Page 27 - CNC West April May 2022 copy

Each Redmond High student first machined a Turner’s cube on a manual mill to square the block, then programmed circular toolpaths in Mastercam and machined the cube on a Haas Mini Mill.
cool little box. It’s simple in a lot of ways but getting that coin to fit inside of the lid and outside of the lid—the tolerances had to be there. For high school students, I thought it was impressive.”
To pique the interest of his students, Kernion assigns some projects from the TITANS of CNC (Flower Mound, TX) website, which offers hundreds of free online CAD/ CAM courses. He has students study sections of National Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS), Fairfax, VA, testing and learn the ins and outs of SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD design software. Also, he
prepares students to take the CWSA (Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate) exam.
“That’s typically their final in my CAD and manufacturing classes,” he said. “I have the only three high school students in the state of Oregon that passed the professional level in SOLIDWORKS.”
Redmond Panther Tech currently has 28 seats of Mastercam and hopes to add more to accommodate its growing manufacturing program. Kernion uses the Educational Suite, which includes bundled, discounted CAD/CAM solutions that provide instructors the flexibility to teach everything from introductory lessons to advanced CAM techniques. In the coming school year, Kernion hopes to focus on Mastercam Certification.
Resuming traditional learning is something that instructors across the globe look forward to this year. When COVID hit, teaching manufacturing classes remotely became difficult, reflected Kernion.
“We had kids remoting in with their Chromebooks,” he said. “It was a very slow, arduous task to get them anywhere. They’d draw a line, and the spinning icon would come out, waiting for the line to be created. Then they would enter their dimensions and the whole thing would spin again.”
But thanks to a new SOLIDWORKS platform, 3D
Bullet boxes produced by Panther Tech students were machined on a Haas mill; Mastercam Dynamic Milling was used for pocketing and for the hinges. Contour and Engrave toolpaths were used to machine words on lids; and Chamfer and Model Chamfer toolpaths softened the edges.
CNC WEST April/May 2022
www.CNC-West.com 25
A Redmond High Panther Tech student created a triangle peg game. It was designed and programmed in Mastercam and machined on a Haas Mini Mill.