Ma Chengchi was so satisfied that he planned to do something big. At this time, Chen Wenzhe also wanted to do something big.
He had been preparing for the production of Jingyun Bell for too long.
Even the factory in the development zone has a foundry workshop, but unfortunately it has never been put into use.
Now that he is fine, he will warm up first and repair the three bronze vessels before starting to cast the Jingyun Bell.
Of course, the little fights before are also essential.
With the escort vehicle, the speed is quite fast.
Therefore, Chen Wenzhe arrived at the new factory at noon.
Compared to the porcelain workshop, this place is much deserted.
Upon entering the factory, several workers came over immediately.
This is the advantage of having a qualified professional manager. Li Jinli thinks of everything in advance and does it well.
These workers are not young, they are all old foundry workers who were hired by Li Jinli before.
They had nothing to do before, so these workers are adapting to electric furnaces and other tools.
Now that the boss is here, these workers have become active.
For workers, having nothing to do every day makes them uneasy. They feel that their work is unreliable, as if the factory is about to close down at any time.
Now that they have something to do, they are naturally happy.
After unloading three pieces of bronzeware and waiting for Xue Jianming's people to evacuate, Chen Wenzhe had time to observe the six workers around him.
Although these people are all in their forties or fifties, they all look strong and strong, and they look like they were made by castings!
"Boss, what are we going to do?" the oldest one said first.
"First repair these bronzes, then open the furnace to cast a few bronze statues, and finally cast a big bell. These are not easy!"
Chen Wenzhe smiled and explained a few words, mainly to explain the future work clearly so that they would know what to do.
"Repair bronzes? Are these antiques? We can't do it!" Another worker said.
"It's okay, just give me a hand."
Chen Wenzhe's eyes fell on a large copper cauldron in front of him.
This one is relatively well preserved, but one ear is missing.
Knowing this in his mind, Chen Wenzhe immediately ordered the workers to start working.
After a long period of preparation, a lot of raw materials have been prepared in the factory. Which ones to use depends entirely on Chen Wenzhe.
Now it is naturally not difficult to mend an ear of the big copper cauldron.
First carefully remove the rust, then find a copper plate, cut it, and glue it with epoxy resin.
Finally, after priming and aging, the restored parts and cultural relics are immediately restored to a natural and original effect.
The repair process of the bronze drum is the same. It is mainly for appearance, not practicality, so just copy the three-legged frog and paste it on.
In this process, the rust must be removed first, then the gaps must be filled, primed, and finally the rust must be done.
The most difficult thing about bronzeware is filling in the gaps. As for repairing the decoration, for Chen Wenzhe, it is not that difficult.
He directed six workers to do whatever they could for half a month.
During this period of time, with the help of six experienced people, he repaired the bronzes faster than expected.
It only took half a month to basically make the three bronze vessels look brand new.
And what he wanted was not something new, so in the end he had to embroider them with red spots and green embroidery.
It has been a long time since he acquired this unique skill, but this is really the first time Chen Wenzhe has used it.
There was no need to rush the next thing, so Chen Wenzhe began to prepare for future plans, such as casting eighteen Arhat statues.
This can be said to be an unexpected surprise, because he found that the six old workers Li Jinli found really all have some unique skills in their hands.
For example, there are many people who know how to make sand, but not many people can really do it well.
During this half month, Chen Wenzhe also learned about the situation of these workers.
What they used to do was sand casting technology, and they were all masters in it.
The sand foundry process is "sand casting".
That is to say, when casting an object, first place the lower half of the mold on a flat plate, place a sand box, fill it with molding sand, and scrape it flat.
After the lower mold is made, turn the sand mold 180 degrees and place the upper mold.
Sprinkle the molding agent, place the sand box, fill it with molding sand, compact it, and scrape it flat.
Turn the upper sand box 180 degrees, take out the upper and lower mold halves respectively, then turn the upper mold 180 degrees and close the lower mold.
The sand mold is finished and waiting for pouring.
This process is commonly known as "sand foundry".
This is definitely a good craft, and it is not easy to do it well.
When making sand molds for utensils, you must consider how to separate the upper and lower sand boxes in order to take out the wooden mold.
We also need to consider where the molten iron flows in and how to fill the cavity in order to obtain high-quality castings.
After the sand mold is made, it can be poured, that is, pouring copper and molten iron into the cavity of the sand mold.
During pouring, the temperature of the molten iron is between 1250 and 1350 degrees, and during melting the temperature is even higher.
Then it has to go through processes such as sand removal, repair, and polishing before it can become a qualified casting.
This kind of technology can actually be used in casting Jingyun Bell.
However, Chen Wenzhe will not do this. He will strictly follow the ancient casting process to make a copy, and then decide based on the situation.
Now this method cannot be used to cast the Jingyun Bell, but it is not useless, because the sand casting process can perfectly cast a bronze statue!
This kind of bronze statue was made by many domestic foundries in the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays, many bronze statues of celebrities are made in this way.
In the 1980s, when developing new products and new processes, Hanwu Precision Foundry used a combination of traditional casting techniques and modern techniques to cast exquisite and lifelike replicas of cultural relics, imitations, bronze statues and metal objects.
Crafts.
In 1983, this factory and the local Machinery Technology Research Institute copied the Chu Zenghou Yi chime, and its craftsmanship reached a level where the shape and sound are similar.
In 1985, this factory cast a bronze statue of Qu Yuan with a height of 3.9 meters and a weight of 3 tons.
In the same year, the Mechanical Technology Research Institute cast a bronze statue of Wen Yiduo, which is 1.25 meters high and weighs 620 kilograms.
These techniques are just suitable for casting the bronze statue of the Eighteen Arhats!
Where are the ready-made specimens? Why doesn’t Chen Wenzhe learn from them?
Aren’t the eighteen Arhats that the school wants to be famous throughout the ages?
Just use brass or copper to cast it. The bronze statue made in this way will not be damaged for thousands of years, right?
After understanding the workers' situation, Chen Wenzhe will naturally arrange their work.
The first step must be to make a wooden mold. Only with the wooden mold can we use the sand foundry process.
These six workers can make simple wooden molds. They roughly make the model, and the final touches are completed by Chen Wenzhe.
Although no matter how exquisite the wooden mold is, the cast bronze statue will not be too fine. However, if the foundation is not good, no matter how you trim the bronze statue in the end, it will be useless.