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Machine Shop
Freshmen worked on their required projects— making a C clamp, which was their final project, and a hex bolt, which required learning how to cut thread. They learned how to mill and index on a milling machine and how to use lathes. Several freshmen learned advanced lathe skills.
They also learned how to machine with aluminum, which requires different speeds and feeds.
Juniors worked on their parallel clamps and angle blocks, which require precision grinding to the tolerance of 1 / 4 inch thickness of a human hair. They also learned heat treating the parts for mean resistance and stability.
Seniors worked on their CNC projects, which required programming milling machines and learning how to use a lathe.
All three classes made parts for campus repairs, which requires using skills they normally would not be exposed to. The shop received three new machines spring semester, a Haas CNC lathe and two vertical CNC milling machines.
For the Flower Show exhibit, they used the laser to make name tags for the plants in the shape of wooden shoes.
They also made many parts for several shops and the grounds department.
Paint Shop
Painting the interior of the new Watson Dorm kept the painters busy spring semester. They did such things as primed dry wall, painted a top coat and trim, put clear coat on the interior doors, and painted the pieces for the front and rear porches.
They did touch up painting in the dorms, finished painting the Power Plant, and painted the fields for baseball and lacrosse games.
They painted the foul posts for the baseball field and the goal posts for the football field yellow and painted the temporary posts that held the school sign along Middletown Road while the new entrance sign was constructed.
Students also painted all of the walls, trim, and several doors in a campus apartment.
Juniors painted their murals, freshmen painted their sign projects, and students learned faux finishing from instructor Lori Thoman.
Ten seniors attended the Society for Protective Coatings’ national conferences in Tampa, Fla., in January, and six seniors and four juniors attended the NACE conference in New Orleans in March. The students helped at each conference in many ways and did a great deal of networking. [ See article on the SSPC conference on page 7 and the
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NACE conference on page 10.]
Seniors took a field trip to Axalta, a refinishing spray center, to observe automotive finishing.
Students also took a field trip to the Philadelphia Painters Union with the hope it will lead to some students getting union jobs and internships.
Juniors were offered a cathodic protection course which will help further their opportunities for employment in the corrosion field.
Collin Henry 1W8 received a gold medal at the SkillsUSA state competition.
Masonry Shop Working on signs was a major part of spring semester in the Masonry Shop.
For the Lee Rowan School of Power Plant Technology sign on the west side of Rowan Hall, students worked from the ground up. They put in footers, laid block, put in stone, and built brick piers.
For the new Williamson sign along Middletown Road, they put in footers and laid block.
Jim Steward, supervisor of grounds and transportation, was a big help in both of these projects.
Seniors, juniors, and freshmen all worked together on these sign projects, giving all hands-on experience.
In the shop, seniors finished their fireplace projects and completed their coops, working in the masonry field off campus for pay. It is common for these positions to lead to full-time employment after graduation.
Juniors helped with both sign projects and poured a concrete pad at Rowan Hall for an electrical box and a sidewalk at a campus residence. In the shop, they did more advanced work, such as arches and some made fireplaces.
Freshmen were busy helping with the signs, and at the Williamson sign did an excellent job laying block. They also began working on brick projects.
Carpentry Shop
Senior carpentry students got some good hands-on experience helping with the construction of Watson dorm, doing trim work and putting in the front and back porch. The students also designed, cut, and put in ornate rafters for the porches.
They installed a new kitchen in a campus apartment and almost completely gutted a campus house, preparing for the installation of new HVAC systems and updated kitchen and bathroom.
They built a new door for the entrance of Byers Hall made out of mahogany as well as a variety of campus maintenance and small projects.
Seniors and juniors worked together
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to turn the carpentry shop classroom into an interactive learning center.
Students worked in the shop on their Adirondack chairs and various molding and mill work projects.
Freshmen received a lot of experience working alongside their senior mentors in the two campus residence projects and two students built a decorative column to make the new temporary school sign along Middletown Road while the new entry way was completed.
There is also continuing work being done to organize the new storage area.
Field trips included a visit to the IDEAS Trade Show at the Valley Forge Casino where students saw new materials and methods of the construction trade and made many important industry contacts. At the show, they met Gary Katz, host of the Katz Road Show, who praised Williamson in front of the entire show.
Horticulture
The campus is looking better all the time with horticulture students doing a great deal of pruning, planting of herbaceous perennials, and the spreading of three truckloads of mulch.
They also did the landscaping for the newly constructed Watson Dorm and for the new campus sign at the entrance on Middletown Road.
Students did a lot of campus maintenance, including the clearing of beds, pre-emergent herbicide work, which is putting chemicals down to prevent weed seeds from germinating, and cutting back of herbaceous perennials.
They also did much tree work across campus, worked on the baseball field, and worked around the Auxiliary’ s building.
The senior’ s exhibit in the Philadelphia Flower Show,“ The Other Side of Holland,” received two prestigious awards— a silver medal from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and a Special Achievement Award of the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania— awarded to an exhibit of unusual excellence( under 1,000 square feet) in the category of horticulture. [ A full article is on page 3.]
At the end of March, seniors left to enter the world of work, with the entire class employed in their field.
The juniors have already lined up their summer internships, many of which are with prestigious employers, including the Philadelphia Eagles, the Philadelphia Union, Bartlett Tree Experts, and a high-end landscaping firm in Harrisburg.
Field trips included, a visit by the juniors to a high-end landscaping firm so they could see all that is available in the landscaping and hardscaping field, a
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trip to Nemours Mansion and Gardens in Wilmington, Del., a large mansion owned by the duPont family, and a perennial nursery near Lancaster.
Power Plant
A sign proclaiming the new Lee Rowan School of Power Plant Technology, in honor of Lee Rowan’ s generosity, was constructed by masonry students and landscaped by horticulture students outside of the shop.
The large project of adding lines to the new chemical test lab was completed. Exelon donated a test station to train students with the sophisticated tests used in industry.
Students aligned the valves on a balance block so the steam flow readings on the control panel for the turbine’ s generator are correct and, after some troubleshooting, repaired a leak on the CB feedwater line by replacing the union.
Students worked on the leak detection box that monitors leaks in the underground hot water loop going to the shops and the Strine Learning Center. After de-energizing the power they moved the box to the lower Wanamaker room, providing space for the new condensing turbine control cabinet.
An addition to the stair project on the overhead catwalk was completed by replacing old railings with new railings.
Senior operators met the challenges of several campus power outages, which provided realistic learning experiences.
A new condensing turbine, generator, and control panel were purchased and will be installed soon, providing students with a great learning experience. This low pressure( 15 psi) turbine will produce hot cooling water that will provide heat to the shops instead of using heat exchangers as we do now.
The Energy Island gained a great addition when Exelon donated a used diesel generator that can start up immediately when it detects a loss of power.
Seniors completed their nuclear training and 3-week nuclear refueling outage at Limerick Generating Station where they participated in several maintenance tasks.
Juniors did their second semester training on the simulator used at Eddystone Generation Station.
Freshmen and juniors completed their shadowing program at Liberty Electric in Eddystone and toured the station when the gas turbine was disassembled.
Field trips included Conowingo Dam and Muddy Run Generation Facilities in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and freshmen toured Longwood Gardens’ heating plant to inspect their low pressure boilers.
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