RBCT Chapter 36 Family Assets
Chapter 36 Family Assets
Qiu Changhai counted the service station's assets three times.
The first time was when I first arrived. The ship repair shop only had three dilapidated stone houses. Old Fang brought an old 6135 diesel engine from the factory and placed it on the edge of the courtyard wall. Ah Hai squatted on the reef and wrote "three gears, five bearings, and two rudder posts" with chalk.
The second time was after the service station was officially established. The steel columns in the new workshop were erected one by one, the welding machines were replaced with new DC welding machines, and the iron frame of the old parts warehouse was divided into four layers.
The third time was after returning from the provincial competition.
This time, he wasn't counting equipment, he was counting people.
The old square tube main engine and gearbox are crafted with skills honed over thirty years in the shipyard. The main engine is the heart of the fishing boat; if the diesel engine stops, the boat is paralyzed at sea. The gearbox is the transmission joint; all the power from the main engine is transmitted to the propeller through it.
Ding Haisheng is a welder and rudder engineer. When welding overhead, molten iron drips down and burns holes in his gloves, but he doesn't flinch. Overhead welding means squatting under a steel plate and welding upwards, with molten iron falling on your face. It's the ultimate test of hand strength.
Lin Xiu'e has completed her sewing apprenticeship and won first place in the provincial competition. Sewing involves stuffing hemp fibers into the gaps in the boat planks and sealing them with tung oil putty to prevent the wooden fishing boat from leaking.
Ahai independently led a team to repair the main unit, his intermediate-level technician certificate was pressed under a glass plate.
Ah-Kuang manages the used items warehouse, and the register has been filled from the first to the sixth volume, with each used item having a history.
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Master Song and Xiao Zhou took on the other half of the sewing job, and their skills from the shipyard in the south were still intact.
Hong Xiaobing installed the filter neatly. The filter is a diesel fuel filter that blocks water and impurities in the diesel fuel. If it gets into the fuel injector, it will cause the cylinder to seize.
Zhou Haisheng had only been there for six months, but he had already worn out two registration books and started learning to recognize the model numbers of old bearings.
Add himself to the list. Qiu Changhai went through these people and their skills in his mind, like flipping through an old register.
This register has no numbers, but I remember every single page.
When he retired ten years ago, he felt that the craft of sewing was going to die out in his hands. Now there are three people in the service station who can sew, and another one is learning.
He took the chisel off the tool wall and wiped it with cotton yarn.
This chisel had been with him for forty years; most of the blade had been worn away, and the texture on the chisel handle had been smoothed by his hands.
He hadn't decided who he would pass the chisel to.
Lin Xiu'e has her own chisel now, A Guang is not learning to mortise and tenon joints on old pipes, and Zhou Haisheng is still learning to recognize bearing models.
No rush. Passing on a skill isn't something that happens overnight; he can keep doing it for a few more years.
In the morning, Wang Cunzhi arrived on his motorcycle.
He parked the car at the gate of the yard, took a canvas tool bag off the back seat, and then took a cardboard box out of the tool bag.
Inside the cardboard box was a new torque wrench, made in Shanghai, with a dial that could directly read the torque value.
A torque wrench is a special wrench used for tightening bolts. It will click when tightened to the specified force. It must be used for tight parts such as cylinder head bolts and connecting rod bearings. Relying on feel can easily result in looseness leading to air leakage or tightness leading to stripped threads.
Old Fang took it and examined it for a long time, saying that this thing was much better than his old, clumsy wrench, and that he would use it to tighten all the cylinder head bolts from now on.
Wang Cunzhi said that these were allocated to pilot units by the province, with one unit for each pilot unit. The Moon Island service station was at the front of the list, and he and Director Sun applied several times before it was approved.
Old Fang handed the torque wrench to Ah Hai and said, "It's your responsibility now. Use this to tighten all the cylinder heads you need to maintain from now on. After you're done, record the torque value on the maintenance slip."
Ahai took the torque wrench, wiped the dial with cotton yarn, and put it on the top shelf of the tool wall.
Hong Xiaobing leaned over to look and asked how to read the numbers on the dial.
Ahai took an old bolt, clamped it in a vise, put the torque wrench on it, and slowly tightened it. The pointer on the dial moved forward little by little, and when it reached the specified value, the wrench clicked softly.
Hong Xiaobing said that the sound was even easier to recognize than the feel of a wrench being tightened properly.
Ah Hai said that feel comes from experience, and torque wrench comes from rules. Master Fang said that he will use it for important bolts from now on.
Hong Xiaobing tapped a few marks on the dial with his finger. He would wait until the day he officially started repairing the main unit before he would go through the torque wrench from beginning to end.
Qiu Changhai stood in front of the tool wall and hung up his old, clunky wrench as well.
This wrench was made for him by Lao Fang. There's a crooked "Qiu" character stamped on the back. It's been used for many years, and the teeth are still sharp.
Hanging together with torque wrenches, one new, one old, one based on rules, one based on feel.
