Ning nodded repeatedly: "That's right! This workpiece requires stopping the machine four times in total. Looking at it this way, there will be dimensional deviations each time the machine stops. Individual deviations are not a big deal, but when accumulated over four times, they add up to a considerable amount!"

"The remaining uncut portion caused a shift in the center of gravity of this axis!"

"Haha! We've found the reason!"

Master Ning became increasingly pleased as he spoke, "Engineer Jiang, thank you so much. If it weren't for you, I would have kept working on it blindly, and I don't know what kind of mess it would have turned out!"

Talking, talking.

Master Ning's tone fell again, and suddenly he raised his large palm-leaf fan and slapped himself twice hard.

"What an idiot! What a waste of so many materials!"

Two solid slaps left Master Ning's face red and swollen.

The incident happened so suddenly that Jiang Xia and Yang Youning were caught off guard and had no time to react.

Master Ning, however, didn't take it seriously and began to rack his brains for a solution.

"Hey, Engineer Jiang. What do you think about installing an emergency brake on this old machine tool? Like this 620?"

Yang Youning took out a piece of milk candy and stuffed it into Master Ning's hand: "Don't do that next time. Why hit so hard? Just a little bit is enough!"

"Hey, this 620 has an emergency brake, so let's just use that and get it working. Why bother with this old machine?"

Jiang Xia looked at the red wrapper of the milk candy and her lips twitched.

"no!"

"no!"

"no!"

The three unanimous answers made Yang Youning think there was something wrong with his ears. He couldn't help but dig his ear with his little finger.

Jiang Xia, Master Ning, and the operator of the C620-1 exchanged a smile.

"Xia Fengnian, a fifth-grade lathe operator." Master Xia extended his hand to shake hands with Jiang Xia before speaking to Yang Youning:

"Factory manager, emergency braking causes too much damage to the gearbox. This is a brand new machine; the piston's grooving and boring all depend on it!"

"Besides, we don't need to stop the machine to make that workpiece. This machine has a conveyor belt, it's very convenient!"

Jiang Xia nodded and nudged Yang Youning: "Factory Director, this is indeed a good lathe. Why don't you ask the ministry for some more? With it, I dare not say anything else, but at least we won't have to worry about machining threads and cylindrical stepped shafts!"

"Effective?"

The three of them nodded together.

"OK!"

"Alright, I'll go to the Ministry of Machinery tomorrow and cry!"

"Pah, no, I mean I'm going!"

Seeing that Director Yang's face had turned red, the three of them turned around in tacit agreement and began to discuss the plan to renovate the old machine tools.

"Jiang, look, how about we add a release gear here? Just like a clutch, once you press the switch, the drive shaft will separate from the main shaft!"

The headstock of the belt-driven lathe had been disassembled, and the three of them began gesturing at the parts inside.

Jiang Xia even took out a piece of paper and drew a simple diagram.

He appeared to be deep in thought, but he had already brought up the scanner.

The parts on the blueprints in front of me rose into the air and assembled into a new bedside box according to the order of the blueprints.

Try running it.

A patch of green, hey, that works!

What a fart!

With the emergency stop switch pressed, the drive shaft was disconnected, but the main shaft still rotated several times with the chuck before stopping.

A red curtain appeared instantly.

Tsk, inertia, I really have mixed feelings about you.

After rejecting the drawing, the three of them began to rack their brains again.

Yang Youning was also anxious, "Hey, hey, hey? Why don't we just use this machine to make this part? What are you guys thinking about?"

"Hey, factory manager. This 620 machine is fully booked. Besides machining pistons, we also have to cut threads and repair end faces..." Master Xia said helplessly, spreading his hands.

Jiang Xia nodded: "Indeed, the piston body's open-ring groove must be made using this; manual methods are too unreliable!"

"Hey, hey, hey~ It's just inertia! You guys design a clamp or something, so that when the transmission is disconnected, it can directly jam the spindle!" Yang Youning slapped his forehead and came up with another solution.

Sigh, this is what happens when an amateur leads an expert. Luckily, Yang the Fool only said it casually and didn't actually give any orders.

Jiang Xia pointed to the protruding part of the old lathe: "This old machine only has one gearbox. According to your logic, it will be ruined after just two uses!"

"Moreover, stopping to adjust the workpiece is a major taboo in lathe machining! If it weren't for Master Ning's high skill level, and someone else did it this way, you might only end up with a bunch of twisted dough sticks."

These solutions we devised were all based on the limitations of the old machine tools, and we were simply trying our best to compensate for them.

"Tsk, machine tools are such a hassle!" Yang Ershazi said, and Jiang Xia nodded in deep agreement.

"Master Xia, come here, turn this workpiece and show our Factory Director Yang what he's made of!"

Master Xia was no slouch either; he stopped what he was doing and started working on the sliding box with great skill.

Twenty minutes later, the shaft-shaped workpiece that had been giving them a headache was finally processed.

Jiang Xia handed the workpiece to Yang Youning, telling him to test it for fun. Then, he casually pushed him away from the scene, asking him to wander around the other workbenches and check on the progress of the other parts being made.

However, the clip that Yang Youning mentioned gave Jiang Xia a fleeting inspiration, though it was still very vague.

What was it again?

"Boom boom boom~~" The sound of the motor starting up came from the machine; it turned out that Master Ning had started the lathe again.

Seeing Jiang Xia looking at him, Master Ning smiled sheepishly and said, "Let's put the complex shafts aside for now and start with some materials."

Amidst the flying iron filings, Master Ning's attention was entirely focused on the iron billet clamped in the lathe. Soon, the end face of the billet was finished cutting. Master Ning stopped the machine, released the chuck, and fed the billet forward a little further.

Looking at the round, plump clamp, Jiang Xia had a flash of inspiration.

That's it!

Jiang Xia took out his notebook and quickly started drawing blueprints.

Yang Youning returned carrying the workpiece, his eyes slightly red.

"This machine tool is so useful! I'm going to the machine department right now, and I won't come back until I get at least ten of them!"

Jiang Xia gave him a thumbs-up to show his respect. It seems like this machine tool only has an annual production capacity of a few thousand; if you could get ten of them, that would be like winning the lottery!

So you still have to rely on yourself!

Jiangxia looked up at the master craftsmen in the fitter's area.

Master Lin was busy filing the cam, and Master Qin was busy working on the piston rings. Tsk, these are delicate parts and shouldn't be disturbed easily.

Hey, it seems like Yi Zhonghai has finished making the gears and is drinking water over there?

So Jiang Xia went over excitedly.

"Master Yi, are you done with your work?"

"Pfft~~" The eighth-level fitter turned into a human fountain.

"No! No! This gear needs to be polished a bit more!" Yi Zhonghai glanced at the blueprint in Jiang Xia's hand.

Hmm, this seems a bit complicated.

Jiang Xia glanced at the gear on the workbench, which could be used as a mirror, and said, "Oh! Then you're busy!"

Pshaw, I gave you a chance and you didn't take it.

Seeing that Yi Zhonghai was being evasive, Jiang Xia simply moved closer to Master Qin.

"Hey, Master Qin, are you done with your work?"