The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 37 Mechanical Design Skills

Chu Di and Xiong Zhong divided the work between two foremen, one was responsible for making the parts of the hydraulic forging machine, and the other led people to try to build a set of plate armor by hand to familiarize themselves with the entire process.

As for the "simple work" of forging cavalry swords, they directly threw it to their blacksmiths, and only occasionally checked the progress of the work.

Qiao Qian quickly bought raw materials such as graphite and returned to the iron yard.Zhu Linmi simply picked up the shovel, stirred six or seven hundred kilograms of graphite, clay and other materials evenly, and then copied the firing process to Qiao Qian, asking him to transport it to the porcelain kiln to fire the crucible.

Even if the crucible wears out quickly, after the hundreds of catties of raw materials are burned out, it should be enough to consume the iron yard for more than half a year.

After Zhu Linmi spent another whole day instructing Chudi to make the core components of forging machines such as crankshafts and gear sets, she went to the firearms workshop.As long as these core components are correct, the skill of craftsmen in making wooden machines should be reliable, and it is only a matter of time before hydraulic forging machines are made.

When Lu Ning and other firearm craftsmen saw Zhu Linming coming, they hurried forward to pay respects. They were the few people in the iron yard who knew his identity.But without permission, they didn't dare to mention it to others casually.

Zhu Lin hurriedly asked them to stand up, told them not to be polite in the workshop, and then asked about the trial production of the six-dollar gun barrel.

"Your Highness..."

"Just call me boss in the iron yard." Zhu Linmei smiled.Too much etiquette at work can be troublesome.

"Yes, Master." Lu Ning responded with a bow, and then took a gun barrel placed on a wooden stand and handed it to Zhu Linming, "This is a gun barrel that was just made three days ago. It holds six cents and five cents." Lead bullets, nine-coin gunpowder, dozens of test shots, none of which exploded."

Zhu Linmei took the octagonal iron pipe and weighed it. It weighed about seven or eight catties. Because it was a trial product, the surface had not been polished yet, and it had a rough iron appearance.

Without waiting for him to ask, Lu Ning pointed to another gun pipe on the gun drill rack: "The villain thinks that the gunpowder for nine renminbi is probably less, so I tried to make another pipe with a slightly thinner wall."

Zhu Linming saw seven or eight gun barrels of different thicknesses placed behind the gun drill frame. It was obvious that these craftsmen had made a lot of attempts recently to get the finished product in his hand.

You must know that these barrels are all bored by hand, and it takes two skilled craftsmen five or six days to make one.

In addition, there are more than a dozen sets of gun beds and gun machines piled up on the side. Obviously, as long as the gun barrel is of a certain shape, it can be installed immediately for trial use.

"Oh, yes, Master." Lu Ning picked up a pair of gun machine and pointed at the springs on it, excitedly, "We picked out some springs from the steel ingots newly smelted in the iron yard, and the spring force is two times higher than before. There are more successes. Now the fire rate of this gun machine is [-]%."

Zhu Linmei nodded, "The elasticity of this gun machine is enough for the time being. When I have time later, I will teach you how to make special spring steel, which will have more elasticity."

Immediately, he remembered the question he was most concerned about, and said to Lu Ning: "It seems that there is nothing wrong with the gun barrel. With the current speed of 12 of you master and apprentice, how many flintlock guns can be produced every month?"

Lu Ning thought for a while and said, "If we rush to work, we should be able to make about forty."

Zhu Linmi calculated in her heart, that is to say, if she wanted to make 400 flintlocks within two months, more than [-] skilled craftsmen would be needed!

The iron field has recently recruited some craftsmen, but it seems that there should be no more than 20 or [-] people. That is to say, even if all the craftsmen are allocated to make guns, it will take more than half a year to complete his goal of [-] guns.

"Which step is the most time-consuming in the gun-making process?" he asked Lu Ning.Since there are not enough manpower, we have to find ways to improve efficiency.

