Glacier View students fired up over welding program

MAT-SU — Glacier View School has not had a true shop class in many years. With only 16 high school students and a small amount of teachers, elective classes are limited.

Many students have desired to take a shop class and were elated when they heard in the 2008-09 school year that the school was looking into starting a welding program. Funding had been received from a legislative bond, about $26,000, to finish the welding booth area in the school’s existing shop room. The bond was designated for a vocational training program for welding.

Various funds were also received from Ray DePriest of the Career and Technical Education Department. Equipment began to arrive and students expected to participate in the class starting the second semester in the 2009-10 school year.

It was not to be, however, as the shop room was still being used for storage, with no welding equipment installed.

At the beginning of this school year, students came in expecting to register for welding class. To their dismay, the shop was still not ready. A few seniors, realizing this was their last chance to have a shop class in high school, took the initiative and asked to have the welding class this year.

“We took a petition around at the beginning of the year saying that we wanted to use the materials that were already in the shop and start a class with them,” said Joe Gerwig, a senior at Glacier View. “Over 50 percent of the high school showed interest in a welding class.”

With this driving interest, welding was made an option and class started.

Six boys (three seniors, two sophomores and a freshman) signed up for welding class and embarked on the maiden voyage of the program at Glacier View. The first section of welding class was how to set up a welding shop. The students were involved in assembling the shop. They installed vent hoods, protective curtains, booth dividers, welder mounts and fabricated a welding table for use in the class.

Chuck Gerwig, teacher of the class, used this time to have his students think through what booths arrangements would be the most versatile and effective. Students were not simply learning welding procedure, they were learning the many aspects of fabrication beyond actually striking an arc.

With limited space and only two welders to be used by six students, the class needed to participate in projects that involved enough preparation work to keep the other four guys who were not burning rod in the welding booths occupied. One of the first projects after putting the classroom together was building transportable wood stoves that could be used in wall tents. The materials cost virtually nothing, as everything was rejected scrap gathered from the community — old hot-water heaters, garage door components and other odds and ends.

The class was divided into three teams, each having a senior who had previous welding experience paired with a classmate new to the process. Each group had to design its wood stove based on what materials they had acquired. After much collective effort, three distinctive wood stoves emerged. In building the stoves, the boys had touched on cutting and grinding, sizing and planning according to what materials were available. Typical welding classes teach how to weld in the easiest possible position, but with the stoves the boys got to try their hands at some out-of-position welding, much like what happens in the industry.

Throughout this year’s welding program at Glacier View, students have been introduced to oxyacetylene welding, stick welding and wire feed welding. Oxyacetylene welding, often referred to as gas welding, is where a torch and filler rod is used. Gas welding is a thing of the past in the industry, yet was worth learning. The students, many of whom have torch sets at home, have found it very handy for their personal use in repairing thin metal items such as snowmachine skis. Oxyacetylene welding also uses the same principles and skills as TIG welding, a procedure used widely in the industry.

Stick welding is a process that allows for deep penetration and strong weld joints, and is used widely throughout Alaska.

Zack Yarbro, a sophomore at Glacier View, was able to use the stick welding skills he learned to repair his family’s snowplow at home. Wire feed welding allows for quick, continual welding on relatively thin material, and is used in a wide variety of fields, including auto body repair. Most of the students had not been exposed to wire feed before and were glad to learn the process.

The students said they enjoyed the welding class and consider welding a handy skill to learn. One student, Joe Gerwig, plans on becoming a Bush pilot and airplane mechanic. He says welding will be a useful skill in this occupation. Even though still in high school, Gerwig said he already uses welding on a weekly basis at home in his projects and repairs, and has benefited greatly from the class. Welding is a skill that is hard to master because it involves monitoring many aspects simultaneously and adjusting in order to stay consistent and produce a weld that has proper integrity.

Experience in welding class may help lead to jobs in the welding field, yet the students feel it is beneficial to know even if not for a career. Yarbro said that although he may “end up having a career which has nothing to do with welding, it is great to have that skill, since if something breaks in my house or on my property, I can fix it myself.”

Glacier View is a somewhat rural community in Alaska, and knowing a skill such as welding is useful.

A freshman in the class, Carlen Thiessen, said he enjoys the class because “it is a nonacademic class that has a lot of life-applicable lessons.”

As a grand finale for projects, the welding class tackled the task of building a new set of gates for the school. The previous gates were in disrepair, so the students wanted to clean up the grounds and show some school pride.

With springtime fast approaching, the class launched its new goal to have the gates mounted before graduation. The gates have a pipe framework and boast the school initials painted in school colors. They achieved their goal, hanging the gates last Friday. There was a dedication ceremony with the whole school attending, complete with a ribbon cutting. The class presented a jacket displaying the welding class of 2011 and a sketch of the gates as a token of its thanks to Chuck Gerwig for his efforts and willingness to teach the class.

They also presented Gary Feaster of Greatland Welding in Palmer with a picture signed by the whole class.

The Glacier View welding class of 2011 would like to give a special thanks to Feaster. He aided in getting the welding shop equipped and supplied, and has come out to Glacier View to help instruct students.

“Having a professional welder come in and take time out of his day to teach a small class of just six students was just amazing,” Yarbro said.

Feaster even helped the boys work together in planning and designing the jacket for their welding teacher. The day of the gate dedication, he brought out another welder, which will be a great asset to the welding program, too.

Ben Gerwig is a senior at Glacier View School.