Old Fang said, "Why aren't you taking it?" He picked up the old wrench, weighed it in his hand, and put it back, saying, "The new tools provided by the province are for the younger people to use first. If a screw gets damaged, there's a torque wrench to fall back on; if the feel for it gets ruined, there's nowhere to fix it."
Old Fang didn't say anything more. He hung up his torque wrench and took back the spare open-end wrench he had left in the toolbox, keeping it on his waist.
In the afternoon, Mr. Zhou from the county's aquatic products company arrived with a stranger.
The stranger, a man in his forties, wearing a dark blue overall, with oil stains on his cuffs, stood at the gate of the courtyard. He first looked at the three wooden signs, then at the fishing boat leaning against the stone trough.
Master Zhou introduced him as his friend, surnamed Liu, who runs a fishing boat repair shop in Zhoushan. He had heard that the Moon Island service station had won first place in the provincial team competition, so he came to check it out.
Lao Fang invited him to come into the workshop for a look.
The foreman surnamed Liu walked around the workshop, looking at the overhead crane, the welding machine, the iron frame of the used parts warehouse, and Ah Guang's register.
He flipped through the register from beginning to end, then back again, saying that this thing was good. He also repaired fishing boats in Zhoushan, and old parts were piled up everywhere. Sometimes it would take him half a day to find a single gear.
Ah Guang said that he started keeping records in this notebook from the day the service station opened. Every old item has a number, and he remembers clearly who signed for it when it was taken and who verified it when it was returned.
The craftsman surnamed Liu asked him for a few pages of the registration form and copied them down.
Then he asked Qiu Changhai how to prepare the tung oil putty for grouting so that it could be stored for a long time.
Qiu Changhai said that the mixture should consist of 30% tung oil and 70% lime, with the amount adjusted by half a part depending on the weather. Once mixed, cover it with a damp cloth and change the cloth once a day. It should last for three days without drying out.
The craftsman surnamed Liu wrote it down, saying that Zhoushan is humid, and the tung oil putty would dry in a day once it was mixed.
Qiu Changhai said that in damp places, you should cover a damp cloth with a layer of plastic sheeting to prevent the moisture from escaping.
The craftsman surnamed Liu nodded and then went to watch Ding Haisheng weld the ship's hull plates.
Ding Haisheng is welding a hull patch for a transport ship. The welding rod moves at a constant speed, and the flux coating lifts up on its own, resulting in a uniform weld seam.
The craftsman surnamed Liu squatted down to examine the weld and asked how much current was being applied.
Ding Haisheng said that the height of the overhead welding section should be adjusted to 130, and the height of the vertical welding section to 110.
The master craftsman surnamed Liu also wrote these numbers down in his notebook.
In the evening, the craftsman surnamed Liu left, taking with him the format of the registration book, the formula for tung oil putty, and the data for the welding machine current.
When Master Zhou saw him off, he turned back to Lao Fang and said that Lao Liu's shop in Zhoushan, which he had run for several years, was not particularly advanced, but he was a hard-working person.
His fishing business was almost shut down recently due to poor catches, but he managed to stay afloat for a while. He came here this time because he genuinely wants to learn from your experience.
Ah Hai heard this and said that the best things at the service station were in the used parts warehouse.
Old Fang took the cigarette out of his mouth and said, "There's also that torque wrench. It was given to me by the province, some I saved up myself, and some I couldn't bear to throw away because they were old. It's all part of the service station's assets."
In the evening, Jiang Haiping sat on the rocks at the entrance of the courtyard wall, with an account book spread out in front of him.
The service station has been open for almost three years. The money in the account has grown from three thousand to twenty-three thousand, and then from twenty-three thousand to eighteen thousand. A new workshop has been built, the welding machine has been replaced, and the torque wrench was provided by the province and didn't cost any money.
Money came and went, but the family's wealth grew steadily.
The family's assets weren't just numbers in the books; they were the six registers in the old parts warehouse, the wrenches of all sizes on the tool wall, Lin Xiu'e's chisel, and Qiu Changhai's old, worn-out wrench.
There are skilled technicians who can repair mainframes, skilled technicians who can weld seams, and skilled technicians who can seal seams to prevent leaks.
It's like hanging torque wrenches and open-end wrenches together; the new one learns the rules, and the old one doesn't lose its feel.
Qiu Changhai walked out of the workshop, sat down on the stone stool next to Jiang Haiping, and twirled a walnut in his hand.
Neither of them spoke.
The waves gently lapped against the stone trough, and the loquat seedlings rustled in the night breeze.
Tomorrow, the torque wrench will be installed on the cylinder head of the first government vessel. Ah Hai will use it to tighten four bolts, and the torque value of each bolt will be recorded on the maintenance sheet.
After this period, it's best to make a list of torque wrenches, just like the old items on the old parts shelf.
After listening, Jiang Haiping opened his notebook to a new page and wrote three words on it: Family Assets Account.