Students and teachers from four local vocational technical schools came together at Carbon Career and Technical Institute for the area’s first Precision Machining Contest on Tuesday.

“It’s a local competition, where Schuylkill County’s technical school, Monroe County, Hazleton and CCTI have their students competing against one another. It’s sort of a precursor for SkillsUSA, where they can get their feet wet a little bit, to give them a practice run and see what it’s all about,” Kevin Kuehner, CCTI’s precision machining instructor, said. “We’re generally trying to promote machining. It’s a trade that’s high in demand.”

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The competition was divided into three parts, including a written exam, along with a turn at a lathe and a milling machine.

Kyle Ahner of BTM and William Marks of Technical Processes and Engineering judged the contestants on the accuracy of their projects.

Four students competed in the event, with Jason Walck representing CCTI, Riston Barr representing Monroe County Technical Institute, Jacob Bittorf representing Hazleton Area Career Center, and Camron Costanzo representing Schuylkill Technology Center.

The students were given schematics for two items, a border-milled square with several holes drilled through it, and a shaft with varying diameters and threads throughout, and set loose with a time limit.

“This is a pretty standard process for machining parts,” Marks said. “Not that this particular part can be used in the industry, but it’s a good test of different abilities, what they learned, and how quickly they can accomplish machine shop tasks.”

Ahner emphasized that while there was a time limit for the contestants, accuracy and precision were the main judging criteria. Even if a student did not complete their project, they could still win the competition.

“I think I’m doing pretty good. I may have messed up one or two times, but I think it’ll be all right,” Walck said as he rounded out his mill project. “I’m just trying to do my best and learn.”

Cleaning up the lathe in preparation to move onto the mill, Barr said that while his preference was the lathe, he felt positive about the mill project, too.

“At the beginning of the school year, I was doing a lot more on the lathes,” Barr said. “But I feel pretty confident about both (projects) now.”

Kuehner got the idea for a precision machining contest from other technical school specialties’ competitions, such as welding or auto repair. Though local contests are fairly prevalent for many tech areas, there were no opportunities for precision machining students in the area.

Administrative Director David Reinbold embraced the idea, which would allow students to demonstrate their skills, practice for upcoming SkillsUSA contests, and more.

“It was based on a big American Welding Society contest,” Reinbold said. “We just happened to get in that contest last year, but it’s just for welders, so we thought, ‘Why not do something for precision machining?’ One of the reasons we’re doing this is to promote precision machining, and make people aware of the opportunities available in precision machining.”

A poster board in the machining shop listed numerous lucrative positions — many of which are based locally — available to those trained in precision machining.

The instructors agreed that it was a great way for their students to squeeze in some extra machining time before the big show at SkillsUSA.

“It gives the kids the opportunity to practice prior to the Skills­USA competition, and let them hone their skills and find their strengths and weaknesses,” Monroe County Technical Institute’s Jim Granahan said.

Walck won the competition, and received a $50 Walmart gift card. The other three contestants received $25 gift cards, and each student got a 6-inch dial caliper from Alfred Maser Company and a Mitsubishi T-shirt from Camden Tool.

Kuehner and Reinbold are already looking forward to the future of the program, with plans to expand and offer more education and rewards for machining students.

“I want it to grow,” Kuehner said. “This is a trial run, but maybe at some point we can step over to the community colleges. They can host us, and we can get some scholarship money to go to school to do this kind of stuff.”

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