Nirra immediately went to work. She first bolted down her electric motor on a wooden table and sawed in long rails, along with drilling holes to attach the different attachments she has for it. The first step was upgrading the motor, and to do that, she had to replace the metal rods around the communtator and the stator with small copper wires to conduct more electricity and therefore have more torque.
She attached the roller assembly to the electric motor. It had multiple rollers placed at different angles to stretch the copper into a thin wire, which she would have to draw out.
To start, she heated a piece of ingot inside the furnace and waited for it to get hot. After that, she hammered it into a long cylinder, using multiple reheats and hits with the hammer to do so. After she heated it for the last time, she spooled up the roller assembly and turned on the motor. The wire slowly stretched as it neared its end, where it's wrapped around a cylinder. It only took one ingot to completely make a large amount of copper wire as she proceeded to disassemble her electric motor and remove the copper tubes that served as a stand-in for the wire.
Once fully disassbled, she slowly threaded the wire around the communtator multiple times until it looked like it was bulging a bit from the amount of copper wire. She did the same with the stator and assembled it back together again. She checked everything was in order and sent some lightning mana through it to test.
The motor kicked into action, and the rotor immediately spun with more force than it had before. Nirra's face bore a small smile as she watched it spin for a couple hundred revolutions per minute until Mofu bumped her leg.
Nirra noticed and was surprised that the small fox dragged a plate with some garlic bread on it for her.
She kneeled down to meet the small fox. "For me?" she asked.
"Mofu!" Mofu nudged the plate forward with his head as Nirra gave him a thankful smile before patting his head.
"Thanks, mofu." She picked up the bread and took a bite.
While chewing, she noticed that it was already noon. The process of making copper wire must have taken hours.
"It's already mid-day?" She asked, a little shocked by the sun's position.
She turned her attention back to Mofu. "No wonder you brought me lunch." She said before patting his small fox head again. The latter's tips and ears turned red. "Thank you again…"
A knock was suddenly heard from the door as it opened to reveal Ellie holding a plate of rice, sausages, and eggs.
"Sis, I, uh, you skipped breakfast today, so Ameria and I thought that you would be hungry." She approached her sister and noticed the scattered tools and equipment. "I guess you already started to work?"
"No, I just finished the first project. I was just taking a break when Mofu gave me a slice of his garlic bread." Nirra finished the piece of bread that Mofu gave her and sat down on a nearby stool.
Ellie placed the food on Nirra's lap as the latter ate it slowly but was still aware that she was hungry.
"What are you making, sis?" Ellie asked after looking at the mess that her sister had created in her smithy.
Nirra swallowed her food before speaking, "Just preparations. Next, I have to make a gearbox so that the motor can operate a press."
"I see, can I help? I have nothing to do anyway since you're basically trapped inside of here."
"I don't see why not." Nirra placed the empty plate on the wooden table and fixed her apron.
"Alright, the next step is making the gearbox. Can you cast these three sets of gears? I already made the molds. I can go prepare the frame where it's going to be mounted." Nirra reached into the shadow storage bubble and pulled out three wooden gears with varying sizes.
"You got it," Nirra handed her the wooden mockup of the gears.
"Oh yeah, be sure to use high-carbon steel. I don't want these things to break after all," Nirra said before stepping to the side to work on the frame.
"Got it." Ellie grabbed a high-carbon steel ingot from the pile, placed it in the crucible, and put it inside the furnace.
As it was heating up, she prepared the mold by grabbing a wooden container, placing all three gears inside of it, and stuffed it with sand in until she couldn't fit any more. She turned it upside down and opened the other side, which revealed the wooden gears stuck in the sand.
She carefully removed the wooden mockups, which left a cavity in the sand, and poured the molted hot metal into it a couple of minutes later.
Over with Nirra, she grabbed three steel cylinders and arranged them inside a steel case made out of welded steel plates. She, of course, used her lightning mana to weld it together. She used drills to cut holes that fit the shafts and finished them with an input and output hole. After it was done, she received the steel gears from Ellie, and with a mallet, she slowly hammered the shafts into the center of the gears and placed them in the medium-sized box.
Nirra turned to Ellie and said, "I think it's done. We just need to test it on the motor and see if the output shaft has a slower speed than the input." She lifted the box with her hands and placed it on the table where her electric motor was.
