Marinette High School welding class partners with industry

MARINETTE — A Marinette High School welding class recently helped a local industry by constructing essential equipment, and the students learned some valuable lessons in the process.

The class of more than 15 students made heavy-duty workbenches for welders at Samuel Pressure Vessel Group, located just to the west of the sports complex on Cleveland Avenue.

“We wanted to partner with Marinette High School to provide them with some interesting jobs to further their trades program,” said Clayton Reindl, a welding engineer at SPVG. “We’re remodeling building 1, and we needed some standard workbenches.”

He said instead of manufacturing the benches itself, the company decided to give the job to the students.

“They drew it up on AutoCAD (computer-aided design), and we supplied the materials, and they fabricated it,” Reindl said. “It gave them some real-world, hands-on experience with fabricating and welding.”

Marinette welding teacher Scott Macintyre praised his students for constructing the 600-pound benches.

“For a school setting without cranes, without anything, we’re using old traditional squares to make sure everything was square,” he said. “So the kids learned a ton just in the process. They did it all on our big work table in the shop. Everyone kind of had a little piece of it. Ideally, the plan is to build one for every workstation here. We built five as a prototype.”

Reindl said SPVG will need more than 50 workbenches to accommodate its welders. The benches are where the workers put their tools, blueprints and whatever they may need.

Both Reindl and Macintyre applauded the work done by the students.

“They did a good job,” Reindl said. “There was a learning curve on the first couple, but overall a good job.”

Macintyre, a veteran sports coach, knows something about teamwork. “Some (students) are better welders; some are better at putting things together,” he said. “Put them all together, they make a good team.”

He emphasized that the majority of the students in class won’t become professional welders.

“We’ve got engineers in there,” Macintyre said. “We’ve got kids that are going to go for biology. We’ve got a kid that wants to be a dentist. We’ve got a kid that wants to be a pilot. We’ve got kids that want to be welders. We’ve got kids that love the manufacturing side. It’s a well-rounded group.”

Senior Dawsen Stepniak is going to become a welder, and he’s off to a great start. He’s worked part-time at SVPG for two years and the industry will financially help him attend NWTC in the fall. Upon completion, he will be hired as a full-time welder.

He enjoyed the workbench project with his classmates.

“The project was kind of difficult because everything was big and heavy,” he said “We had to put stuff together in separate chunks and lay things out separately.”

Stepniak said his welding experience gives him an advantage over some of his classmates, who he said did an admirable job.

“As a whole, they did really well,” he said. “They (the benches) look really good.”

Brady Eastman, a junior who plans on becoming a dentist, said he had fun and learned lessons in the class.

“It was enjoyable,” he said. “I like the fab (fabricating) job a lot. Looking at different blueprints, getting the measurements right, making sure things are square. A lot of prep went into it.”

Eastman said patience and teamwork are a couple of lessons he learned. “When you’re working with this kind of stuff, you have to work together,” he said. “You can’t do it yourself. Having patience is everything.”

Reindl said SVPG has partnered with schools by giving tours and sending scrap metal. He said it’s the first time the industry had a school build something for it.

“It worked out really well, and we want to continue doing that with Marinette High School and other high schools around the area,” Reindl said.

Macintyre said even before this project, the high school and SVPG had a good working relationship. “Samuel has become a great partner with the Marinette School District,” he said. “They help us out in any way. They supply us with scrap metal. In today’s world, everything’s expensive. Anything we can save on is huge.”