Exploring the machining trade with Carlton’s machining instructor

During the summers when he was pursuing his education degree, Rutz spent some summers still working full time for DECA, but other years he took the opportunity to work in a shipyard in the Northwest Territories making parts for tugboats. He said that being able to follow the parts he has made and see them get put to use has given him some great stories to tell his students.

“At one point, I got to have a tour underground at the Allen Potash Mine. So that was satisfying to go underground and see where the parts ended up on these mining machines. It was a really neat experience going underground, it’s a totally different world.”

Rutz said that there is a major need in the Prince Albert area for more people to get into the machining trade. With mining operations up further north, a large forestry industry, agriculture in the province, and many more trades, there are a ton of industries in the immediate vicinity that could use someone to make specialty parts.

With so much of the parts production world moved overseas to large scale production sites, it’s become difficult to get someone to make a part for the little guy.

“That repair work where the farmer breaks something, brings it to me in two pieces, ‘Hey can you make me one of these?’, and I have to put this thing back together, take a whole bunch of measurements off it, decide what’s the best material to make it out of, and then make them a brand new one. Somebody overseas is not going to do that for that farmer, so there’s always going to be that type of repair work.”

Now after teaching at Carlton for nearly two decades, Rutz is proud of the work he’s done to build the machining course at the school. They’ve partnered with the Sask. Polytechnic campus in Prince Albert to teach millwright students their pre-employment machining courses, had great success at the Skills Canada competitions including a student finishing fourth in the country this year, and some of his students have gone on to open up shops of their own.

“It’s been really rewarding to see a number of them go on after taking these machining classes. I can think of at least two of my students that now own their own shop. One student owns his shop just east of town and I know he’s quite busy doing a lot of work, and then there’s another former student has a shop in Saskatoon.”

Rutz has been teaching at Carlton since 2008, and has no plans of calling it quits any time soon.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com

by Nick Nielsen

Exploring the machining trade with Carlton’s machining instructor

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