She connected the shaft of the motor to a waiting gear and turned it on by imparting her elemental mana to the motor. Ellie watched it spin with awe, as this was the first time she saw the motor in action. She also observed that the output shaft was spinning slower than the input, which meant that the gearbox was working.
"Alright, the final part. The press. I'll make the frame with the remaining steel plates. Forge something like this." Nirra showed the drawing of the press and pointed at the part that actually presses into the material. "It has grooves where it locks with the shaft to make it move downwards. Be careful with this part because it can mean the difference between it working and not." Nirra informed her sister as Ellie replied with a simple nod.
The first step was forging the face of the press, where she grabbed a thick steel plate and forged the shaft. As it was still red hot, she used the chisel to hammer in the grooves, which would make it push forward. She now only needs Nirra to weld the two pieces together.
After Nirra finished with the frame, she helped Ellie carry the large ramslide into place, and when they let go, it dropped down onto the frame. Nirra then mounted the gearbox near the tip of the ramslide and attached the output shaft, known as the crank shaft, to the tip, unbolted the motor from the table, and attached it on the input side of the gearbox. When it was all set and done, Nirra activated the motor as she watched the ramslide come down slowly and onto the bed, where she had already made the mold for the flakes of smokeless powder.
Nirra exhaled while she wiped the sweat off her forehead. "It works," she said with a smile.
Ellie sat down where her sister stood and used the wall as a backrest. "What is that thing anyway, sis?" She looked up at the strange contraption that she and her sister built.
"A mechanical press is the last piece of equipment I need to make the next milestone in my weapon development," Nirra said before she sat down beside her sister.
"With all this specialized equipment, you could make millions of gold coins by patenting them."
"Yes, but that will also draw in people that would use these to do harm. So until I can hunt down the men who would do such a thing, this will all remain a secret." Nirra sighed as she looked at the motor and mechanical press.
"I need some rest." Ellie stood up slowly and made her way to the door.
"Call me if you need anything, alright?" She announced before leaving the room.
"Alright... Now, smokeless powder is up next," she said before slowly standing up to get back to work.
Nirra immediately went to work. She first bolted down her electric motor on a wooden table and sawed in long rails, along with drilling holes to attach the different attachments she has for it. The first step was upgrading the motor, and to do that, she had to replace the metal rods around the communtator and the stator with small copper wires to conduct more electricity and therefore have more torque.
She attached the roller assembly to the electric motor. It had multiple rollers placed at different angles to stretch the copper into a thin wire, which she would have to draw out.
To start, she heated a piece of ingot inside the furnace and waited for it to get hot. After that, she hammered it into a long cylinder, using multiple reheats and hits with the hammer to do so. After she heated it for the last time, she spooled up the roller assembly and turned on the motor. The wire slowly stretched as it neared its end, where it's wrapped around a cylinder. It only took one ingot to completely make a large amount of copper wire as she proceeded to disassemble her electric motor and remove the copper tubes that served as a stand-in for the wire.
Once fully disassbled, she slowly threaded the wire around the communtator multiple times until it looked like it was bulging a bit from the amount of copper wire. She did the same with the stator and assembled it back together again. She checked everything was in order and sent some lightning mana through it to test.
The motor kicked into action, and the rotor immediately spun with more force than it had before. Nirra's face bore a small smile as she watched it spin for a couple hundred revolutions per minute until Mofu bumped her leg.
Nirra noticed and was surprised that the small fox dragged a plate with some garlic bread on it for her.
She kneeled down to meet the small fox. "For me?" she asked.
"Mofu!" Mofu nudged the plate forward with his head as Nirra gave him a thankful smile before patting his head.
"Thanks, mofu." She picked up the bread and took a bite.
While chewing, she noticed that it was already noon. The process of making copper wire must have taken hours.
"It's already mid-day?" She asked, a little shocked by the sun's position.
She turned her attention back to Mofu. "No wonder you brought me lunch." She said before patting his small fox head again. The latter's tips and ears turned red. "Thank you again…"
A knock was suddenly heard from the door as it opened to reveal Ellie holding a plate of rice, sausages, and eggs.
"Sis, I, uh, you skipped breakfast today, so Ameria and I thought that you would be hungry." She approached her sister and noticed the scattered tools and equipment. "I guess you already started to work?"
