Well,,, We're in business.
Not fully complete by any stretch... but a far cry better than what we had.
I see a little red in all that sea of blue.....nice place to learn a trade, congrats on your new workspace.
I read this five minutes ago, but needed that time to pick my jaw up from the floor before replying. WOW!
I remember commenting on how awesome those fume collectors were on those arms, but it wasn't until the picture of the grinding room that I saw they had lighting inside.
That FAR better than sliced bread. :)
Very nice. We also have found that the duals save a lot of production time. Looks good. Your going to have these people spoiled. Most will probable never be in such a shop again. Well done. Someone will be getting a gold star by there name today.
"Not fully complete by any stretch... "- That's not being fair to yourself Lawrence, that is one of the nicest setups I've seen!
Where are you teaching and where do I sign up, as I get the feeling that's the only way I'd get to use such shiny machines anytime soon.
Or, who do I have to bribe to get to play with the big red and blue machines for a day? :) ;) :)
I've always wanted to stack up a big red and blue CV source side by side to compare how they run but everyone around here loves the blues and it's never been a fair competition.
Very nice, and really... who needs a few extra dollars?? I'll bring my own plates... ;)
-Clif
nice shop, if and when I get a moment I'll post some pictures of the shops I trained in.
Out of curiosity why are all the machines faicng away from the work area? Is that so the instructor can quickly check what settings the machine is at? or verify settings while welding? In all 3 labs I've been in, the machines faced the welder, seems like it would be a lot of moving about for the student to adjust parameters.
No offense, I've just never seen a lab like that.
very clean! and very good smoke extraction.
Joel,
The power supplies in the picture are at "parade rest"
Since they are all on wheels, the students can move them where they are comfortable during lab time.. After cleanup (sweeping under the machines) the power sources get rolled back to parade rest. My teaching partner and I just want everything to look nice at the end of a shift and insist on instilling this habbit from day 1 :)
I understand now, Similarily in our weld labs tidiness was an expectation of every student. It is a very good idea in my opinion and it instills a proffesional attitude in the students.
I must say I'm impressed with the smoke extraction on the track torches, my current school has several track torches but no smoke extraction for them. Although on mild steel smoke has never been a problem with OFC.
I'm curious to know how many students you have per shift?
Joel,
18 is really thought to be the about the high number for a single instructor to manage.. Although we have been taking 20 or 22 sometimes rather than turn people away.
But the lab is large enough to run a process and fab class concurrently, or to run a credit and small non credit, or contract course with two different instructors.
Very nice set up Lawrence the students have a chance to learn just about all the manual welding process and some of the fabrication work that goes along with it.
MG
Now thats a awsome, who would ever want to leave? Dumb question, Do the downdraft extractors work better than a water table for plasma?
All we had was lincoln buzz boxes ( that was a while ago)
Congrats
Dave
Um... the downdraft is technically more simple... I suppose the water table would be much more efficient, especially if it were a production environment... But our downdraft can be turned on when we make a cut and turned off. Don't have to worry about leaks or corrosion.
Hello Lawrence, first off, I am green with envy over your new digs, everything looks really terrific. One comment on the water tables, I have had some conversations with many of the fabricators and materials processors, in our area and others, and they are starting to get away from them due to the "hazardous waste" issues that come with contamination of the water with hexavalent chromium or other suspect metals. So they are going back to the downdraft systems or other "dry" processes. Thanks for including all of the pictures and giving us all a chance to see your new set-up. Best regards, Allan
Lawrence,
Never even thought about the moisture, Allen had a good point about the haz mat issues. No one worse than the PCA breathing down your neck. We went to drain oin heated water to heat our new 5600 sq ft shop last year. We go through 2000 gallons of oil a season so its going to pay for itself in 3 years. Havent seen them since.
Makes me want o almost go back to school seeing all that shiney equip. My dad went to Dunwoody when he was in his 70's to learn to do his own repairs on automatic car wash's. They said he was the oldest student ever, wonder if he still has the record?
Dave
That lab is set up as good or better than Lincolns new training facilities. Looks like you could produce some good competition welders with that set up. ;-)
Ray,
That thought has crossed our minds :)
Skills USA is tough in our state... The last welding journal noted the Silver Medalist was from Northern Wisconsin!
We are entering Skills USA for the first time this year and I'm excited about our students having an opportunity to compete and network with folks who hang around those competitions (prospective employers)
Yup, his name is Josh Steinbrecher from Green Bay and he attends NWTC (Northwest Technical College). His Instructor is Scott Tennant and he's been around the competition business for awhile. He is a very dedicated intructor and it shows with the welders he puts out. His guy is competiting in our pretrials right now for the chance to represent the United States at the International World Skills Comp. Let me know if you have any questions or need some pointers, I help out with the Wisconsin State comp as well as serve on the AWS International World Skills Competition Committee. I will also be taking over for Ed Bohnart as the U.S expert for the World Skills Comp after this years comp in Calgary Canada. London England in 2011 will be my first rodeo and I'm pretty fired up about it. These schools that do well in Skills usually get there budgets bumped up a bit so that's something to think about. You don't really look like your lacking in the budget area though and that's good to see. ;-) So many schools (especially highschools) are cutting the welding budgets and it makes me sick.
dam that thing is state of the art. I just hope students will take care of it
A very nice, well tought out lab. Thumbs up.
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