“I love that we get to play with fire and electricity,” Deegan Joseph-Girkee said.
Lakeland Shop is an experience for anyone who wants to learn life lessons, the ability to weld, teamwork, metalworking, and the skills needed to be a millwright.
Cater Kinley said, “Shop has taught me everything related to welding and cutting…we have worked with steel and aluminum so far.”
However, when students were asked the main skill that they learned they all answered:
“Time management,” Joseph-Girkee said.
“Time management,” Kinley said.
“Time management,” Elijah Hall said.
However, there were also other things they learned than time management. Patience and responsibility are also a huge part. It also provides students with skills that can lead to a job out of high school.
The shop path starts in Industrial Mechanics 1.
Students start the year off with drafting for the first semester. This skill is necessary when constructing things down the road.
“Drafting sucked,” Hall said, “ but it made it so that we got to welding, so it had to be done.”
While it may not be the most fun, it allows the instructor, Corey Pettit, to understand what he is dealing with in his class.
“Pettit is the best welding teacher ever. He knows what he is doing and is no ‘run of the mill’ teacher,” Jospeh-Girkee said.
It is important that everyone understands the safety rules, so there is a slideshow and notes before the welding begins.
Oxygen Acetylene welding or, Oxy-fuel welding for short, is a process that uses a torch to turn metal molten using excessive heat from the flame made by a mixture of oxygen and acetylene. The temperature of this flame can reach between 5,300 and 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Oxy-fuel welding turns the metal into a molten pool. It is the most basic form of welding and is taught first to teach students how to manipulate a pool of molten metal.
At first, students are tested on their ability to set up the oxy-fuel system and spark a flame on the torch. Once everyone has passed the test, the welding begins.
The first week can be rough, but after a few weeks, the students will start to understand the process and improve their skills with some help from Mr.Pettit.
Then, the very first weld is due. A butt weld is a simple weld that is the most basic and the first to be done in Industrial mechanics.
After this, students learn the filler rod. The filler rod adds new difficulties to using an oxy-fuel system but getting into more advanced welding pushes students more.
After a quarter of using an oxy-fuel welder, students move on to more advanced and better welding applications.
At the start of the fourth quarter, the most widely used field of outdoor industry welding, Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW), or its most common name stick welding is introduced by Mr. Pettit.
“Arc welding is my favorite thing in Industrial Mechanics 1,” Hall said, “ it is difficult but also easy. It makes it so that it is more rewarding when students are done.”
After this, they move on to Metal Inert Gas welding or MIG welding which is the most common welding process and one of the easiest. However, just like stick welding, one week of laying beads.
The next skill that is taught is cutting.
“Cutting is my least favorite part. I can’t cut to save my life,” Hall said.
Stick, MIG, and a cut are all part of the packet and are the first real thing for a welding assignment that students inquire about since Oxy-fuel welding in the third quarter.
“The packet is the most important part of Industrial Mechanics 1. However, it keeps us on a time crunch,” Hall said.
A butt, multipass and single pass fillet, and vertical single and multipass fillet. 10 welds and 1 cut. It seems simple when one thing is due the Friday of every single day. Yet, it is still a stressor, but it will be completed.
The following year, students will move to Industrial Mechanics 2.
In this class, they will learn how to do upside-down stick welding, spool gun welding, plasma cutting, and TIG welding. These skills will prepare them to be able to do any kind of welding that they need.
Tungsten Inert Gas or TIG welding is the most difficult type of welding. It is a more difficult grown-up version of Oxy-fuel welding, but instead of using gas to create extremely high temperatures, it uses tungsten to filter electricity to a pinpoint to make sufficient heat to melt metal.
In Industrial Mechanics 1, students only learn how to weld steel, but in the 2nd year, students weld with aluminum and steel making them more advanced welders.
“The molten pool of aluminum is so much more difficult to see than steel,” Joseph-Girkee said.
Students in the third year can get to the Kootenai Technical Education Campus (KTEC) to take more advanced welding or stay at LHS to take a millwright class offered at Lakeland through KTEC.
KTEC is a program that is offered for 11 and 12 graders through LHS. For pursuing more advanced welding classes there are two options. Either industrial welding and metal fabrication or Industrial mechanics/ millwright.
Industrial welding and fabrication is a heavily welding-dependent class, however, that is not all that they do. The class prepares students for entry-level employment as structural, pipe, or production welders.
It is a two-year program, and students have the opportunity to work toward industry certification.
Students also learn to read blueprints, layout procedures, metallurgy, and safety.
Industrial mechanics/ millwright is also a two-year program. However, this course is designed to prepare students for employment as industrial plant maintenance or millwrights.
Students will learn the basics of maintenance, fabrication, installation, and alignment of equipment used in modern industrial manufacturing plants.