Olafr is making great progress on the new milling machine and the frame has been finished for a while, and most large parts are finished, but all the small parts and details that need to be precise take time. Hand adjusting surfaces so they are right and precisely aligned takes time, and he gets interrupted by other jobs. The spindle that holds the actual milling tool was a problem to get right, and I did that with in the lathe, but the gearbox is one problem and the driven X-axis feed is another. The X-axis will have automatic fed with somewhat selectable speed, simply to make it easier for a lot of work, and probably better results. By rotating the workpiece vice-holder and-or the workpiece in the vice or how it is clamped down, another surface can be worked, as long as the workpiece is not too big and will hit something. It is not ideal to re-index something, as that will introduce errors, but this is probably this worlds first metal milling machine, and it will be able to do a lot of complicated pieces fairly quick and easy, so that is okay.

Like my lathe which has been improved or upgraded over time, the milling machine will be too every now and then, and like the lathe we stick to SI units and M threads as close as we can. We will set the feed per revolution in 0.05 mm increments to 0.5 mm, and 0.1 mm increments to 1 mm, 0.25 mm increments to 2.5 mm, 1 mm to 10 mm increments and 2 mm increments to 20 mm. Then there is the problem of the leather belt drive gearbox changing the speed. Manually changing gears is impractical, and the milling machine gets the fairly classic solution with handles that move which gear combination is engaged, and there are 4 combinations. The lathes will be upgraded with a similar solution, which will probably become a standard solution and gear set for a lot of machines. If I can standardise on one gearbox and its gears, it is very good for repair and maintenance.

One big advantage is that the milling machine is now finished enough to help make parts for itself, and that makes a big difference in how quickly a part can be made, and how good the parts turn out. It never gets old to see the elves fascination with something as 'simple' as a milling cutter slowly and automatically working its way through metal and making a pile of metal shavings. Coolant is not needed for every job, but coolant is a difficult problem because water makes iron rust, and surface tension is problematic, but at least there is plenty of water. Oil is its own problem, because although the most common vegetable oils work, they are sticky, and I don't have enough of the petroleum based oil. But then the coolant needs to be filtered and pumped back up, which is even more problem with the oils available. A simple driven water pump is being built as a compliment.

I would love to have this mill in my workshop at Thrymheim just like the lathe, but it is likely that that lathe will be moved here to the machine shop, and someone will be trained to use them and other machines. Then new copies of the machines will be built for my own workshop, and to just increase parts production. Because in the long run, I don't have the time to waste on making parts, so other people need to do that work, and I'll see my workshop as my hobby room. Production will have to take place here in the waterwheel-driven metalworking shop, or some steam powered workshop. Training machine operators will take time, but Olafr can help with most of that. After all, I'm the only person in this world with experience and knowledge to operate machines like this, and they're all in different states of learning, even Olafr. He has proposed to offer the machinist job to his old apprentice Bruinn, which they will do on this visit to Borgarsandr. Bruinn found it interesting to work on the boring-rifling machine last autumn, and he may be interested. As a new machine operator in this workshop, he is no longer a regular blacksmith apprentice, and he will eventually become the master in a completely new profession.

Olafr already has too many jobs and projects on his plate, and he also adds his own as he goes along, although I'm hardly complaining about additions to our vices so they now have bending blocks with V shape and three different radius curves.

Another project that has been done is electrical installation in the waterwheel workshops, but for now the electric power generation is from a small waterwheel that utilises the run-off. It is a good part of the practical training for the newcomers especially, who will continue to help install electricity and build parts for machines that use electricity, like two simple spot welding machines that are basically finished. One will be in the machine shop and one in Thrymheim's workshop. Olafr has no real use for a spot welder as he rarely joins small parts, but he loves that the machine can join two metal parts by heating it enough in a very small spot - without fire - and it can join metal parts in a way he hasn't done before. Riveting something together happens, but is mostly for armour work. Then there's the carbon rod arc welder, which with its incredibly bright electric arc between two carbon rod tips can actually melt metal. Using actual lightning to melt, cut or join metal is like the manliest thing ever! You will literally get a nasty sunburn, and very quickly!

