Live Stream 1980: Netizens Teach Me How to Make a Rocket by Hand

Northwest, Space City.

The wind was biting cold, and Zhang Zhengguo turned up the collar of his military overcoat, but it couldn't extinguish the fire in his heart.

His brow remained furrowed the entire time as the jeep bumped along the dirt road from the command post to the fifth workshop.

"Nonsense! Absolutely nonsense!"

Zhang Zhengguo complained to his bodyguard:

"It's only been a few days?"

"At most, a week!"

"Even if they don't eat or sleep, it would be quite an achievement if they could just organize the people."

"Why bother with CNC modification?"

"They said it would enable an ordinary worker to do the work of an eighth-grade worker."

"That's utter nonsense!"

The guards didn't dare to respond and just drove the car very fast.

The skill level of an eighth-grade worker is cultivated through rigorous training and the experience gained from working with tens of tons of waste materials!

You, Lin Xi, are a deity who can make people immortal just by blowing on them?

squeak--

The jeep braked at the entrance of the fifth workshop.

Zhang Zhengguo pushed open the door and got out of the car, striding inside.

He has already made up his mind.

If Lin Xi dares to fool him with a model.

He's determined to kick that kid's ass until it's bruised and battered.

Upon entering the workshop, a wave of heat mixed with the smell of engine oil hits you.

Everyone is here.

In the very center of the workshop, there was a C620 lathe that had just been painted green.

Zhang Zhengguo paused, his disappointment barely concealed.

It's still just that pile of iron lumps.

It just meant a few more dark metal boxes hanging on the back of the lathe.

Several colorful ribbon cables were exposed.

It exudes a cheap, rudimentary feel, like something was built using rudimentary methods.

Is this what CNC machining is?

"Hello, Mr. Zhang!"

Lin Xi greeted him with a smile.

Stop grinning at me.

Zhang Zhengguo, with a stern face, circled the lathe twice, pointing to the pile of wires:

"Explain?"

"It's neither hand-cranked nor automatic."

"It looks like it was cobbled together from a junkyard."

Lin Xi wasn't annoyed. She casually picked up a part drawing from the workbench and handed it over.

"Looking ugly doesn't matter, as long as you're good in bed."

"Let's inspect the goods first."

Zhang Zhengguo took the blueprints, glanced at them, and frowned slightly.

Valve core.

Tolerance requirement: 0.01 mm.

"This job..."

Zhang Zhengguo flung the blueprints aside. "You want your master to do it?"

"Master doesn't need to lift a finger."

Lin Xi waved to the back of the crowd: "Cannon, go!"

Wang Dapao rubbed his hands together as he walked out.

Zhang Zhengguo's eyes widened:

"Cannons? He's only a fifth-grade worker."

"He's okay at machining screws normally, but you actually dared to let him take on this job?"

"Give it a try."

Lin Xi pressed Wang Dapao down onto a small stool in front of the machine tool.

Zhang Zhengguo stood with his hands behind his back, his brows furrowed.

When working with a lathe, one must emphasize the unity of waist and stance, which is the skill of standing meditation.

That Wang Dapao is quite something, sitting there like a big shot.

There was also a black box with a button in front of them.

Anyone who didn't know better would think he was sending a telegram.

"Let's begin," Lin Xi ordered.

Wang Dapao took a deep breath, stretched out his finger, and pressed a series of buttons under a row of red digital tubes.

Input: feed rate, spindle speed, tool compensation value.

The next second, Wang Dapao pressed the green "Start" button.

Then, he did something that almost made Zhang Zhengguo curse—

He crossed his arms, moved the chair back a bit, and surprisingly stopped touching the wheel!

"Sizzle—!!!"

This sound wasn't the dull roar of a belt pulley.

Instead, it's a sharp, high-frequency whistling sound.

The modified motors on the X and Z axes locked instantly, emitting a sickening electrical hum.

Immediately afterwards, the knife holder moved.

Without the slightest hesitation, without any tentative incision.

The blade tip moved at an absolutely uniform speed and with an absolutely cold demeanor.

It plunged hard into the high-speed rotating alloy rod.

Sizzle sizzle—

Blue, curled iron filings fell like a fountain.

Zhang Zhengguo instinctively shrank back a little.

Then, his pupils suddenly contracted.

fast!

too fast!

When an experienced mechanic makes a machine with this kind of taper, he has to be very careful when cranking the handle.

I had to take the knife back and measure the dimensions, afraid of cutting too much.

But the machine in front of me is like a heartless killer.

Feed, cutting, retraction, transposition, thread cutting.

It flowed smoothly and was completed in one go!

Every movement of the knife holder was carried with a breathtaking precision.

