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Comp machine lab gets state-of-art mill machine

The machining lab at the Weyburn Comprehensive School is the first high school in the province to have a state-of-the-art milling machine installed, ready for the new school year in the fall.
Comp new mill

The machining lab at the Weyburn Comprehensive School is the first high school in the province to have a state-of-the-art milling machine installed, ready for the new school year in the fall.
The CNC (computer numerically-controlled) mill was installed recently, along with a simulator, with teacher Rod Nieviadomy putting it through some test runs to ensure it’s ready for use in September.
He noted he partnered with Sask. Polytechnic in Regina on the new machine, as the staff at the post-secondary school recommended they get it as most machining shops are using CNC machines for much of their work. The machine is worth $50,000, and was paid for with school-generated funds, said Nieviadomy.
“As technology advances, we need to keep up with it in the schools,” said Nieviadomy, pointing out that the computer lab is a good example where they are keeping up with technology.
Demonstrating the simulator, it has the same computer as the milling machine itself, with the advantage that mistakes in programming can be made there without it being translated to milling a piece of steel. Once the program is correctly set up, it can be saved on a USB flash drive and transferred to the machine, where the program can then be put to work, “without putting a $50,000 machine at risk.”
Nieviadomy, who is a journeyman machinist, pointed out that the lab will also still have the metal lathes and drill presses as before, because students still need to learn all the machining skills with hands-on projects before moving up to a CNC milling machine.