Small-ish Projects for High Schoolers

[lfagmech]

I teach high school agriculture, and my students have made various big and small projects. We have made coffee tables with glass tops, bar tables, tiki torches, small trailers, which are a great lesson for a small class cause of all the different parts, and so forth. ill post some pics.

[hellowyo]

Howdy!

I am a welding instructor at a smaller high school. I have been reading this post regularly! There are some good ideas on the gallery, and I have one I am trying this year.

I usually save projects for my 2nd and 3rd year kids, kind of a reward for being in the class. Anyway I am having them build barrel BBQs this year. I got the idea off Lincoln's project gallery. Their plan is pretty simple, I of course had to build one and fancy it up a LOT! I wanted the kids to get excited.

They are going to build them and if they dont want to pay for the materials (barrels were donated, just some angle and expanded metal) then I am going try and sell them to recoup my metal plus some

I also am going to have them build a small 4wheeler trailer and let them pick a project also. I also have a backlog of community requests too...

It would be good to hear some ideas here, Students really need some projects thrown into the mix of a welding class for experience and motivation..

Thanks!

[KBar]

Here are a few pics of plant stands. Something easy for Mom around Easter presented with a plant. All very easy to make and they can make them in quanity to give to a few businesses.

1 & 1A ) Mothers of the students would like these.
2. ) Office or lobby at the school could use one of these or businesses around town.

[bryce_burden]

I am a senior this year and have built several projects over the last 2 years. First major project was my welding table. I've also built t-post drivers, headache racks, dad and i built a custom tailgate for my 94 Chevy. I am currently working on some projects for our school shop. I'm making a portable chop saw stand now...got the idea from the idea gallery. Hope to finish it today and start on a couple smaller welding tables and a cutting table. BBQ grills are also good projects. I built one last month that i can carry in the back of a pickup for tailgating. Don't have access to pics right now as i am at school but will post some soon.

[liddlebuddy]

I'm still in the market for more ideas

[JimYoung]

check my pages... copy what you want..
Jim
www.jimyo.com

[welder_guy]

make a sign out of sheetmetal that says the name of the ranch and put it on or above the front gate or whatever

[KBar]

I'm still in the market for more ideas

I would think part of the teaching and learning process is for the student to come up with some creative ideas on their own. In a year or two, they will be on their own and somebody might come to them and say, I need something fabricated to do __________ in my kitchen or whatever it may be, if he doesnt know how to solve that problem, he may feel kind of awkward.

[Weld Jockey]

If it is their first welding class get them in the shop practicing beads for a while before turning good steel into scrap. I teach in southern Wisconsin and we have 2 levels of welding class.

The first level course is solely learning how to make good welds with a few small projects that are cheap and easy to do. A big hit is a candle holder made out of 1/8 inch dead electrodes (lots of burnt up coatings with newbies) bend a base in the shape of a heart and put a handle on it sticking up and then a votive holder ring halfway up the handle.

The second level class does some course work in reading welding symbols and blueprints as well as certifications and schooling after highschool. After that is done I take them to the computer lab and have them research welding projects. They pick 4 different projects that have to be completed in the alotted time. They need to have a picture, a blueprint with their modifications, a bill of materials, and a learning contract with an agreed upon point value. If a student wants to make one large project make sure it is feasible and within the scope of what can be done in your shop (small doors suck).
Some of the things students have done in the past are swivel chairs, food plot diggers for ATV's, plant stands with tile tops, welding tables, headache racks, bird baths with disk blades, and grind rails for snowboarding.

If you have any questions or need curriculum etc. don't be afraid to send a message.

Terry

[Weldtoride]

I am a high school shop instructor, and started my career in a high school that had some farm kids attending. We used a project book from a welding machine company out of Ohio- they paint all their welders red. From their home web page, select “knowledge”, then under “training” select “educational materials” then select “books” then look at Arc Welded Projects Volumes II, III and IV. These books have been in print forever, and have a lot of Ag-type projects, and some shop tool plans as well. You might be able to find Volume I somewhere with a little luck. If you can get your hands on some old ‘Stabilizer” magazines from the same welding machine company, they also have many Ag-type projects large and small.

Steve Smith Autosports has a nice little book: The Racer’s Guide to Fabricating Shop Equipment:

http://www.ssapubl.com/product.aspx?nbr=S145

while it is written with home race shops in mind, there are plans that anyone with a home farm shop should find interesting. Some of the projects may be a little elaborate, tho.

My students sometimes have had success copying commercial tools with some ingenuity. For instance, a prying tool used to lift the lids from 5 gallon buckets is easily copied with some black pipe scraps and a bit of bent rectangular bar stock for nearly free.

A very popular project with my students was fabricating their own chipping hammers from railroad spikes. Railroad spikes are free if you ask the right track workers and tell them it's for a school. We ground the head end into a wedge similar to the sharpened end, but at 90 degrees to the opposite end, or some sharpened it to a dull point. We drilled the spike in the middle for a 5/16" round bar stock handle, which we plug welded into the spike and ground smooth for appearance. We then formed a 1” diameter coil of wire from 1/8' gas welding rod around an old Acme screw thread (from an old vise) which we then attached to the 5/16" handle with a plug weld half way down the handle and a simple weld at the very end. I wrote this one up for the Stabilizer magazine way back when.

Every farm needs some boot mud scrapers,the sort that you shove into the ground, a very simple project that kids have fun customizing with weld beads that display the family or farm/ranch name.

Good Luck, Mark