Roller Gear Machine

  Yang Chunshan emphasized in front of Lin Zhenhua that he was "half a son", and Lin Zhenhua naturally understood what he meant. He said he had been working hard, not just pretending to be busy. To mention one thing, at the moment, Lin Zhenhua was racking his brains to design a knockoff rolling gear machine for Yang Xin, so as to free her from the heavy workload that was like moving mountains.

  Since Lin Zhenhua taught Yang Xin to use a dividing head, processing gears was no longer difficult for Yang Xin. But as the saying goes, blessings and disasters are intertwined, Yang Xin learned to process gears, but got himself into the predicament of being overworked due to his abilities.

  The factory recently received a batch of orders, with over 1,000 gears of various types. The factory has only about a dozen machinists, who also have to handle the processing of other parts, so Yang Xin and Jiang Tiemei were assigned more than 500 gear processing tasks. However, Jiang Tiemei's child happened to come down with measles at this time, and Jiang Tiemei saw that Yang Xin was skilled at machining gears, so she handed over all these tasks to Yang Xin and took leave to care for her child.

  Yang Xin is a good girl, receiving the task assigned by her master, she doesn't know how to defend herself, but just foolishly follows it, doing it until she forgets to eat and sleep, but still far from completing the task.

  "Little Hua, tell my parents that I'm working overtime and will be late for dinner." Yang Xin said to Lin Zhenhua while wiping the sweat from her forehead with a towel. The little girl's bangs were soaked with sweat and stuck to her forehead, making Lin Zhenhua feel heartbroken.

  "Come on, sis, you've been working non-stop for four or five days now. Are you trying to compete for this year's production champion?" Lin Zhenhua said with a smile.

  "I don't have the energy to think about that, my master's task is still a long way off." Yang Xin said with a nasal tone, unable to tell whether she was exhausted and catching a cold or trying not to cry.

  "I've seen you working on those gears for days now, how come they're still not done?"

  "Over 500, now I've just finished over a hundred."

  "Come on," said Lin Zhenhua, "using a universal milling machine to mill over 500 gears? This job should be done with a gear hobbing machine."

  "What's a rolling gear?" Yang Xin asked.

  "Gear hobbing machine..." Lin Zhenhua scratched his head, "I can't explain it to you either, anyway it's a machine specifically used for processing gears."

  "I've never even heard of it." Yang Xinyan said dejectedly.

  It's not that Yang Xin is ignorant, hobbing machines are specialized machinery used for processing gears with high precision and speed, generally suitable for large-scale production of gears. At that time in China, various mechanical equipment were in short supply, and hobbing machines were only available to a few large-scale enterprises, while medium-sized enterprises like Hanhua Machinery Factory could not use them. In Hanhua Machinery Factory, if gear processing was needed, it could only be done as Lin Zhenhua taught Yang Xin last time, using a universal milling machine combined with a dividing head.

  Using a universal milling machine with a dividing head to process gears is not a big deal when the quantity is small, but it becomes very troublesome when processing hundreds of gears at once. Processing each gear requires repeatedly rotating the dividing head dozens of times, and after each rotation, the knife needs to be re-aligned before cutting out one tooth. Then rotate again, realign again, and cut another tooth, repeating this cycle over and over, with a terrifying workload. Yang Xin has been dizzy from just turning the dividing head these days.

  "Little Hua, you have the time, help me make a few, okay?" Yang Xin looked at Lin Zhenhua's idle appearance and couldn't help but say. She knew that Lin Zhenhua's skills were solid, anyway he was idle either way.

  "I'm not doing something as unskilled as this." Lin Zhenhua said with a lack of respect.

  "Die Xiaohua, you really won't help me?" Yang Xinyu's eyebrows were raised in a frown. The girls in the factory all had a bit of a temper, and she was already considered one of the gentler ones.

  Lin Zhenhua shook his head: "I didn't say I wouldn't help you, I just said I don't do things that have no technical value. How about this, you go home after work today and I'll think about it, design a shanzhai version of the gear hobbing machine for you, and we can finish processing all 500 gears in one day."

  "What is Shanzhai?"

  "Mountain stronghold, that is... the countryside surrounding the city, do you know? Mountain stronghold means millet plus rifles." Lin Zhenhua said in a language that people at that time could understand.

  "Are you talking about local methods?"

  "That's okay if you understand it that way."

  "You say you can process 500 gears in just one day?"

  "Uh, maybe not that fast, but over 400, should be no problem, right?"