When it pauses, it's as if it's nailed to thin air, completely still;

When it moves, it is as powerful as thunder and as fast as lightning.

"This...this..."

Zhang Zhengguo's mouth was open.

Pointing at the automatically moving knife holder, he couldn't utter a coherent sentence for a long time.

three minutes.

In just three minutes.

"Zzz—click."

With a final, crisp click of the relay engaging, the main shaft braked.

The world is quiet.

Wang Dapao stood up, picked up the air gun, and blew on the parts.

Then, he respectfully handed it to Zhang Zhengguo with both hands: "Mr. Zhang, please check it."

The parts were still warm, and their surfaces were as shiny as mirrors.

Zhang Zhengguo didn't take it, but instead took out a micrometer from his pocket.

This was a habit he developed from a lifetime of working in the military industry: he only trusted the ruler, not people.

The calipers are closed.

reading.

Zhang Zhengguo's breath caught in his throat for a moment.

He refused to believe it and changed the angle to measure again.

It's still the same number.

He then measured the pitch diameter of the thread.

Error 0.01 mm.

God-like precision!

And it was completed within three minutes!

Even if Old Li, a master craftsman of the eighth grade, came, it would still take him a long time to meticulously work on this!

He turned his head abruptly.

His gaze changed completely as he looked at the unassuming C620 with its "intestines" hanging around its neck.

That's not scrap metal, that's a magic weapon!

"That's called numerical control."

Lin Xi walked over and gently tapped the control box covered in ribbon cables with her fingers:

"Take decades of experience from master craftsmen and turn it into code, then store it in a chip."

"As long as you press the switch, whether you are a level 1 worker, a level 5 worker, or even a new apprentice who has just entered the factory, you can do it."

"The work they do is at the level of an eighth-grade worker."

Zhang Zhengguo felt a chill run down his spine, and goosebumps rose all over his body.

He knew all too well what this meant.

Previously, these were high-precision components.

It requires a level 8 worker to produce, resulting in low output and a low yield rate.

Moreover, the training period for an eighth-grade worker is twenty years.

But this thing...

"Lin Xi!"

Zhang Zhengguo grabbed Lin Xi's arm with such force that it felt like he was going to crush his bones.

"Can this thing...can this thing be mass-produced?"

Is it stable? Is it complicated? Is it delicate?

"As long as I don't die, it can be mass-produced."

Lin Xi pointed to Liu Xiaodong and Zhao Qiang:

"The CNC system is complete, the servo motor is also complete, and Engineer Zhao has thoroughly understood the hardware structure."

"How much does it cost?"

With red eyes, Zhang Zhengguo asked the most crucial question.

He was quickly calculating in his mind.

Even the worst CNC machine tools from abroad cost tens of thousands of US dollars each, and they're still hard to find.

If the cost of this equipment is less than 50,000 RMB, it will be of great significance to the country!

"Are you asking about the cost or the selling price?" Lin Xi still had the mind to joke.

"Nonsense! Why should we, as family, set the price?"

"Just tell me, how much would it cost to rebuild something like this?"

Lin Xi held up two fingers.

"Twenty thousand?" Zhang Zhengguo asked tentatively, thinking that twenty thousand yuan was really cheap.

Lin Xi shook her head.

"Two hundred thousand?"

Zhang Zhengguo's face turned a little pale. Two hundred thousand was a bit expensive, but he could accept it if he gritted his teeth.

Lin Xi laughed, a laugh like that of a cunning fox.

Two thousand five hundred.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Zhang Zhengguo coughed violently.

His eyes widened:

"How much?! Say it again?"

"Two thousand five hundred yuan."

"Because they all use civilian-grade standards."

"The ball screw is made of C7 grade."

"The motherboard chipset is Z80."

"We develop our own CNC system and produce our own servo motors, so the cost is controllable."

Lin Xi calmly added insult to injury:

"If it is large-scale industrial production, the cost can be reduced to less than 2,300."

Quiet.

A deathly silence.

It was as if even the sound of the wind had stopped.

The live stream chat was flooded with comments from viewers.

[Hahaha! Look at Mr. Zhang's face! He looks like he's seen a ghost!]

[To squeeze the full performance out of cheap civilian chips using futuristic algorithmic architecture, combined with the simplest mechanical transmission structure—it's driving me crazy!]

This is not merely a technological victory, but a massacre of the existing industrial system.

"Two thousand three...two thousand three..."

Zhang Zhengguo muttered to himself, and his body suddenly began to tremble violently.

Suddenly, he turned and ran outside, even knocking over a chair in the process.

"Commander-in-chief! Where are you going?" The guard was startled and quickly chased after him.

"To the office! I need to pick up Zhang Da Nao!"