"Master Hou, it's freezing today, why are you here?"

At the door of the factory's laboratory, watching the furry Chen Xu get off the carriage, a group of stewards and craftsmen who heard the news and greeted them all gathered around to say hello.

"I have nothing to do today, I came to take a look, can there be new progress in the lathe developed last time?" Chen Xu took off his hat, mask, gloves and cloak and threw them to a few guards, and asked as he walked inside.

"Back to the Hou Ye, there are still some small problems with the lathe...... a craftsman in charge of the research of the lathe said cautiously beside him.

"You said a few times ago that there were still some minor problems!" Chen Xu rolled his eyes.

"Hehe, Master Hou, this time it is indeed a small problem, we have solved the gear adjustment now, and the axle and cutter head have been able to cooperate well with the transmission ......"

"Really, wouldn't that already solve a big problem!" Chen Xu was overjoyed.

"That's true, but the problem at the moment is that the quality of the cutter head is not up to par, and the car wood is fine, but even with the best steel cutter bit, the bolt and nut will soon be dulled, and then the thread out of the car is of different depths, and the nut and screw can not be riveted well......"

A group of people walked around Chen Xu and talked, and soon came to a studio where lathes were made.

The lathe required by Chen Xu is very simple, only needs to be able to turn out the screw and nut that can be used, because these two things are the most basic things to install the machine.

At present, this lathe that has been designed and produced for more than half a year looks very simple, only a thick wooden frame, there are several sets of gears of different sizes, and then there are two slide rails that can move back and forth, a steel casting runner, there is a handle on it, only need to rotate this handle, driven by the gear, the cutter head above can move forward along the slide rail at a uniform speed, only need to fix the screw rod built on the iron frame above the chute, and the cutter head rotation can be threaded on the screw.

The lathe in front of me no longer knows how many generations of test products it is, anyway, after Chen Xu arranged the task of developing the lathe, the Academy of Sciences organized a group of craftsmen and craftsmen to develop it in public relations, and every time Chen Xu came to see it was different.

The principle of the lathe is not complicated, you can think of it as the simplest hand drill, just like drilling holes in wood, the most difficult thing is to ensure that the turning tool moves forward at a uniform speed under the premise of only one hand drive.

This uniform speed movement is not related to the speed of the hand crank, as long as the perfect match between the gears is ensured, the speed of the turning tool movement and the spacing of each movement have nothing to do with it, but to ensure that the lathe movement and the speed of the cutter head rotation should be completely consistent, the lathe moves forward by one point, then the cutter head should just complete the cutting of this section of the thread, the handle rotates fast, then the thread will be longer at the same time, and will not change the density of the thread.

That's where gears come in.

If there is no transmission characteristic of gear, it is impossible for even the gods to make a fully qualified screw, let alone a nut, by cutting the thread by hand.

"Master Hou, look, this is the screw that came out of our car!" A bearded craftsman handed Chen Xu an iron rod the thickness of his thumb that was placed on the workbench next to him.

Chen Xu took it in his hand and looked at it carefully, this is indeed a thread that is not much different from the screw seen in later generations, and the effect is similar to what the craftsman said, the front section of the wire is very deep and neat, and it starts to work after two or three centimeters, becoming more and more shallow and more dull.

To say that to reach this point, the things that come out of the car can also be widely used, but the problem is that the damage cost of the cutter head is too great, just a suitable bolt out of the car, a pair of cutter heads will be lost, and the pay and gain are simply not proportional.

And because it is necessary to obtain a thread with uniform depth and thickness, the production requirements of the cutter head are also very strict, and it is very difficult to create a fully qualified cutter head.

Therefore, the most urgent problem at the moment is the steel used to make the cutter head.

But at present, the steel smelted in the ironworks of the experimental factory can be used to make knives and guns, and there is certainly no easy way to make steel that is hard enough.

The development of alloy technology is still just beginning, Chen Xu let Gong lose the victory in the process of ironmaking to add a variety of different ores to smelt metals with different characteristics, but the progress is not big, ironmaking is mainly carbon steel, and carbon steel alone is certainly not good, later generations to make lathes with drills, milling cutters, cutters, planers and other special cutter heads are used in high-speed steel, and high-speed steel did not appear until the early stage of World War I, and the West has studied for hundreds of years to be realized.

Therefore, Chen Xu did not expect a group of primitive craftsmen from 2,000 years ago to be able to smelt usable high-speed alloy steel.

A group of people, stewards, craftsmen, and craftsmen were all around, and they didn't dare to come out.

This lathe Hou Ye placed great expectations, every ten days and half a month will arrange people to ask, but the progress has been very slow, now it is not easy to solve the problem of uniform motion of the lathe, seeing the success of the knots, all the people involved in the design found that the original cutter head is the most critical thing, there is no qualified high-strength cutter head, this lathe is useless.