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I was a bit worried the men would want to work with the 'sejdish' welding equipment, but now I get why it's pretty much the opposite. Yeah, it's still incredibly magical how a wheel rotating in water can create lightning, but using a magical tool, weapon or ship is not unmanly. Their stories about the craftsman Gods and the legendary items the Gods have, have become even more real. Olafr is very pleased to be working here and learning metal working and understanding metals like he never knew was possible.

The arc welder doesn't give what I call a good weld or cut, but it works and will be developed further. A more sophisticated welding power source will be built, and there will certainly be a lot of experimentation with welding. But electric power is not used only for welding, and Engdrid is not alone in thinking that the simple little pyrography pen is absolutely magical in how it can get hot enough to char wood. Engdrid will also need someone to help him with the carpentry work, because even with all the carpentry machines that exist or are being built there, the amount of work is just growing. The more that can be done in the local carpentry, the less I need to buy from others.

One clear advantage in having at least some electric power is that it is possible to install a couple of electric candles or arc lamps, and that is something Olafr and others are looking forward to. Of course, word has spread about Thrymheim's magical bright courtyard lights, but for now, the locals knows not to spread it any further than they already have. Everyone's lack of general electricity knowledge has however forced special demands on how they use the equipment and when and where. I don't want to see a fire here, and there are barrels and buckets that have been painted red and filled with water to serve as simple fire extinguishers and there are even some buckets with sand. Green first aid kits have also been mounted and ready, and there is a pull handle shower and eye washing station. There are eye and hearing protection and special protection gear in a lot of places.

Something I have been thinking about for a while which will now be done, is a extension to the machine shop that will be a perpendicular building along the main road. It will be an electrical workshop that will have large windows and skylights on the back side facing south, but the building will look nice on the north side facing the road. Given all the 100% Alfheimr things for electricity, electromechanics, radio and electronics, I will need some place to have production of all components. And making parts for these components is mostly metal work or ceramic work, so it's just handy to have access to the metal workshop, even if the electrical workshop gets its own small stamping machines and stuff, because it's generally small and thinner metal being worked. Stamping out parts for a switch or plug, is much smaller and thinner sheet metal than most metal shop work. So an electrical workshop to make the components is a good idea, and that workshop should be where the other production facilities are or will be, and there will be two or more people just working on making components and building and maintaining things like batteries, generators, electric motors, telegraphs, phone systems, lights etc. The more manufacturing we have, the more we can spread things like electric lights or telephones.

The telephone is particularly magical, and there is a telephone in the carpentry shop, because Engdrid is usually in there anyway, while the sawmill is more open and they move around in a different way. In the future, this telephone might be moved to the electrical workshop. Olafr has also got a phone in his apartment. As there is a simple plugboard beside the telephone in the guards day room, it is possible to call Thrymheim and be connected to another telephone. We have very few telephones right now so nobody does this, as there is rarely a reason to do so. But the telephone has become very accepted as a magical thing even men can use, partly because it's a pretty thick cable from the handset. My plan with the cup-and-strings 'telephone' has worked brilliantly and Jane loves how 'devious' I have been with that.

A compact lightweight military field telephone would have had its uses, and would certainly preferably use dry cell batteries, but is another use for rechargeable lead-acid batteries. There will be experiments with dry cell batteries as we can already produce different types of carbon rods and will get round battery vessels. I know that carbon rod-zinc batteries exist in Midgård, but I also know that the carbon rod is just a conductor that resists corrosion from what I imagine is manganese oxide or dioxide internally. I also remember that manganese-something was used by Neanderthals and exists in some natural form, but I can't remember finding-making it here, so the question is whether some other electrolyte and reaction material works well enough and what performance can be obtained, but that's future research and problems. Likewise how unused or used cells age or leak. Perhaps the merchant ship travelling to the Mediterranean could try to buy barrels of different minerals?

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