Chapter 109 - 109 Gold Plating
Thank you always for typo reports.
Steve was in the Workshop Building with Nick and Cyril. The Workshop Building was a facility for storing the newly created machine tools.
There, various machine tools created by Steve's magic were placed.
Steve said to the two of them.
"Well then, shall we try electroless nickel plating first?"
Saying that, Nick made an unhappy face.
"Wakasama, you haven't even started the welding machine or the press machine, have you?"
"Well, that's true. But let's stop with the welding machine. It damages everyone's eyes. When Nick got hurt in the eyes by the arc welding machine you first brought out, it was fine because there was Healing Magic, but if you looked directly at that strong light, eventually your eyes would go blind."
Although cataracts were known, it wasn't widely known that the strong light during welding caused it, and Steve had treated Nick's eyes damaged by welding without protective gear using magic.
Since they weren't making products requiring welding for now, the welding machine wasn't being used in the factory.
"Then, the press machine?"
"I wasn't using it because making molds was difficult. I definitely didn't forget."
"Who knows. Wakasama is always fighting wars, haven't you forgotten about machine tools?"
Nick looked at Steve with a glare. Cyril also gave a bitter smile. Cyril also thought Steve had forgotten.
"What Wakasama should do isn't some plating, isn't it making molds to set in the press machine?"
"Yes..."
Strongly told by Nick, Steve had no choice but to nod.
Nick stood before the milling machine with a smile. The milling machine had a hand-crank handle like a general-purpose one, but it could also do numerical control. You can move the bed by hand turning the handle to process, but numerical input is also possible, in which case the bed moves automatically.
Clamping the iron block Steve created with the vice attached to that milling machine, he rotated the end mill. The spindle came down, the table moved, and as it shaved out the iron, Nick was overjoyed.
"There's a different fun from a lathe."
"Well, it's not play though."
Since metal chips might fly and enter the eyes, glasses are prepared as protective gear, but it remains dangerous. In Steve's previous life's factory, a tool fell during processing and broke through the machining center door and flew out. Fortunately, no one was injured, but it was an accident that would have killed the worker if it had hit them directly.
So, he didn't want them working too cheerfully.
"You can't process complex shapes, but for simple molds, maybe you can make them with this."
Not being able to process complex shapes means the cutting target only moves in one of the X, Y, Z directions. In contrast, 3-axis machining centers can do complex processing where diagonals overlap. With 5 axes, even more complex processing becomes possible.
Nick exchanged end mills and tried taper processing and groove processing.
Steve received the block finished processing and looked at its result.
"The tool marks are rough."
"Well, it's a test. I'll find careful finishing conditions from here. After all, it's the world's first."
Tool marks are traces left by the tool, and their roughness changes depending on processing speed and cutting oil.
Nick was excited, tension high, and his tone toward Steve was more careless than usual. Steve also understood Nick was happy, so he didn't point it out deliberately.
"Well then, let's try gold plating on this."
Saying that, Steve made a stainless steel container with magic, and put hydrocarbons made with magic inside it. Then, he started degreasing the block Nick processed. Cyril observed that.
"When you say gold plating, do you mean amalgam plating?"
Amalgam plating is plating where gold is dissolved in mercury, applied to the plating target, and mercury is evaporated leaving gold. It's a plating technique used since long ago on Earth.
However, what Steve was trying to do was electroless plating. Using electricity is electroplating, using reduction reaction is electroless plating. There is also vapor deposition plating, but a clean room for vacuum deposition was made in this Workshop Building. Naturally, it was magic.
Well, this time, choosing electroless among those plating types was simply Steve's hobby. The factory in his previous life also had electroless nickel equipment. At that time, a simple electroless nickel device could be purchased for about 100,000 yen.
From the experience of plating treatment using that, this time he just chose electroless.
Naturally, the electroless plating tank created by magic was also a small one similar to the previous life's.
"No, I want to try gold plating on top of electroless nickel. This uses a chemical reaction called reduction reaction, so the research targets increase, right?"
"Even if it increases more, I can't handle it. The Encrusting Machine will probably be put away for a while too. The welding machine was assigned people because it's needed for steam engine development, but no matter how far you go, there's a labor shortage."
The Royal Research Institute was still short-staffed. With regional peace established, military budgets were significantly cut, but that portion went to the Royal Research Institute, and the research volume kept increasing.
Also, the army was becoming dissatisfied due to budget cuts. As Steve feared, the cunning rabbit died, so the hunting dogs were judged unnecessary. Although compensation money was paid to the Kingdom of Cascade's army for cooperating with Emperor Louis's birth, it was temporary, and moreover, since the upper echelons pocketed it, ordinary soldiers had no benefits whatsoever, and only the measure of personnel reduction was imposed.
However, whether those unemployed would lead to social unrest was not so, and there was a movement for nobles whose territories expanded to hire soldiers to perform police roles for maintaining order, and many were hired where national army service history was evaluated.
The dissatisfaction belonged to the upper echelons who benefited from military budgets, and the soldiers whose numbers decreased and work increased.