"Naturally, it is to drill and grind the gun barrel." Lu Ning pointed to the gun drill frame again, "After rolling the rough blank of the gun barrel with wrought iron, the inside of the gun barrel is extremely rough and cannot be fired.

"It is necessary to use a small reamer to drill the inner hole of the gun barrel a circle, and then use a thicker reamer to continue drilling to a larger size. Usually, it takes four reamers to expand a suitable gun hole. This process is time-consuming and laborious. , and it is easy to drill crookedly. A skilled craftsman can drill about seven inches deep in an hour."

Zhu Linmei walked to the drilling frame to watch, it was a wooden frame that was a head taller than him.There is a four-foot-long gun drill in the upper part, and the drill rod is wrapped with a bowstring, and the drill rod can be driven to rotate by pulling the bow body back and forth.The lower part is two pieces of wood, which are used to fix the barrel.

Lu Ning explained next to him, "When grinding the barrel, one person draws the bow, while the other presses down the drill rod, and the drill rod drives the tapered drill bit to continuously penetrate into the barrel.

"During the whole process, the gun barrels have to be removed constantly to check whether the drill is crooked. Inexperienced craftsmen may even damage two or three barrels for every drilled barrel."

Zhu Linmei frowned greatly at this crude drill stand. First of all, the shape of this drill bit is not reasonable enough. It is much worse in efficiency and stability than the common drill bits that have been calculated by functions in later generations.

Secondly, this drill stand adopts the mode of pressing down the drill bit. When the drill bit is pulled and rotated by the bowstring, it is easy to shake from side to side.

And the solution is also ready-made, and the boring machine in any small processing workshop in the future will be able to do it.It's just that there is no motor right now, so it can only be driven by human power.

Zhu Linmei asked for a pen and paper, and began to draw the structural diagram of the boring machine.

This time it was much simpler than designing a hydraulic forging machine. He had seen many boring machines, so he didn't need to bother designing it.Secondly, the boring machine requires a single function, which is to drill the gun tube.

Therefore, all lifting mechanisms, fixtures and the like can be omitted, and making them fixed can not only reduce technical requirements, but also have better stability.

Not long after, he drew the design drawings of a pedal boring machine.

Lu Ning and others are already familiar with this kind of standard industrial drawings, and they are not surprised at all that His Royal Highness King Chenzhou, who has the "unique skill of dunjia", can design such an extremely exquisite device.

Zhu Linmei explained the structural principles to them, and they found some carpenters from the iron yard, and started to make the pedal boring machine.

Although the boring machine is much smaller than the hydraulic forging machine, it is more difficult to manufacture than the former.The main reason is that the finishing ability of this era is too general, and many delicate small parts may not be usable after repeated grinding and testing for more than ten times.

Therefore, Zhu Linmei could only guide the craftsmen to process the parts, and went to see the manufacturing situation of the hydraulic forging machine from time to time.

Unexpectedly, the hydraulic forging machine was progressing smoothly, but Xiong Zhong, who was in charge of forging the plate armor, came to Zhu Linmi with a bitter face.

The reason is very simple. There is no "soft steel" in the steel ingots smelted in the iron field.

Mild steel and hard steel are the intuitive names of the ancients for low carbon steel and high carbon steel.Xiong Zhong tried hundreds of steel ingots, but the softest steel was also hard steel, which was difficult to forge.

Zhu Linmi slapped her head, she was negligent!Most of the steel produced by crucible steelmaking is high-carbon steel, and there are very few medium-carbon steels.Because the crucible used in steelmaking is made of graphite, and graphite is pure carbon.

　Thanks: Fei&ying, Weather Organophosphorus, Mr Wang, book friend 119***, book friend 534***, client Taikeng, book friend 119** *classmate, book friend 539***classmate, Lin Zhishan fantasy classmate, love on that day classmate, my classmate, voted for me, thank you very much, Daming needs you in the future!
　　Because newcomers are not easy, ask for recommendations, ask for collections, ask for comments, ask for various kinds, ask for olives, ask for feathers, ask for bowling.

　　


(End of this chapter)