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Cincinnati Machine Gives Burlington H.S. The Edge in
Preparing Qualified Graduates
The machine shop at Burlington Community High School, Burlington, IA, where more than 225 students a year take classes in basic metal, advanced metal and machine shop, is so amply equipped that it would bring envy to the eyes of a lot of small job shop owners and operators. Tom Buckman, who has taught advanced metal and machines at the high school for eight years, admitted that even he was amazed when he first toured the shop while being interviewed for the job.
Assuming that he was entering a metals shop just like any other in any high school in the country, he instead found that it was stocked well with top machines like Cincinnati lathes and mills. Walking down the hall he discovered the school's metal shop, foundry and sheet metal shop. In 1997 both shops were combined and some new equipment was donated to the high school from local industries and partners. The shop now boasts 4,300 square feet equipped with the new Cincinnati Hawk TC-150 Turning Center and the Arrow Series 2 VMC-750 Vertical Machining Center joining the existing 20 lathes, three vertical mills and two horizontal mills, four drill presses, two band saws, two surface grinders, sheet metal area, a foundry and heat treating oven.
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| Tom Buckman (left), advance metal and machine instructor at B.C.H.S., demonstrates for Mitch King the ease of programming the Siemens A2100 CNC. |
Most of the companies serve as business partners with the high school, providing counsel and input on what training B.C.H.S. graduates should receive to heighten the opportunities for employment in their plants.
But what Buckman was hearing was that the students need today's technology in CNC programming and operation. Buckman wrote a proposal to the high school administrators urging the technology update and relaying what the companies had said. The machine shop was well equipped but the equipment, all of it purchased before 1972, wasn't providing training in CNC controls that are so critical to all of the company's manufacturing processes. And that's when the school again turned to Cincinnati Machine to provide the solution and provide the newest technology that the corporate partners demand.
Eliminating The Fear Factor
With a mandate from the school administration to upgrade the machinery, Buckman traveled to IMTS 2000 searching for equipment that offered value and would allow him to teach the students well in the skills they needed most.
"While there, I just kept going back to the Cincinnati Machine booth over and over, looking at the Hawk TC-150 Turning Center and the Arrow Series 2 VMC-750 Vertical Machining Center, which I really liked. Both are equipped with the PC-based Siemens A2100 CNC, and that really proved the biggest selling point for me," Buckman said. "Most of them already are PC-based and the touch screen makes it easy and fun."
After Buckman prepared the new proposal, the superintendent approved the expenditure for both machines. "If it weren't for our partner companies wanting us to graduate well-qualified employees for them, trained in the best technology available from Cincinnati Machine, I probably wouldn't have this machinery," Buckman said. "But the powers-that-be determined this was a worthwhile venture and decided to make a real investment in our kids who aren't going to college."
Another incentive for acquiring the Cincinnati Machine CNC controlled machines was the students who were interested in taking the machine shop course but were fearful of the age and size of the existing machinery.
"The kids would look at those machines and say, 'How do you run those things? They look dangerous'," Buckman noted. "But now, since all of our kids are computer literate and work with PCs all the time, they come into the shop, see the PC-driven machines and aren't intimidated by them. And that will pull a lot more students into my classes."
The high performance, 2-axis Hawk TC-150, with its integrated digital drive, motor and contol plus an X-Z range of 215 x 438 mm, is the smallest Cincinnati Machine turning center. "We're going to use that a lot. The kids can program on the six programming computers in the shop using either Siemens or Mastercam."
The Arrow Series 2 VMC-750, with its 40 taper spindle up to 8,000 rpm/18.5 kW, rapid traverse rates up to 36 m/min and acc/dec up to 6 m/sec2, will be huge asset to the shop and will make precision accuracy for our small projects possible. The rapid traverse and quick changing of tools will show the student what manufacturing time is really like, Buckman said.
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| The acquisition of the two CNC-driven Cincinnati machines will eliminate the intimidation factor involved with the high school's older machines and attract more students into Buckman's classes. |
He explained that in basic metal classes, which span a semester, students are trained in turning, foundry, sheet metal and some basic machining while learning to use micrometers and dial calipers. In the semester-long advanced metals classes, they make castings that must be a machined. "We've recently been making miniature Civil War cannons with 3/4" barrels. The students make the castings and actually machine the castings on the mills and lathes," he said. The students also begin working with tolerances of .005 and learn how to dial-in the projects and the machines.
In machine shop classes, which last for four semesters, Buckman assigns basic milling and turning projects that each student must accomplish. "They have to machine to my specs and turn out a finished product. And a project by mass production: they have to produce 20 items and they must be identical, the tolerances must all be the same, the students can't even attempt to assemble them after the prototype has been turned in. Once all the parts have been made then, and only then, can the students assemble the projects and they must be turned in within two weeks. This is serious stuff. Once they've jumped through all the hurdles and hoops that I assign, they can bring in their own individual projects, which must be done within 60 days," he explained. "And we're sure not making copper ashtrays in my classes."
Then projects such as 2-cycle engines, sterling engines, small turbine engines, parts for cars, and, an award-winning Tesla engine popped up in the machine shop a few years back, Buckman noted.
"That's the point when students start asking themselves tough questions, like how they're going to build this project? Whether this or that must be machined, how tight the tolerances must be, how they're going to turn it, how am I going to chuck that up and hold it. And that's exactly what I want. When I can get a kid to sit and think like that, I've done my job. Whether they build it or not, they're thinking and that's what's critical. And that's what's so great about the Cincinnati Hawk and Arrow Series 2 - they allow the students to broaden their horizons".
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| With the versatility and speed of the new Cincinnati Hawk TC-150 and Arrow Series 2 VMC-750, students will graduate well prepared for jobs in Burlington industry. |
It is gratifying to him to not only teach the student, Buckman said, "but to watch the light blink on in their eyes when they understand something and the self-esteem that hits them when they realize they can really accomplish something. It's amazing when they walk out of school thinking 'This isn't so hard - I can do this'," he continued. "After graduation every year, many of our kids can walk into companies in our community like Case or Champion and impress their employers, which means they will hire more Burlington High graduates in the future, knowing they will be well trained and knowledgeable in the latest technology. Our two Cincinnati Machine CNC machines will make our students the best machining high school kids around."
Not only are there no high school metals, welding and machine shop courses in Iowa that are comparable to those at B.C.H.S., Buckman said, there are probably none in the Midwest that can equal the equipment and training the school provides. "Our school district not only wants to be good, but it wants to lead and have bragging rights about being the best welding and machine shop in the best school. We've taken leaps in technology that other schools can't equal. And it's the high school's corporate partners here in Burlington, and companies like Cincinnati Machine producing leading-edge technology, that give us that edge."