Of Arms and Arcane-Chapter 216

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~Lady Amara Ironcrest (Luke's Mum) POV~

"FUCK! SHIT! MOTHERFUCK!" *CRASH!*

Those were the sounds that rang out from Luke's workshop, and it has been going on since morning.

Amara was sitting with her husband, Alden, having some tea. "Are you sure he is okay, dear?" Amara worriedly asked Alden.

Alden put down his cup of tea and just nodded with understanding. "Nothing to worry about, my love. I checked on him when this started, and I, too, would be miffed at the situation he finds himself in. But from what I understood, this is partially his own fault."

"What do you mean?" Amara asked.

Alden chucked, "In his effort to keep what he was building secret, he split everything up. So if the craftsmen do not know what is supposed to go where, the fitting might not be right. At this moment, Luke is busy assembling, failing to assemble, and is now forced to dismantle his crazy machines to refit all the wrongly sized parts himself... at least until he runs into another misfitted part again. Or so he ranted to me."

"Poor boy... but still, he should mind his words. Where has he learned such crass language from? Have your knights been teaching him words he should not be listening to?" Amara huffed.

"Now, dear, he is a growing young man, he-" Alden said placatingly, but was cut off.

"He may look like a young man, Alden, but our boy is still thirteen! And we will not raise a foul-mouthed hooligan. So when he takes a break later, you are going to give him a talking to and make sure he grows up as a gentleman befitting of nobility! Do I make myself clear?!" Amara told Alden sternly, brooking no objections.

Being stared at by such fierce eyes, all Alden could do was say, "Yes dear."

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~Luke's POV~

I overestimated the standardization of measurements in this world. It turns out that measurements of grains (the smallest unit of measurement in this world) were not as standardized as I thought, so I received parts that were either too tight or too loose for my tolerances. It took me two more weeks to refit and assemble all my new machines. I also got chewed out by Dad for my angry outburst and colorful choice of words while doing it, but it was done.

There were six of my new machines, all lined up against the wall. They may all look somewhat different than what they were in my previous world, but at a glance, any technically savvy person from my previous world would recognize them for what they are.

The first machine was the power hammer. It was operated by a wheel on top of the machine that brought the two-hundred-kilogram solid steel cylinder, acting as a hammerhead, up and down. To ensure that the steel hammerhead did not deform when striking harder metals, I capped the hammerhead with a mithril-steel alloy that was enchanted to greatly increase its durability. To control the hammering speed, I designed a foot paddle that is at the bottom of the machine. The harder I stepped on the paddle, the faster the hammering.

Regarding the power source for this machine, it was connected to a lengthy gear chain that ran along the wall where the other machines were located. To operate a machine, I had to treat it like a manual car by engaging the clutch before shifting the machine's main rotating gear into the wall's gear chain, then releasing the clutch. After that, the speed of the machine depended on its internal gears to increase or decrease its operations.

The next machine was a bandsaw, which operated on the same principles as the power hammer but featured more gears of varying sizes to enable the thin saw blade to reciprocate very quickly. Much like the hammer head of the power hammer, I had to craft the saw blade from mithril-steel alloy. This time, it carried two enchantments: one for durability and the other for sharpness. I can only hope the enchantment does not snap, as this is not a disposable blade that I can easily acquire at the hardware store.

The next thing powered by the steam engine was the lathe that spun whatever I mounted in it, allowing me to perform precise shaping, threading, and turning. To shape the material, I forged a set of enchanted chisels to shave away material from what was mounted on the lathe.

Next, I had a drill press with assorted sizes of mithril-steel alloy drill bits that could also be used on the lathe if I needed to drill something dead center.

The second to last of the machines powered by the steam engine was a belt sander. In addition to adjusting the gear ratio for a balance of speed and torque, it was a relatively simple machine. However, unlike the other machines, which all involved smithing and metal, the key component for this machine was the 'belt' of the belt sander.

To create the belts for the belt sander, I handed the task to my local alchemist. And from what I heard, besides sourcing the leather for the belts from the local tanner, the alchemist paid a few local kids to collect fine sand and sift them to separate them by grit size, he then used his secret formular for a super strong adhesive and stuck the different grits of sand on different belts.

Those belts could handle most jobs, but I foresaw that I would be working with tougher metals in the future, so I made a special order for a belt that could grind harder metals. To fulfill my request, the alchemist had to contact some jewelers in the nearby cities and towns to buy the dust from any precious stones that they would most likely have disposed of. That dust was what would help me grind down tougher metals.

The last and simplest machine in this whole workshop was off to the side of my forge. It was a simple fan at the bottom of the forge that was covered in a shroud that connected to a hole in the bottom of the forge. The shroud concentrates the airflow directly into the forge, constantly fanning the coals. No longer did I need to use a bellows.

Other than these power tools, there were a few non power tools like the screw press and others. But that was enough for the introduction of my new tools, and now it was time to get forging and make some money!