Setting aside such army dissatisfaction, Steve started electroless nickel plating. Bubbles started coming out in the tank, and after a while, the iron's color changed to silver. There, he pulled up the iron and measured the film thickness with magic.
If there was no magic, film thickness gauges or fluorescent X-ray analyzers would be used, but naturally, those things didn't exist. Also, depending on the shape, film thickness could be measured even using micrometers, but micrometers capable of measuring 1/1000 millimeters didn't exist in the Kingdom of Cascade either.
The equipment for plating can only be made by Steve, and only Steve can evaluate the result. Therefore, the added value is quite high, but even if we try to do this in the Archibalt Territory factory, workers cannot evaluate the result, so it was a worry whether to use it as a mass production line.
"About 5 microns."
"Microns? As expected, measurement can't be done without magic."
"I hope people who can use industrial attribute magic appear besides me."
"If we use a drug to find magic talent on all citizens, there might be a possibility."
"The national budget will explode."
Steve laughed and put the iron taken from the plating tank into the gold plating tank this time. After a while, golden iron was completed.
Nick, who was processing another block, stopped his hands and came over.
"Wakasama, if you sell this as gold, isn't it a big profit?"
"It will be found by specific gravity. If found, you're a criminal, and it's not worth it."
"That's true too. Ah, then, just say it's gold plating from the start, and sell rings made of iron with gold plating, right?"
"Ah, that might be good."
Targeting layers who can't buy gold rings, they plan to sell gold-plated rings. The ring material itself is made with Lost-wax, and if you gold plate it, it's done.
However, since base treatment is needed to gold plate iron, Steve thought maybe it's better to make it with copper from the start.
Like painting, plating also requires base treatment to increase adhesion. That is usually copper or nickel. Then, they arrived at the conclusion that they should just make copper rings from the start.
Copper was oversupplied domestically because Steve made too much, and the price remained cheap. Moreover, without purchasing, if Steve creates it with magic, it's free. If anything, you don't even need Lost-wax, you can create it with the ring shape. However, there is a problem with hardness. Steve thought he should make and try multiple types of copper for that part.
Suddenly, a path for business opened.
"Alright, let's make it right away."
"Wakasama, what about the talk of making molds for the press?"
"Rings seem like they'll sell better, don't they?"
"Well, that's true, but..."
"If it sells, the bonus increases."
"That's attractive too, but I want to process as well."
Steve's head was full of selling rings, and processing using Nick's milling machine was put off. Nick, who thought he could process molds using the milling machine, was let down.
Cyril also thought Steve would prioritize rings, so he hurriedly asked about the plating mechanism. He heard precautions for handling plating chemicals and ended up worrying about disposal methods.
In his previous life, Steve encountered an accident where the plating factory he commissioned discharged waste liquid into the river. Fish in the river died and floated, becoming big news, but that factory was squeezed hard by the government office, health center, fire department, and police, and finally restarted with strict conditions that if they did it again, operations would stop.
With Steve's magic, there is Neutralization and Medicine Removal, so drugs can be neutralized within reach, but he prophesied that when plating technology is established without magic, this will become a big problem.
Also, as expected, the plating device was too large, so Steve went to the Royal Capital and decided to make it with magic at the Royal Research Institute.
Then, when the gold-plated ring was completed, he called Emmanuel. Emmanuel himself came to the mansion in Archibalt Land and confirmed the quality of the gold-plated ring.
Those present were Steve, Christina, and Cyril. Christina was present together because when Steve wasn't there, she acted as the factory manager, so she decided to stand by where the selling price of products made in the factory was decided together.
What was prepared as a sample was a gold-plated ring by electroplating.
"How about it, Emmanuel. How much value do you think this ring has?"
"From the specific gravity, the gold content is very small, isn't it?"
"It's about 5/1000 millimeters. Even so, there is gold's luster. You can make the plating film thickness thicker, but if selling cheap, it has to be about this much."
"Let's buy it for 1 silver coin."
"Then the selling price is about double?"
"Isn't it just right for commoners to splurge and buy?"
"1 silver coin is one month's living expenses in urban areas. That means the selling price is two months' living expenses. It was a just-right price for accessible luxury."
Even if the ring material is made with Lost-wax instead of Steve's magic, this way Archibalt Territory can do business enough. Others can't imitate because there's no plating equipment, so they will monopolize the market. And it doesn't overlap with the market for even more expensive pure gold rings.
Furthermore, Emmanuel said.
"If The Lady attends a meeting not too high in format wearing this, it will become product promotion. As expected, at a dinner party hosted by the King, it won't be a gold-plated ring, but if used as daily wear for small tea parties, etc., I would like to use that for promotion."
"If I can contribute to territory management as a wife, I'm happy."
Thus, in the Kingdom of Cascade and the Empire, it became popular as the ring Christina used daily, and commoners began buying it to give to lovers.
I tend to forget, but this is a novel where I use knowledge from my previous life obtained at a town factory to be active. The author forgot that setting the most, and it's only descriptions of fighting enemies.