Alfheimr Renaissance

Female complications, day 11

Projects & workers

"Ow!" What the fuck?! This is a hell of a way to wake up! "What the hell Jane! Why did you wake me by slapping my head?!"

"Because over-excited Iselin woke me up by leaping into my bed shouting 'we are here' in my face! It's way to gods damn early to be awoken by her wanting to know my take on the bloody history of the world and the future, and bloody dinosaurs and evolution! If you're going to tell her something like that, do it after the gods damn breakfast!"

Most of the morning is spent making parts for about eight smaller clocks that can be controlled by time signals. The nice thing is that I can make just a clock face that hangs on the wall and not having to do any fiddly time movement, but even the parts for just the clock take time to make by hand. The filing machine is very nice, but to save time when filing gears, we join a pack of thin plates together, and then a center hole is made before the teeth are filed, and when the pack is finished, it can be separated and we have several similar gears. I wish my planned gear cutter was already finished, both for time-work saved and tooth shape.

The stepping clocks will be nice, but there will also be new flip clocks made with split-flap display, which will have a significantly better ratio between size of number - overall size of clock. I actually feel a bit stupid that I didn't figure it out sooner. Of course, it is considerably more work to manufacture all the flaps, but the split-flap display can be 'painted' to show lots of different designs and information, and if only the wheels are big enough, the entire alphabet and numbers can be displayed. And Jane can get a future AM-PM clock, even if she have become used to using the 24h clocks. However, her way of waking me up this morning, means another type of clock will be built.

A split-flap clock's mechanism for rotation is basically the same as the previous segmented step clocks, but I would like to figure out some way to mute when a flap falls down and hits the previous one. Fabric that the tip of the flap lands on might do enough. If there will be many split-flap clocks or displays to show other information, a tool for the excentric press is a very good idea. One issue with this simple flap falling down style of split-flap display is that it can only turn in one direction, which limit its usefulness.

Iselin and Alith are working on a project that Jane talked about and I forgot, and that Gunhild and Alith wondered about, which is a couple of telescopic batons. Jane thinks they would be excellent weapons to have available for self-defence, and especially useful for our bodyguards. It's not exactly easy to make good durable tubes with this level of technology, which Jane of course didn't consider, so she 'handed over' the design to me because she failed to even figure out any locking mechanism. I don't know what real telescoping batons in Midgård use, but as long as the manufacture of the tube is solved, a latching lock is quite easy, at least for prototypes. How well it will endure with the forces involved from impact and use, just have to be tested. So Iselin and Alith follow my sketches, and after drilling out forged tubes pretty much like a gun barrel, they use the lathe to make the outside of each segment smooth, before we heat shrink internal stoppers so the segments don't separate. And finally there is making cut outs and adding the locks.

The weather is cold, and the barometer indicate it seems stable and will stay cold, so I visit and help Olafr. At least it's fairly dry snow instead of wet snow or slush as that sucks even more than usual due to the shoe options here.

Olafr don't mind the weather and just likes to work and try out the forge and hammers which he like. They're so flexible, both in power and speed, so a lone smith can have more control over where the blows land and how they hit and with which force. He has made an excellent set of pliers, hammers, wedges, files and all sorts of dies and tools in various shapes for both the automatic and the power hammer and the anvil. He has also improved both hammers with multiple stop blocks for different heights.

Olafr has been helped by the two blacksmith-machine operators as well as the construction crew's blacksmith and also the best fine carpenter Engdrid. They are working on improved benches and making parts or stands for special machines, while also working on parts for the carpentry. The two machine operators and the construction crew blacksmith seem to be proud to be in the same forge as Olafr, and to help with his creations.

Carpenter Engdrid just likes to work inside the warm, spacious forge instead of outside or in the unheated Carpentry, but it's also for the social aspect. And it's nice to see Engdrid using earmuffs he made for himself, and I ask him to carve some more when he's done with the other jobs, which he's happy to do as he really likes his earmuffs. Hearing protection is good for the future, but Engdrid also like that it's easier to concentrate on the work. There will be more of the collapsible earmuffs that are easier to carry, just to have available for impromptu hunting. Engdrid appreciate all the small special jobs he gets from me, and of course the extra payment he gets for it, plus it's a break from the norm and interesting. The craftsmen here are paid by King Aeriksson to work on the islands and do the jobs they are given, but everyone appreciates getting a bonus, especially as there are days they can't work outside, and they try hard to do the strange jobs very well. After the sawmill and what happened to Jofreydr, Awdgotr and Saeunn, many dream of maybe being offered a really good future here or elsewhere, and the carpenter Engdrid hopes to work in my Carpentry.

Using schematics from me, Olafr has built a 'large' rolling machine for shaping iron and other heated metals into plates of precise thickness, and also a small rolling machine that can help make finer steel wires etc. He understands more than I do about the material and steel in springs, but springs from coiled wire is new. Partially for practice, I ask him to make several coil compression, extension and torsion springs for things I have planned, such as dampers for ship's compass, secret door locks, etc. I need simply spring options, and flat or leaf springs have limited use. One special project is making a crossbow with a steel bow, partially since Kari doesn't like firearms and still wants to join us hunting. My bodyguards and Olafr likes the idea of a heavy steel bow, strong enough to need to use a lever or winch to tension it. A crossbow with a steel bow is much more manly than a regular bow, and at the same time it is easier to use the crossbow and it does not require the same practice and muscles. Of course it will have good sights and be as safe and ergonomical as I can make it.

I got so many strange projects for them. A simpler steel thing, is a couple of different rope brakes for climbing plus locking carabiners, but I can basically make those by myself and they're not a priority.

However, I need his help to make a prototype of a hot-formed high-pressure air tank. If I'm going to try to make a powerful air rifle, getting the high-pressure tank right is the most important thing. Enduring the pressure and being safe is my primary concern, but corrosion and rust will quickly become a problem as air has moisture and condensation will form, and in the long run there will probably be galvanic issues. There are several ways to make a pressure vessel, including a forged pipe with folded edges and the last end plugged, but these have potential problems and will need to be sealed in some way. Heating the finished tank to red annealed and dipping in brazing alloy or some form of bronze is a possibility that would both seal any pinholes and help against corrosion and rust, although it might increase galvanic problems.

One or two of those tanks will be made, but I want to trying hot forming a cylinder where a steel plate is formed into a bowl, which becomes an elongated cylinder whose open end is hot formed together to make a smaller opening, and thus less force on that opening once pressurized. Basically an enlarged CO2 cartridge where the necks inside gets lathed and a long threaded section, where a special valve or similar can be screwed in. Probably with a heat shrink steel ring on the necks outside to really withstand the pressure. The tank will probably be dipped in an alloy just to reduce corrosion and galvanic problems as the valve will probably be made of brass, but that something for the future. I have no idea how much pressure the tank will withstand, so several will be manufactured as similar as possible, especially in wall thickness, and they will be tested.

A 'small' high-pressure tank has far more use than just for air rifles, so it is not a waste of time to make simple tools for the power hammer. Other potential use is air tools, fire extinguishers, diving and more.