Witt-Birn takes home first at CWIMA competition

Two Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School juniors took home first place at the Central Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance welding competition.

Keagan Nousen and John Hoffman participated in the event in May at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau, representing the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District.

This was the first competition in which the students participated.

According to Hoffman, the competition was a measure of a contestant’s ability to work with a flat plate.

“Basically, it was just a flat plate test,” said Hoffman. “There (were) two plates with a bevel on them, and we had to weld them together. We had to put wire and a pattern in and cut it into strips and see how it comes out for strength.”

Nousen said that contest officials had two plates set up side by side with a plate on the bottom.

“You had a half-inch spacing between the two plates,” said Nousen. “You had to lay beads in there, so that when it gets cut and bent, it doesn’t break.”

He then walked through the process of what he and Hoffman did to win the competition.

“The first thing was to get one deep, really good pass down the center so that bottom face looks really nice,” said Nousen. “We did two beads side by side on the next level. At the end, you want one big bead going across the top.”

Nousen added that they were judged on the presentation of the weld, as well as what was found after doing an ultrasound on the weld.

“You want to make sure that your welds are in there to look good and that they are strong enough,” said Nousen.

Hoffman and Nousen both said that they enjoy welding, due to living on farms and working with their hands.

“We use welding almost every day,” said Nousen. “It is just part of our lives.”

Rather than a job, Hoffman and Nousen are happy that this is a hobby for them.

“It is nice to know that if we need the skill, we can use it in the future,” said Hoffman.

When the two students arrived at the competition, they noticed that it was going to be different than what they had planned for.

“When we walked into their metal shop, we were preparing for them to give us a little bit of assistance,” said Nousen. “When we got there, they did not give us any. The judge told us that we were on our own and to do it however we wanted to do it.”

Due to the fact that Hoffman and Nousen didn’t have that added instruction, they were forced to rely on communication between each other, rather than what they practiced for.

“We were able to do some test trials to set up our plates and welds how we wanted to,” said Nousen. “These are welders that we have never touched before.”

According to the students, working together without guidance helped to strengthen their relationship.

“We really had to work together, because neither one of us really knew what we had to do,” said Nousen.

“We were bouncing ideas off of each other, and if one person had something that was working, then we figured out how we could both get that,” added Hoffman.

Both Hoffman and Nousen said that they enjoyed taking part in the competition and will be practicing in case they get the invite again next year.

“There are some things that we can work on,” said Hoffman. “We have to get better welding settings next year.”

“I think that we both could have done a lot better than we did,” said Nousen. “I know next year, we can definitely do better.”

lreimer@newmedia-wi.com