Students in the Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Advanced Manufacturing program have already been creating chess sets with the Haas Automation computer numerical control lathe the program added just before the end of 2022.
“We jumped into a real project as soon as we got the machine running,” Advanced Manufacturing instructor Peter Stone said.
Advanced Manufacturing students are gaining experience with how to program and operate the CNC lathe and conduct quality assurance checks on the items they develop.
“It adds capabilities that are unbelievable,” Stone said. We’re advanced now.”
Students are using the machine to not only create the chess pieces themselves, but also to make tools and fixtures they are using in the process – such as clamps, holders and weights.
The control panel for the Haas Automation CNC lathe is the same control panel used on much larger Haas machines, so students would be able to operate those machines in a job setting, Stone said. The CNC lathe also uses G-Code, so the programming they are learning could also be used on other brand machines that use G-Code with just some tweaks, he said.
“The jewel of the shop is this machine,” he said.
Advanced Manufacturing students are making a total of 50 chess sets. Some of the sets will be gifts to Herkimer BOCES Board of Education members, and others will be sold for a fundraiser. Stone hopes to raise funds to take Advanced Manufacturing students to the Eastec manufacturing trade show in Massachusetts next year. If interested in purchasing a chess set to support the fundraiser, contact Stone at Herkimer BOCES at 315-867-3006.
The next project Stone has in mind for using the CNC lathe is creating trophies for the 20th annual Herkimer Region College and Career Scholarship Foundation Golf Tournament, which takes place on Aug. 14 at the Cedar Lake Club in Clayville.
During class on Thursday, Jan. 26, Advanced Manufacturing seniors worked on the chess sets. All of the seniors in the program are also Valley Pathways in Technology Early College High School (VP-TECH) students.
Advanced Manufacturing senior Cole Dowling, of Central Valley Central School District, explained how the CNC lathe works, how it cuts the shape of the chess pieces, how he operates the control panel and how he runs the machine on slow the first time he uses it each day to make sure it’s working properly, before speeding it up.
“I love it,” Dowling said, of getting to work with the CNC lathe in class. “What I really like the most about it is learning to do many different things. We have the opportunity to learn many skills for this class – not just how to operate but to program the machine.”
Advanced Manufacturing senior MK David, of Dolgeville Central School District, explained how students conduct quality assurance on the items created with the CNC lathe. Students measure the pieces to make sure they are within the guidelines, and if anything is off, they identify that it needs to be fixed, David said.
Students benefit from learning various aspects of the process in a professional environment, David said. “It was a big change,” they said. “We’re given so much responsibility here, and our teacher, Mr. Stone, has been in the workforce, so he’s more like a boss than a teacher sometimes. I’m really grateful for the experience of getting to do things like this.”
Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Advanced Manufacturing program senior Cole Dowling, of Central Valley Central School District, explains how the Haas Automation CNC lathe he’s standing next to works. Dowling is also in the Herkimer BOCES VP-TECH program.
From left, Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Advanced Manufacturing program seniors MK David, of Dolgeville Central School District; Iesha Deuvel, of Herkimer Central School District, and Ariana Ellis, of Central Valley Central School District, conduct quality assurance work in class. The students are also in the Herkimer BOCES VP-TECH program.
Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Advanced Manufacturing instructor Peter Stone shows how some of the tools and fixtures students created in class using a Haas Automation CNC lathe are utilized to help put materials together to make chess sets.
An in-progress chess set being created by Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Advanced Manufacturing program students is displayed in class on Thursday, Jan. 26.
Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Advanced Manufacturing program senior Cole Dowling, of Central Valley Central School District, show how to operate the Haas Automation CNC lathe the program recently added. Dowling is also in the Herkimer BOCES VP-TECH program.