Grants Pass High School Manufacturing
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  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Traditional Woodworking
  • Guitar Fabrication
  • Manufacturing Technology I
  • 3D PRINTING
  • CNC Routing
  • CO2 LaserCutting
    • Student Laser Projects
  • Plastics Manufacturing
  • GPHS MANUFACTURING BLOG
  Grants Pass High School Manufacturing

GPHS MANUFACTURING

HIGHLIGHTING STUDENT CREATIVITY AND THEIR SHOP

Laser and CNC machines are humming along...

1/27/2016

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We have worked on our largest piece to date on the CNC and it just so happens that the student is a Lakers fan.  The stuff that looks like a terrible stain job is actually wood conditioner that will allow him to slop paint in the lettering that will match the Lakers court exactly without the paint bleeding into the surrounding grain.  This means that once painting is done all that has to be done is to sand the surface and voila!  The perfect coffee table top!
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Earrings on the laser.  Somebody told me that this one looks like a penguin.
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Very delicate and it looks like some changes will need to be made to the design for it to stand up to hanging from an ear or necklace.
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This is a design that was pulled from Pinterest
and processed using Photoshop, Illustrator and Laser Works.
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Starting A bUSINESS...

1/25/2016

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We have finally reached a point with our program where we feel that we have developed a few items that we can begin to sell to students and folks around town.  Profits will directly benefit the kids and their CTE Manufacturing program at GPHS.  This has been a goal of ours for quite some time and with the addition of the new CO2 laser and the Shopbot CNC it is now beginning to take shape.  Among the challenges the students will face is learning just how much time and effort will be asked of them in order to make this not only work but work smoothly.  Students will be required to calculate costs to produce individual items to come up with a profit margin that is acceptable, get a production schedule that works smoothly and efficiently, and work closely with other students, faculty and customers. 
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We hope to include other departments at the school such as Business, Video, Drafting and Photography.  The goal is to have the drafting and design students working on new designs and specialty jobs while the Photography and Video kids work with us to develop a catalog and to promote our products.  Business kids could really benefit from this as they could help to set up our accounting, inventory tracking and sales.  We would like to get the Video Production students to produce a video or two that highlights the whole process.
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Although we are in the initial stages of all of this, the students are excited to be a part of everything.  The goal is to keep this level of interest and desire flowing and to provide everybody involved with a real-world "toe in the water" of what it may be like to start up and run a small production and manufacturing business.  Wish us luck!
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Etching rocks and making cavemen

1/12/2016

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We grabbed a few small river-type rocks out of the dirt next to the Metal shop to see what the laser could do to them.  Interestingly, it melts the rock?!?  When we work with glass the material is fractured, not melted.  We obtained different results on the rock than we were expecting.  First, from everything we read and watched on You Tube the results should have been a white etched surface and it should have been recessed into the surface of the rock.  After pondering this for a bit, we realized that rock is not homogenous from stone to stone (duh).  Results will vary tremendously from piece to piece.
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Next, we have begun creating items that may be able to benefit our program financially.  The trick as we see it is to create things to sell that are inexpensive, easy to make a bunch of and are desirable to the masses (students and faculty).  We came up with little Cavemen that are refrigerator magnets and key-chain thingys.  We have figured a way to burn into the front and the back, which will allow us to customize them (for a small fee) to individual students, faculty and parents.
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Now for our new CO2 Laser...

1/12/2016

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Exciting does not begin to describe the new Boss LS-2436 CO2 laser.  Multiple materials manufacturing all rolled up into one big (and heavy) package.  This is one the first times that I have seen students actually downloading design and operating software at home and taking the time on their own to learn how to use it.  Projects are getting a much more custom treatment and the creativity of the kids is exploding!
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Guitar body moving forward

1/11/2016

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We have been slowly moving forward with our solid body guitar work on the CNC.  A pine blank was glued up (much cheaper to learn on pine than a more expensive blank) which made it easier to mill and work on with hand tools.  This is a first-build for the student making one of these so he can practice and shape it much easier in pine.  You may notice that it looks like some of the CNC work should have gone completely through the blank?!?  We didn't have a long enough bit to accomplish this yet but we will when it comes to the actual body.  Along the way we have learned a ton about the importing of vectors, images, node editing, creation of tool paths not to mention making guitars.  The nice thing is that once we have this particular design down it will always be available for use by other students.
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    Author work will vary within this blog.  It may be the Teacher taking a moment to show off what the students have created but this is truly here for the students to express themselves!

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Where are we now?

Here at Grants Pass High School in Southern Oregon, we have a lot to be thankful for.  Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in vocational education.  Yes, College is still a critical destination for our kids but the way in which students get there has evolved.  Do you think you want to be an Engineer?  An artist?  A Scientist?  All of these areas of study can benefit from the hands-on approach we offer in our modern shops.  What if College isn't in your immediate post high school plans?  Maybe you want to enter the trades or manufacturing.  We can help you get to almost any place you want to be.  This isn't your Fathers (or Mothers or Grandparents) shop class anymore.  We teach practical applications of Science, Technology Engineering Arts and Math and we do it with a hands-on ability that is unmatched in any School District in the area.  All of this in addition to having the opportunity to create some of the most amazing and beautiful work to come out of any High School we can think of.

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