How many of you would have liked to have had a chance to try out a few career paths before deciding what you wanted to do after high school?

One lucky high schooler had that opportunity when Greenberry approved an internship program to allow the completion of his senior project in our Vancouver, WA fabrication shop.

Dallin Harper, a senior at Camas High School in Camas, WA, was assigned a senior year final project. In February, Justin Price, Vice President of Fabrication, was approached by Harper to practice welding and perhaps design and build a custom part for his Jeep. When Dallin originally contacted Greenberry for this project, he considered fabricating fenders. However, after working with his mentor, Aaron Green, in the fab shop, he quickly realized that fenders would take too long to meet his project deadline. With Aaron’s guidance, Dallin designed a custom bumper with brackets and a winch.

First, Dallin started by drawing out the bumper and designing it on industrial paper. Then, he measured out each part and built a full-size cardboard model to test out his design. This cardboard model showed a flaw in his design as it wouldn’t accommodate the pre-fabricated push bar that he would be welding onto the bumper. So back to the drawing board he went, and returned with new brackets that would hold the winch and push bar and complement his Jeep. The total design time took Dallin four weeks during which time he needed to check in with his school’s project teacher to get approval for the project through each step.

Next, Dallin worked with Aaron twice a week to practice welding and cutting. ‘As this was Dallin’s first time welding, he picked it up pretty quickly,’ said Green. Dallin’s attention to detail ensured that he would be careful and take his time so that he learned how to weld the perfect weld. He would come by the shop in the afternoon after school and work for a few hours with Aaron practicing. While he was working in the fab shop, Dallin was able to observe some of the large projects that were currently in process. This included a 92′ long, 125-ton steel, replacement tainter gate for The Dalles Dam and some pipe spool that is being used on a Linde gas processing facility in Hillsboro, OR.

• The materials he used included:
  3/16-inch steel plate
  1-inch shackles
  1/4-inch gastists and tubing

Justin Price said, “It was great to mentor a high school student to learn a trade he might use in the future. This program was a great way for us to continue to be involved in our community and promote our industry to young people.”

With the bumper completed, Dallin submitted a final research paper and gave a 10-minute presentation to his class regarding all the steps of his project. He completed 40 hours of work at Greenberry.

Now that this project is completed, Dallin says that he would love a summer job because he had so much fun. Additionally, he can’t wait for the summer so he can do some off-roading in his Jeep and really test out his bumper and winch.