BY JANET BERNOSKY, Eastern Shore Post
Jacob Drewer, an Arcadia High School senior and Badger North welding student, has advanced to the SkillsUSA national competition in welding sculpture after winning the state title in early April.
Drewer will travel to Atlanta to compete for the national title June 23 to 27, accompanied by family members and his Badger welding instructor, Dale Spilker.
Last year, Drewer competed at the state level with a replica of his great grandfather’s buyboat. He placed but didn’t finish first
Deciding on this year’s project was not easy, said Drewer. He wanted it once again to be both familiar and significant to life on the Eastern Shore.
He noticed a small lighthouse constructed of nuts and bolts at Flying Fish Gallery on Main Street on Chincoteague that piqued his interest.
After attending a lecture at the Museum of Chincoteague Island about the Assateague lighthouse, he knew he had his focus.
Growing up on Chincoteague, its beacon has always been a calming and reassuring presence in his life, Drewer said.
Once Drewer made his decision to recreate the lighthouse, he had to decide how to bring his vision to life in metal, all within the competition’s parameters.
He first mapped out diagrams on simple cardstock. Next, he taught himself how to use Fusion 360, a widely-used cloud-based design platform that enabled Drewer to turn his two-dimensional drawings into a 3-D concept that could not exceed 18 inches in height, per competition rules.
Drewer’s finished lighthouse measures in at 17 7/8 inches tall and was constructed using TIG welding, which stands for “tungsten inert gas.” Ite is one of the hardest forms of welding to master.
TIG welding is an excellent choice when working with thin metals, such as those Drewer used for his lighthouse. The welds it creates are strong and durable but also clean and precise. Used often in the automotive and aerospace industries, it’s also perfect for an artistic project.
Drewer constructed his lighthouse from mild steel with small stainless steel components, adding accents with silica bronze filler metal.
It took Drewer two weeks just to perfect the conical shape of the lighthouse using a slip roller, purchased for the project, to mold the metal.
He also incorporated moving parts into the design – such as a spinning part that replicates the movement of a lighthouse lens, along with a bespoke latch at the base that opens the lighthouse up to show the inside.
Spilker said these were important choices to consider after studying what has worked well in other winning projects at the state and national levels.
The lighthouse opens up to reveal a spiral staircase that ascends to the top. Drewer’s model has 56 individual steps that took a week to construct, compared to 175 in the actual structure — a feature he said would have been difficult to replicate exactly.
Everything Drewer did for this project is contained in a binder that is just as integral to the competition as the lighthouse model itself, documenting all its aspects from conception to completion, from schematics and diagrams down to every penny spent.
Once the binder and project are submitted, they can’t be changed in any way.
Drewer said the project took 169 hours to complete, at a cost of $419.84.
Spilker said the binder is important because compiling it teaches students how to organize a project from start to finish, a skill that could then transfer to a future workplace.
“You get out what you put in,” said Spilker. “The hours spent on this project show Jacob’s dedication.”
The fact that Drewer won the state competition in Roanoke has special significance, Spilker said.
For decades, the high school there has dominated the welding sculpture competition, only to be topped this year on their home turf by someone from the opposite end of the state.
Drewer’s winning score was 98.53%. The competition also required him to perform a welding demonstration, take a skills test, and present his project separately to the public and to the SkillsUSA judges.
Drewer said he found working on the lighthouse to be calming and meditative.
“I’ve never made something and been so happy doing it,” said Drewer. “Nothing compares to seeing it come together and having it pay off like this.”
What’s next after nationals? In August, Drewer will head to Danville to participate in the Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing program.
The four-month, 600-hour, fully funded course is run by the U.S. Navy and designed for its graduates to have an immediate impact in the naval shipbuilding and submarine sectors.
“I am beyond excited to travel with Jacob to Atlanta for nationals,” said Spilker. “But I am even more curious to see what his future holds a few years down the road.”
