Real world manufacturing experience beneficial for students

Mini-chopper project sponsors look to improve manufacturing image

By: Charlie Mathews, Herald Times Reporter

MANITOWOC — Before Mike Kurtzweil possibly helps build 225 mph stock cars racing at the Daytona 500, the Lincoln High School senior is focused on completing his team's mini-chopper.

For the next 10 weeks, Kurtzweil will use a welding torch and other equipment to help finish a custom motorcycle as part of the Manitowoc County High School Manufacturing Project, which began in September.

"I've been accepted to the NASCAR Technical Institute in North Carolina," Kurtzweil said Thursday before moving a 250cc engine off a workbench to see if it would fit into the frame fabricated for the mini-chopper sponsored by LDI Industries.

A second Lincoln High School team, sponsored by the Manitowoc Company, as well as groups of students from Valders and Roncalli high schools, are in the competition. Finished two-wheelers are due April 15 in time to be shown off at the Ant Hill Mob's spring motorcycle show.

"The kids have done a great job so far," said Kory Brockman, vice president of finance at Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry, another one of the $5,000 corporate sponsors.

"We got our engine running over Christmas," Roncalli's Nicholas Bushman reported to Brockman at a recent project update meeting in the Manitowoc Company's boardroom.

The Chamber of Manitowoc County and the Economic Development Corporation of Manitowoc County are the principal sponsors.

Lakeshore Technical College has offered instruction, and students are able to earn three college credits for participating in the project.

Bushman's PowerPoint presentation showed the Roncalli mini-chopper under budget. Finishing touches are expected to be completed by March 25. Manitowoc Company human resources recruiter Jill Hennessey said, "Wow … I'm impressed!"

Her company and the other sponsors, including Spancrete's support of the Valders team, want to improve the image of manufacturing. They want to help students, parents, educators, and the community to understand manufacturing provides excellent career opportunities.

'A good steppingstone'

And, even in today's recessionary climate, it is expected a skilled workers shortage will continue and even get worse in the future unless students pursue engineering, welding, machining, quality control and other career paths.

The opportunities exist for women, too. Valders' Corrine Brandl said she was working on the software design of their mini-chopper, transferring measures into the computer and creating build tasks.

Cutting, bending and welding pipe are some of the students' assignments, along with electrical wiring, painting, and getting everything assembled into a downsized motorcycle ready to be shown off.

"This project offers very 'real world' experience," said Clayton Nei, one of seven Lincoln High School instructors, as well as sponsor personnel, assisting students.

"This is a good steppingstone from high school to technical college to industry," said Nei.

He has taught welding for 20 years, which he labeled a "clean business … and an art and a skill."

"Practice, practice, practice," is how Nei said students would get better at gas wire-fed and gas tungsten arc welding.

Those skills will continue to be prized in Wisconsin, the second most manufacturing-intensive state in the U.S.

When one of the students said some of the mini-chopper kits' components needed to be modified, or fabricating different, original pieces was the preferred strategy. Hennessey said he was getting a taste of manufacturing flexibility in the real world.

"This is what engineers at (Manitowoc) Cranes and WAF and other companies deal with every day … making square plugs fit into round holes," she said.

Kurtzweil already is working in manufacturing off-campus. He works about 30 hours per week as part of a Youth Apprenticeship Program assignment at Stecker Machine in Manitowoc.

If he chooses not to go the NASCAR route, Kurtzweil will continue working locally while going to LTC for additional training.

He said he knows the mini-choppers aren't intended to be "street legal."

"But I still plan on taking ours for a ride," Kurtzweil said.

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