LUCAS — Isaac Neff always thought welding things together would be fun and educational.
Isaac, from Lucas, is a senior at Pioneer in the welding program. His instructor is Kip Stevens. Stevens loves it when his students take great pride and interest in the program.
Isaac watched a program on YouTube recently and loved the idea of building an outside pot belly stove. He decided to make that his senior project.
Part of the programs at Pioneer includes each senior making a senior project.
Neff gathered tire rims from a relative to start his project. He cut and welded the pieces together, welded iron legs to hold the stove, and welded a plat piece of iron on top.
Things went well until he needed a smoke pipe to release the smoke. He traveled to many manufactures to find the right size pipe. Success arrived when he visited R. G. Smith Company in Mansfield. The manager donated the pipe to the student and was so impressed with the presentation, he made connections for Neff with the head director of union 550 Iron Workers to train in a four-year fellowship.
R.G. Smith also gave Neff a job.
Neff has four different certifications in welding and is working on several more.
When he was asked if his father help him, his reply was “My dad is an electrician. I’ve seen some of his welding projects and decided to do the project on my own.”
Neff had several humorous stories to share while presenting his project to the BOE at Pioneer recently. The board was very interested in his presentation and had numerous questions regarding the stove.
Neff said that his class enjoyed cooked hot dogs from an iron skillet on top of the wood stove recently. Neff has high aspirations and is off to a strong start.