"No, I just finished the first project. I was just taking a break when Mofu gave me a slice of his garlic bread." Nirra finished the piece of bread that Mofu gave her and sat down on a nearby stool.
Ellie placed the food on Nirra's lap as the latter ate it slowly but was still aware that she was hungry.
"What are you making, sis?" Ellie asked after looking at the mess that her sister had created in her smithy.
Nirra swallowed her food before speaking, "Just preparations. Next, I have to make a gearbox so that the motor can operate a press."
"I see, can I help? I have nothing to do anyway since you're basically trapped inside of here."
"I don't see why not." Nirra placed the empty plate on the wooden table and fixed her apron.
"Alright, the next step is making the gearbox. Can you cast these three sets of gears? I already made the molds. I can go prepare the frame where it's going to be mounted." Nirra reached into the shadow storage bubble and pulled out three wooden gears with varying sizes.
"You got it," Nirra handed her the wooden mockup of the gears.
"Oh yeah, be sure to use high-carbon steel. I don't want these things to break after all," Nirra said before stepping to the side to work on the frame.
"Got it." Ellie grabbed a high-carbon steel ingot from the pile, placed it in the crucible, and put it inside the furnace.
As it was heating up, she prepared the mold by grabbing a wooden container, placing all three gears inside of it, and stuffed it with sand in until she couldn't fit any more. She turned it upside down and opened the other side, which revealed the wooden gears stuck in the sand.
She carefully removed the wooden mockups, which left a cavity in the sand, and poured the molted hot metal into it a couple of minutes later.
Over with Nirra, she grabbed three steel cylinders and arranged them inside a steel case made out of welded steel plates. She, of course, used her lightning mana to weld it together. She used drills to cut holes that fit the shafts and finished them with an input and output hole. After it was done, she received the steel gears from Ellie, and with a mallet, she slowly hammered the shafts into the center of the gears and placed them in the medium-sized box.
Nirra turned to Ellie and said, "I think it's done. We just need to test it on the motor and see if the output shaft has a slower speed than the input." She lifted the box with her hands and placed it on the table where her electric motor was.
She connected the shaft of the motor to a waiting gear and turned it on by imparting her elemental mana to the motor. Ellie watched it spin with awe, as this was the first time she saw the motor in action. She also observed that the output shaft was spinning slower than the input, which meant that the gearbox was working.
"Alright, the final part. The press. I'll make the frame with the remaining steel plates. Forge something like this." Nirra showed the drawing of the press and pointed at the part that actually presses into the material. "It has grooves where it locks with the shaft to make it move downwards. Be careful with this part because it can mean the difference between it working and not." Nirra informed her sister as Ellie replied with a simple nod.
The first step was forging the face of the press, where she grabbed a thick steel plate and forged the shaft. As it was still red hot, she used the chisel to hammer in the grooves, which would make it push forward. She now only needs Nirra to weld the two pieces together.
After Nirra finished with the frame, she helped Ellie carry the large ramslide into place, and when they let go, it dropped down onto the frame. Nirra then mounted the gearbox near the tip of the ramslide and attached the output shaft, known as the crank shaft, to the tip, unbolted the motor from the table, and attached it on the input side of the gearbox. When it was all set and done, Nirra activated the motor as she watched the ramslide come down slowly and onto the bed, where she had already made the mold for the flakes of smokeless powder.
Nirra exhaled while she wiped the sweat off her forehead. "It works," she said with a smile.
Ellie sat down where her sister stood and used the wall as a backrest. "What is that thing anyway, sis?" She looked up at the strange contraption that she and her sister built.
"A mechanical press is the last piece of equipment I need to make the next milestone in my weapon development," Nirra said before she sat down beside her sister.
"With all this specialized equipment, you could make millions of gold coins by patenting them."
"Yes, but that will also draw in people that would use these to do harm. So until I can hunt down the men who would do such a thing, this will all remain a secret." Nirra sighed as she looked at the motor and mechanical press.
"I need some rest." Ellie stood up slowly and made her way to the door.
"Call me if you need anything, alright?" She announced before leaving the room.
"Alright... Now, smokeless powder is up next," she said before slowly standing up to get back to work.