  "Really? Then I'm off work now, and tomorrow wait for that knockoff phone." Yang Xinhuan happily turned off the machine, tossed the gloves into the toolbox, and followed Lin Zhenhua home.

  These days, Yang Xin often heard Yang Chunshan sighing at home, saying that Lin Zhenhua's skills were truly immeasurable. Not only was he good at milling and welding, but it seemed like he could do a little bit of everything else too. He had never seen anyone whose technical abilities were completely beyond Lin Zhenhua's capabilities. Yang Xin already had a certain degree of blind trust in Lin Zhenhua, and after hearing her father say this, she directly elevated her opinion of him from admiration to worship. Now that Lin Zhenhua said he could help her design a machine, whether it was called a rolling gear machine or a mountain machine, she didn't care. She only knew that whatever Little Hua brother promised, he definitely wouldn't let her down. Little Hua's character was like the gears in a transmission - precise and reliable.

  Lin Zhenhua agreed to design a shanzhai rolling gear machine for Yang Xin, not on a whim. He had previously read relevant documents and knew that using a universal milling machine could be converted into a simple rolling gear machine. He returned home, repeatedly thinking about the entire principle, and then deduced it on the drawing for half a day, finally drawing out several drafts. The next day, he came to the sanding car room with the drawings to find his sworn brother Zhao Yongqun, asking him to help cast a few parts.

  In the Hanhua Machinery Factory, it is a common practice for workers to use the factory's equipment and materials to do some private work on the side. For example, the coal ball stoves used by every household in the factory were not bought from stores, but were welded together by the workers themselves using scrap iron sheets and steel bars. The factory leadership does not interfere with this kind of private work done by the workers. As the saying goes, "rely on the mountain to eat the mountain, rely on the water to eat the water". As a worker in the factory, how can one not take some small advantage from the factory? In fact, even the coal ball stove in the factory leadership's own home was made by the workers. Is it necessary for the lower level to be so upright when the upper level is like this?

  "Zhao Yongqun, I have a few pieces like this. Can you help me cast them?" Lin Zhenhua pulled out the drawings and handed them to Zhao Yongqun.

  Zhao Yongqun took over the drawings and looked at them, using his hands to simulate the shape of the workpiece, and asked in confusion: "What is this used for?"

  Lin Zhenhua smiled: "Not bad, brother, now it looks a bit like something on paper."

  Zhao Yongqun said: "It's still because you taught well. You're not trying to praise yourself, are you?"

  Zhao Yongqun was an ordinary worker in the sanding car workshop, and he didn't need to look at drawings normally. He also didn't have a master teach him how to read drawings. After Lin Zhenhua came back, he gathered Zhao with Chu Hongyang, Peng Shaozhe and others, forming a study group. When they were free, Lin would give them lectures on mechanical principles and other related knowledge. It was by following Lin that Zhao learned to read mechanical drawings; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to imagine the shape of a workpiece from just one three-view drawing.

  Lin Zhenhua didn't explain anything to Zhao Yongqun, he just asked: "This thing is useful to me, it's related to my brother's happiness for the rest of his life. Tell me straight out, can you help me cast it?"

  Zhao Yongqun nodded and said: "These little things won't use much iron water, wait a moment to see which furnace has more iron water, let my dad help you cast one."

  Zhao Yongqun's father, Zhao Dawei, was a sand-turning worker. When casting parts, sometimes there would be some leftover molten iron after one furnace. This leftover molten iron was useless and could be used to cast a part for Lin Zhenhua without violating any regulations.

  "Then thank your father," Lin Zhenhua said, turning around and about to leave.

  "Are you just going to leave like this?" Zhao Yongqun shouted.

  Lin Zhenhua said: "What's this? Your brother asks you to work and still wants to give you a tip?"

  Zhao Yongqun said: "You want to cast a part, where is the wooden mold? My dad is a sanding worker, he only knows how to make sand molds, and doesn't care about making wooden molds."

  "Ah, yes, there's this part too." Lin Zhenhua patted his forehead.

  "You should go to the woodworking class to find someone to help you make a wooden model, and then give it to my dad to make a sand mold. Why don't you go find Old Hu? Old Hu is skilled, a good person, and easy to talk to." Zhao Yongqun suggested.

  "Who is Lao Hu?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

  "Is it Poplar? Don't you know him?"

  "Hu Yang? I have some impression of him, where is he?"

  "Wooden model class, I'll take you there."