In December, Caroline Career and Technology Center's Advanced Manufacturing Professionals (AMP) students presented their completed Dart Board Cabinets to a group made up of Business Professionals, local politicians and school officials. This presentation is the final step in the Manufacturing Process, which outlines development of products from ideation to sale.
In November, students presented their individual design ideas. Rashad Wilson's (shown below) design 'Old West Saloon Door' was chosen by the audience for manufacturing by the students.
AMP Students, Nicholas Bouchat, Austin Frank, and Christian Charbonneau (below) explain how Rashad's idea went through a 'Napkin Sketching' process and then on to Computer Aided Drafting (CAD). Using CAD software, students had to make blueprints of the various parts and views of the cabinets.
Using CAD software, students had to make blueprints of the various parts and views of the cabinets.
Once prints were created and raw lumber procured, the individual parts and pieces of the cabinets had to be cut and shaped. Students used table saws, planers, wide-belt sanders and other tools. NCHS junior Bailey Kalinowski is shown below cutting dados in pieces that will become the sides of the Dart Board Cabinets. These dados will create strong joints and recesses for constructing the cabinets.
Creating and assembling the Louver-style doors presented a challenge to the class. It was a level of woodworking and craftsmanship never attempted in the AMP Program before.
Student also manufactured a second style of Dart Board Cabinet which involved cutting pockets into solid wooden doors and then filling the pockets with a colored epoxy. Teacher Keith Hale said that it was an "icky-sticky messy process". First the two parts of the epoxy had to be mixed together with a colored mica powder. Then the epoxy had to be transferred to clean squirt bottles to facilitate filling in the pockets. The epoxy pour has to be completed quickly. The mixed epoxy gets very warm and starts to harden within fifteen minutes or so. To eliminate entrapped air bubbles, the pour has to be heated using a propane burner. Then they sit and dry.
The end result of the epoxy pour is breathtaking. NCHS senior Edwin Marcario-Thomas, and NCHS junior Christiano Escalante-Perez (below) present the finished Maryland Crab Dartboard Cabinet.
CCTC's Advanced Manufacturing Professional Program helps prepare students to enter the world of work with the skills and knowledge to excel in the Manufacturing Sector.