The students in the computer technology, welding and auto collision programs at the CTC are designing building and painting decorative metal bird houses with flowers and butterflies around them to be used in front of downtown businesses.
Daniel Cocks, executive director of the Fayette County Cultural Trust, which sponsors the Downtown Connellsville program, came up with the idea of brightening the downtown with the metal sculptures.
"We saw it in Pittsburgh at a store and that gave us the idea of using it to add color to the downtown" Cocks said.
I just thought the metal shop would be working on them. I didn't realize they'd be using the design students and the auto body shop," Cocks said. "We wanted to get the kids involved in the downtown."
Welding teacher Nordic Shreve said all of his classes have been working on the birdhouses.
The students are using a variety of techniques to construct the decorations. Students in the computer networking class taught by Pat Mullaney developed the patterns that were downloaded to a flash drive for use on the CNC electric arc cutter. The school received the Techno Systems CNC arc cutter at the end of the last school year, so this is the first group of students to really get a chance to use the computer-controlled machine.
The Fayette County Cultural Trust covered the cost of the materials for the students to make the decorations. Students started on the project at the end of January. It is due for March 29.
Daniel Cocks, executive director of the Fayette County Cultural Trust, which sponsors the Downtown Connellsville program, came up with the idea of brightening the downtown with the metal sculptures."We saw it in Pittsburgh at a store and that gave us the idea of using it to add color to the downtown" Cocks said.
I just thought the metal shop would be working on them. I didn't realize they'd be using the design students and the auto body shop," Cocks said. "We wanted to get the kids involved in the downtown."
Welding teacher Nordic Shreve said all of his classes have been working on the birdhouses.
The students are using a variety of techniques to construct the decorations. Students in the computer networking class taught by Pat Mullaney developed the patterns that were downloaded to a flash drive for use on the CNC electric arc cutter. The school received the Techno Systems CNC arc cutter at the end of the last school year, so this is the first group of students to really get a chance to use the computer-controlled machine.
The flat steel pieces cut on the CNC cutter are shaped with hand tools. Butterflies are formed by placing the metal cutouts in a simple V-shaped wooden jig to be bent into the proper shape to appear to be flying. The pieces will be painted by the auto collision students taught by Karl Butchko and will be assembled by the students in the welding class.
Pictured above is welding teacher Nordic Shreve overseeing the operation of the CNC electric arc cutter with Kelsie Hoffer at the computerized control panel as another student, Ben Hair, looks on.
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