[archiver]

Posted by Ken Leung at 2/13/2001 2:47 PM EST


Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M. Gunn Senior High School.


In Reply to: Can your team use the machines?
Posted by Geli Donut on 2/13/2001 9:47 AM EST:



For our team we have a machine shop in our high school used by our class for robotics, Engineering Technology. For years the machines open to all students in that class to do projects... machines such as band saw, disk sander, lathe, mill, chop saw. But all the students have to be at least 16 years old to be in the class.

At the beginning of fall semester, we always have our teacher along with couple of skilled students teaching the rest of the class basic operation and safety of the machines, and everyone will have to make a "shop project" to get certified for the tools.

Starting 1999, our student leader decided to have a "head of work shop" taking care of everything in the shop, including safety, maintenance of the machine, hand tools organization, etc. And I was appointed to be such person that year. So pretty much after that I was always there to make sure students don't hurt themselves and that they use the tools properly.

One thing that showed how much we want to take care of the tools is when the new mill arrived. Since it's a brand new machine, we had to make sure whoever's using it knows its safety and function really well. So at the beginning we decided that only a few students could be operators for that machine, so that the entire class won't be crowded in front of it. All the operators had to take a safety written test, and had a real machinist come in to teach us proper usage for that mill. After that I started sitting in front of the machine whenever other operators were using it to make sure they do not hurt the machine in any way. The rules on that machine are extremely strict.

Being a machinist myself, I understand the strict rules inside the shop. After all, it¡¦s both the students¡¦ health and the cost of machines that we all have to worry about. So, whenever our students have accidents in the shop, I was never afraid to kick them out for the day, although that never happened. But I must say, letting the students use the machine all the time is one of the biggest educational activities in our team. I encourage you to take the time to convince your sponsors that your students are good and safe enough for the power tools.