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Wood shop technology a cut above the rest
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Neighbors | Shaiyla Hakeem .Boardman engineering instructors Mike Powell (left), Robert Day and Glenn Sivak, in collaboration with outside resources, purchased a CNC wood cutting machine for their wood shop. The CNC machine was used to make the Boardman Spartans sign.
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Boardman High School's machine shop instructor Mike Powell (left) aids Vito Buonavolonta in the operation of the CNC machine. The machine was purchased more than three years ago and and is used in wood shop classes.
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Neighbors | Shaiyla Hakeem .Senior DeVaughn Hardin and junior Connor Kelty utilize the computers in the lab that was built two years ago. The lab enables students to produce data that will later be entered into the CNC machine.
By SHAIYLA HAKEEM
Boardman High School’s Industrial Arts Department has taken extra steps to ensure that its students are receiving the best education and training available.
The department has a fully functioning computer numerically controlled (CNC) wood cutting machine, CNC plasma machine and CNC computer lab.
The CNC machines allow for tasks involving the cutting of steel or wood to be completed in a shorter amount of time. It operates through a CNC router where data is uploaded and processed.
“Basically what the CNC machine can do is eliminate the need for various power tools to accomplish one job,” woods instructor Glenn Sivak said. “It can make all the cuts and all the cutouts from start to finish.”
Sivak said CNC machines are typical in the industrial arts field. Having advanced equipment will aid students who plan on pursuing a career in engineering or in the industrial workforce.
“Any student that is going to be in the industrial technology business nowadays will, at some point in time, be exposed to this type of technology,” Sivak said.
School funding, due to cutbacks, forced the industrial department to come up with alternative avenues to get the equipment necessary to keep the department up to date.
“We took a lot of old computers that were going to get scrapped and refurbished the computers to make it into a drawing machine,” Sivak said.
A grant from Best Buy was then used to purchase three laptops and a printer. The lab is utilized as a drawing lab for students to design projects that will later be sent to a CNC machine to be processed.
Classes are also taught in the CNC lab. The tables were welded together by department leader Robert Day with the help of a few high school students.
Boardman senior Vito Buonavolonta has had the opportunity to work in the CNC computer lab and utilize the CNC wood cutting machine. His class was one of the first classes to have used the CNC wood cutting machine years ago. Buonavolonta is currently working on a wooden cross that will be used as a memorial for one of the school custodian’s nieces who recently passed away.
“It’s pretty cool,” he said. “You can do a lot of stuff with it once you learn how to work it.”
Students have been able to make and donate several items to the community thanks to the CNC lab and machines.
One hundred wooden hearts were made by the CNC wood cutting machine and given to Joe Kaluza and his family for their Christmas tree. Each heart represented a person that helped him move into his new home that was built for him.
Benches with the BHS emblem are made through the CNC plasma machine and donated to the Canfield Fair annually.
Future goals for the department include adding a CNC mill to the engineering shop.