2011 SkillsUSA Washington Precision Machining Contest

April 22, 2011, Washington State SkillsUSA Precision Machining Contest

Every effort was made to include every contestant and every judge in this video. Hopefully, they are all there. (My sincere apologies if any are missing.)

The contest was held at Perry Technical Institute, Yakima, WA.
Contest hosts were Machine Technology Department Head Dan Steinmetz and Machine Technology Instructor Jason Wellner.

Gold Medalist: Caleb Franett from Sno-Isle Skills Center and Arlington High School.
Silver Medalist: Dylan Dunham from Sno-Isle Skills Center and Lake Stevens High School.
Bronze Medalist: Thomas Williams from Port Angeles High School.

Sno-Isle Skills Center Instructor: Tom Clemans
Port Angeles Instructor: Mike Frick

The precision machining contest is based on NIMS (National Institute for Metalworking Skills) standards for machining and manufacturing, and is a very rigorous contest. On Friday of conference week, the participants go through five 1-hour contest stations.

The five stations are:
. Manual milling machine
. Engine lathe (manual turning machine)
. Semi-precision layout and drill press
. Quality control, workpiece inspection, blueprint interpretation
. Machining theory written test

For each section in which a machined part is made, points are awarded for each correct dimension. A part need not be completed in order to have one or more dimensions within the specified dimension tolerance. The allowed size tolerance for many of the dimensions is ± .005 (5/1000) inch. (A piece of normal printer paper is .004 inch thick, which means the allowed size variation of a "legal" part is very very tiny.)

The instructors and students at Perry Technical Institute in Yakima, WA put a great deal of time and effort in to presenting an excellent contest. The 16 contestants were high school students selected for their performance at five regional precision machining contests around the State of Washington held in January and February.

Several companies made generous donations of materials and prizes.

EVERY PERSON AND COMPANY WHO MADE THIS CONFERENCE AND COMPETITION POSSIBLE DESERVES OUR MANY, MANY THANKS!!!

For more information on SkillsUSA, go to their website: http://www.skillsusa.org/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• SkillsUSA
• Washington
• NIMS
• Precision
• Machining
• Perry Technical Institute
• Perry
• Caleb Franett
• Dylan Dunham
• Thomas Williams
• gold
• silver
• bronze
• gold medal
• silver medal
• bronze medal
• Canon
• Vixia
• HF100

[TheMastermechanic13]

to all of you guys saying "oh ive been a machinist for this amount of time" good i hope you and your apprentices are better, with that kind of experience under your belt you damn well better be good or you should be embarrassed of yourself, but cut these kids some slack, these kids have less experience than a part timer in the field within a year and you cant tell me that when you were their age and starting out you didnt make some of the same mistakes yourselves.

[tomclemans]

@TheMastermechanic13

Thanks for your kind comment. Half of these boys had been in a school machine shop for less than 150 hours, and each kid had less than half of that time actually practicing on the machines. On top of that, they were on a short time-schedule with parts that were more complex than they had time to complete.

Many mistakes resulted from the pressure.

Afterwards, the judges gave a good critique to compliment what the kids did right and to point out what they were doing wrong.

[heriberto2271]

En verdad esas competencias hacen falta en mexico .

los felicito en verdad hacen un gran trabajo,

Best regards fromo mexico

[tomclemans]

@heriberto2271

Saludos desde Seattle. Gracias por tu comentario tan amable. Antes de tomar mi clase, uno de mis mejores estudiantes tomaba un año de taller máquina en la escuela secundaria en la ciudad de México

[joshuapunks]

Where are the chuck guards?? Man I wish my shop had clean machines like these haha...

[TheMastermechanic13]

@IBLOWN and what im saying is that its a game? WRONG! because yes im WELL aware of the danger of the job, i blow up on people at work when ive got my head in the machine and they drop a pallet or a 55 gal. drum on the floor cuz theyre too lazy to set it down. all im saying is is for all the people being extreme assholes to cut these guys some slack other than the skills USA comp. they are supervised 24/7. and you cant tell me you never made a mistake when you were a noob either! 

[IBLOWN]

@TheMastermechanic13 Listen, machining is not a game, you'll get killed. Its not something a lesser experienced kid should be tackling on his own (75hrs) especially with some of the stupidity ive seen in this video. Even 1st year apprentices here are rarely let loose on a machine unless supervised 24/7. I mean the guy running it says ''The drill would break before throwing the vice''. Is it really something you would take a risk with? Clamp it on the table and be safe!

[IBLOWN]

@TheMastermechanic13 No we were tought properly from the start...

[mechmotion]

@IBLOWN Us in the USA seem to blame china for all our poorly made parts. I'm with you, I love seeing our local boys make the parts we need. The only thing I know of that comes from Australia is The Pontiac GTO, a re-badged Holden. I've never heard of a single failure on one of those!

[mechmotion]

It's great to see new machinists working hard in such a clean and well kept shop! There are only a handful of training centers around my area and they are all either churning out button pushers or suffering from very low enrollment. Keep up the stellar work!

[TheMastermechanic13]

@tomclemans Absolutely! its frustrating to see and hear those comments, when that was me only a few years ago. I myself took part in the skills USA competition in 2007 and know first hand the projects given to us were fairly complex for our skill set at the time. another point to be made is that there is no hand holding, these kids are left to build there skill and techniques on their own with instructors there to be a GUIDE not a CRUTCH.

[heriberto2271]

 Agradesco mucho tu contestacion .

Saludos desde mexico feliz navidad y prospero año nuevo!!!!!

[tomclemans]

@IvicaIfe

Thanks for your comment. If the drills grabbed a part, the drills were small enough that they would break before throwing a vise. Safety wasn't compromised. Feed and work pressure is far lighter on manual drill presses and manual milling machines than on a CNC, so parts and fixtures don't require the same rigidity that CNC setups do.