"Have you ever tried copper?" Chen Xu stared at the unqualified screw in his hand for a long time and asked.

"Not yet!" A crowd shook their heads.

"Copper is much less hard than iron, you can build some copper bolts and nuts to try!"

Chen Xu can only retreat to the second, if you can't use iron bolts, then the temporary use of copper bolts can also be temporarily replaced, after all, the current industrial strength is not large, copper as the most common metal, much softer than iron, and only to get qualified bolts, in order to make more precise metal fittings.

"Go ahead and make some copper bolts and cap blanks!" A steward yelled, and soon the craftsmen turned away, and soon heard the bellows whirring outside, and in a short time there was the sound of clanging and the clatter of files.

Half an hour later, a craftsman hurried in, holding several copper bolts and a hexagonal copper cap.

Regarding the style of bolts and nuts, Chen Xu has already told this group of craftsmen, this group of craftsmen has studied for more than half a year, and they are already very familiar with the blanks for making bolts and nuts, and the building skills have been upgraded to proficiency, and the speed is very fast.

"Fix the screw and try it in the car?" Chen Xu picked up a bolt and looked at it and handed it to a craftsman next to him.

"Yes, Master Hou!" The craftsman took the screw, quickly stuffed it into a hexagonal card slot, then pushed it onto the chute and fixed it, and carefully adjusted the cutter head.

"Alright, let's go!" As soon as the craftsman commanded, a helper with a big waist began to rotate the handle, accompanied by the bite sound of the gear card rubbing, the cutter head slowly moved forward along the two chutes driven by the gear, and soon approached the copper bolt, at the moment when the cutter head and the screw contacted, accompanied by a spark popping out, a thin copper chip curled up along the cutter head rolled out.

"Cool down!" Chen Xu waved his hand, a craftsman hurriedly used a bamboo tube to pour water on the cutter head, two minutes later, the helper reversed the handle to return the cutter head, and the craftsman also took off the copper bolt, and a purple-red copper bolt was perfectly presented in everyone's eyes.

"Master Hou, the head of the knife doesn't look like it's changed, and you can continue to use it," a craftsman said excitedly after observing and stroking the head of the knife.

"Well, the threads are also very neat, it seems that the current cutter head should not be a big problem in making copper fittings!" Chen Xu didn't stop nodding after seeing this bolt.

"Another nut to come out and see!"

"Yes, Master Hou!"

"Replace the drill bit...... The nut snaps on...... Okay, okay, you can start ......" Several craftsmen were busy for a long time, the lathe started again, and soon the drill bit drilled into the originally hollow copper cap blank again, this time the speed was much faster, in less than half a minute, the nut was taken out of the fixed card slot, and was placed in Chen Xu's hands after a simple grinding and trimming with a file.

Chen Xu screwed it casually, feeling a little loose, but it was indeed riveted together smoothly, so after screwing it, it looked no different from the bolts and nuts seen in later generations.

"Master Hou, the drill bit has not become dull significantly!" The inspecting craftsman said beside him.

"That's good, you have seen, this lathe copper fittings have no big problem, then the next need to step up the transformation, the lathe as soon as possible to finalize the production, and strive to reach the degree of commercialization, and with the lathe, the future design and production of the machine can be riveted with bolts, there is no need to make complex abrasives for casting, not only easy to install, disassemble and overhaul, but also to make the machine more firm, and the design and production will be simpler, and the first lathe production is successful, I will ask the Academy of Sciences to award your team a patent certificate and a bonus......"

"Yes, yes, thank you, Master Hou!" A group of craftsmen and craftsmen who participated in the development of lathes were excited to tears.

They are all craftsmen, and they are a new generation of craftsmen who are familiar with Chen Xu's various industrial concepts instilled in later generations, so they naturally know the application prospects of lathes in the future.

Chen Xu said that the lathe is the mother machine of all industrial machine manufacturing, and the current production of lathes that can only turn out the thread is just the beginning, there are more complex milling machines, planers, grinders, etc., and so on Chen Xu in the Academy of Sciences to describe these industrial lathes are developed, then you can make more complex machines in the future, develop more precise lathes, this is a process of continuous cascade advancement.

An hour later, Chen Xu walked out of the laboratory with seven or eight copper bolts and nuts in his hands, smiling a little from ear to ear.

It can be said that this is the happiest time he has been since he became the left minister.

The current achievement of the lathe is basically a successful stage, which has laid a good foundation for the production of more sophisticated industrial machines in the future.

And there is another very important reason, that is, with a lathe, you can turn out the barrel and rifling, and then you can abandon the current fire gun and use solid lead bullets.