During his 15 years in the industry, Matt Arnos wore many hats. He transitioned from sweeping workshops to machining, designing, manufacturing and operating CNC machines. He painted, assembled and wired himself into the role of plumber. He traveled the United States installing manufacturing equipment and teaching others how to operate the machines.
“The part I enjoyed the most was training the operators,” said Arnos, Stryker Local School District’s Career Tech Education (CTE) instructor and FFA advisor. “That was something I was looking forward to.”
His enthusiasm for teaching others has served Arnos well. For the past eight years he has led the manufacturing program at Stryker Local Schools in Stryker, Ohio. When he began teaching in high school, there was no CTE program or physical store. Working with what he had, he turned a teaching workplace into a kind of tech shop.
“I didn’t get many bonus points from the teachers when I removed their desks, chairs, microwave, fridge and pop machine from the teachers’ study,” Arnos said. “It was a very long process to build the program.”
The humble beginnings have grown into an exemplary structure. Arnos has created a wood workshop, greenhouse, aquaponics and animal science area. He appropriated a maintenance room that has undergone a major makeover over the past two years. Today, Stryker’s CNC Shop houses a Haas VF-1 CNC vertical mill, a Haas ST-10 CNC lathe, a Laguna 4′ x 8′ CNC wood mill, a Lincoln Electric Torchmate 4400 plasma cutting table, and 17 computer stations run the CAD/CAM Software Mastercam from CNC Software of Tolland, Connecticut.
The Stryker District and Arnos begin the engineering career of high school students in eighth grade with an introductory approach to CNC. Arnos’ laptop is connected to an interactive Clevertouch display; Students observe the process of CNC programming and then see parts being machined. For younger students, if someone seems particularly interested in a program or part, Arnos will have that student load the program and run the part. When they are juniors and seniors, the school’s capstone class students are exposed. It’s more focused and programming is paramount. A class of 15 students sometimes has 15 projects going on at the same time. Arnos estimates that the students completed more than a thousand projects in the past school year.
In Ohio, the program is categorized as a professional technical education. The focus is on supplying the manufacturing industry with skilled workers who can, among other things, program CNC machines and drive parts.
“I skip a lot of the manual editing and bring it straight into what Mastercam has to offer,” said Arnos. “I could spend all year teaching them the old ways, but I guess at this point I’d much rather show them how it’s done today.”
How it’s done today differs in many ways from what Arnos learned during his years in machine shops. Stryker High School’s mascot is the panther, so edited panther paws are a popular activity in the tech program. But even making panther paws isn’t what it was a few years ago thanks to the latest technology. Arnos is old enough to remember before the making – and duplicating of school mascots – involved CAD/CAM software. Sometimes his high school students question this notion and ask why anyone would invest in manufacturing software. Arnos will forever be armed with the counter-argument: speed and accuracy. Even the most advanced machines in the world are useless without powerful programming software.
“Just this afternoon we cut out a 10″ diameter panther paw on the plasma cutter in 45 seconds,” he said.
When Arnos asked a student if he could cut the same part on a manual machine in 45 seconds, the student replied, “No way. I couldn’t even get to the machine in 45 seconds, let alone try to cut out a round circle with a mounting hole on top of a panther’s paw.”
Arnos motivates students through practical classroom projects, among other things. You will learn about end mills, chamfering parts and engraving with ball end mills. Recently, the students used Dynamic Motion toolpaths to make an aluminum coaster; Each machined an “S” on the inside of the coaster with a 1/8″ end mill. The students kept discovering ways to improve the aluminum roller coaster and they ended up releasing the program more than 10 times while doing the old methods, but I guess at this point I’d much rather just show them how is made today.”
How it’s done today differs in many ways from what Arnos learned during his years in machine shops. Stryker High School’s mascot is the panther, so edited panther paws are a popular activity in the tech program. But even making panther paws isn’t what it was a few years ago thanks to the latest technology. Arnos is old enough to remember before the making – and duplicating of school mascots – involved CAD/CAM software. Sometimes his high school students question this notion and ask why anyone would invest in manufacturing software. Arnos will forever be armed with the counter-argument: speed and accuracy. Even the most advanced machines in the world are useless without powerful programming software.
“Just this afternoon we cut out a 10″ diameter panther paw on the plasma cutter in 45 seconds,” he said. “Try that with a portable plasma torch and an untrained operator.”
a Stryker panther paw.
When Arnos asked a student if he could cut the same part on a manual machine in 45 seconds, the student replied, “No way. I couldn’t even get to the machine in 45 seconds, let alone try to cut out a round circle with a mounting hole on top of a panther’s paw.”
Arnos motivates students through practical classroom projects, among other things. You will learn about end mills, chamfering parts and engraving with ball end mills. Recently, the students used Dynamic Motion toolpaths to make an aluminum coaster; Each machined an “S” on the inside of the coaster with a 1/8″ end mill. The students kept finding ways to improve the aluminum coaster, and they ended up releasing the program more than 10 times while reading, so we project Mastercam onto the screen and rotate the object around or change something,” said Arnos. “Then these students take that software file, plug in the USB drive, and the instructor helps them find their file. Because of the Haas Mill’s color-coded controls, they’ll know how to color-boot the Haas desktop mill.
“So preschoolers physically start the milling machine and watch it run, all based on the color of the buttons.”
In third through sixth grades, students modify Mastercam text, resize DXF files, and change toolpath geometry. They learn to use the code editor so they can make corrections on their computers, not the machine. Although the elementary school program is new, Stryker Schools may already have some CNC prodigies. At least two sixth grade students can fully create files, delete the wireframe from the model they are given, create the file, publish it, and run it on the machine to make a part—all without their teacher’s help. Elementary school students are well-equipped with two laser cutters, a dozen 3D printers, a desktop wood router, a plastic injection mold, and a Haas desktop router. Several types of robotics and stations are set up with plastic motors where motor errors are fixed.
Arnos believes it is inevitable that one day more students will come to his class with additional experiences, skills and interests than his past and current eighth graders. He has three elementary-age daughters in the program and is seeing the fruits of his labor firsthand both at school and at home. His children regularly bring home a variety of wood, metal and plastic projects. He’s also noticed a difference in how teachers view the tech program overall. It’s come a long way since teachers got mad at him for removing the microwave and soda maker from their study.
“I was blown away when some of the academic teachers started picking up different things the students are doing with the software and helping them with their projects,” said Arnos. “It’s nice to see because three years ago when it started, some of the teachers didn’t see any real value in the program. Now they see the value and realize that the students love coming to school because they have this program.”
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