A crisp CLANG rang out.
"If they can’t be a support, then let them do something else."
It looked like a piece of scrap that had been hastily cobbled together.
All the complex dimensional relationships and fit tolerances spun and assembled at high speed within his brain—a brain that had no concept of calculus—visualized in the most primitive and intuitive three-dimensional forms.
The aluminum rod had likewise been cut, its diameter lathed to fit perfectly inside the steel pipe. Its bottom was machined with external threads, while its top was fashioned into a connecting flange with a small raised section.
The roar of the lathe once again filled the workshop.
"Senior."
It completely defied the textbook aesthetic of unibody construction and uniform stress distribution.
A blast of high-temperature air instantly surged out.
He secured it firmly with bolts.
The cutting tool bit into the steel pipe, throwing off a stream of red sparks. Pale blue cutting fluid sprayed onto the tool’s edge, instantly vaporizing into white smoke and releasing a pungent, scorched smell.
Aluminum is a softer metal, so the sound of lathing it wasn’t as piercing, but it was more prone to galling on the tool.
Then, he firmly welded the top of the inner aluminum rod to the top of the outer steel pipe.
He put on his black, heavily scratched welding mask.
Wang Dayong said without looking up, still marking his lines.
There was only the roar of the machine and the whine of metal being cut.
The steel pipe had been cut to a specific length, its core bored out, and precise internal threads lathed into both ends.
"Done."
He inserted the aluminum rod into the steel pipe, but when he welded, he didn’t seal both ends.
Wang Dayong expertly clamped the steel pipe into the three-jaw chuck and pulled down the safety guard.
"Let’s give it a try and you’ll see."
Wang Dayong used a compressed air gun to blow the shavings off the parts.
He turned the lathe’s feed handwheel purely by feel. The depth of the cut and the speed of the feed were determined entirely by instinct—by the sound of the machine and the shape of the shavings.
"Since we can’t buy Yin Steel, we won’t. Aluminum and steel like to expand, don’t they? Well today, I’m going to let them expand all they want, right here."
Wang Dayong picked up the parts and walked over to the welding station.
He picked up the welding torch.
Wang Dayong pointed at the outer steel casing of the nested base.
A blinding arc flared to life in a corner of the workshop.
Wang Dayong walked over to the tool cabinet, yanked open the door, and took out a vernier caliper, a steel ruler, and a few files of different types.
Wang Dayong turned his head to look at Zhao Peng.
Wang Dayong shut off the welder, took off his mask, and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Wang Dayong’s hand movements became much nimbler. The aluminum shavings peeled off like silver-white springs, falling from the tool holder into the collection tray.
KZZZZT—
But over the next few hours, they witnessed what could only be described as a true, primal intuition for machining.
「By dusk.」
He welded the bottom of the steel pipe onto a base plate designed to be fixed to the floor.
"A heat gun? That thing blows air at several hundred degrees! This is a precision test. Are you crazy?"
He created a structure that Zhao Peng and Zheng Nan found completely incomprehensible.
He moved the newly welded, still-warm nested base onto the dial indicator’s test stand.
With hot air at several hundred degrees blowing directly on it, the effect of thermal expansion would be magnified countless times over.
He didn’t even open the copy of Mechanics of Materials.
"Senior, bring me that industrial heat gun from over there."
The temperature of the base’s outer steel pipe began to rise sharply. Its originally dark gray surface even began to develop a faint, yellowish-blue oxide layer from the intense heat.
It was a very peculiar, even somewhat ugly, nested structure.
Zhao Peng and Zheng Nan had no idea what Wang Dayong was talking about.
The machine finally stopped.
For the entire afternoon, no one in the workshop spoke.
He used a hammer to chip the slag off the weld seam, revealing the rough but solid fusion of metal underneath.
After finishing the steel pipe, he swapped in the aluminum rod.
The aluminum rod was now suspended inside the steel pipe.
The air around the ugly base visibly shimmered and distorted.
He didn’t even draw a single sketch.
Zheng Nan gritted his teeth, walked over to plug in the heat gun, and dragged it back by its long power cord.
Wang Dayong didn’t rush to explain.
Zhao Peng and Zheng Nan both fixed their gazes on the face of the dial indicator.
Then, he once again placed the probe of the dial indicator against the side of the load-bearing flange at the bottom of the aluminum rod.
He simply picked up a black marker and drew a few lines on both the steel pipe and the aluminum rod.
Splattering weld slag landed on the concrete floor, skittering about before dying out.
Zhao Peng paused, glancing at the industrial heat gun in the corner, the one used for high-temperature aging tests.
Finally, he welded the true load-bearing flange, meant to support the dial indicator and testing equipment, onto the suspended bottom end of the inner aluminum rod.
"Hit it."
Wang Dayong didn’t open any CAD software.
Zheng Nan glanced at Zhao Peng. When Zhao Peng didn’t object, he flicked the switch on the heat gun.
"Dayong, what in the world did you make? Why is the load-bearing surface under the internally suspended aluminum rod? This structure defies all the basic principles of statics."
"Bring it."
Wang Dayong’s gaze was frighteningly intense.
Wang Dayong’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was filled with a confidence that brooked no argument.
Zhao Peng stepped forward, his brow furrowing even more deeply as he stared at the strange metal contraption.
Lying on the workbench were no longer a simple steel pipe and an aluminum rod.
By all logic, no matter how sturdy the base was, the indicator’s needle should have already shot past its maximum reading and deflected off the scale.

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