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 Three generations of TAFE teachers bond at Brisbane foundry
Most people know boilermakers used to make boilers (as well as just about everything made of metal you can think of) but fewer might know that the term ‘boilermaker’ no longer applies.
These days making a metal object might involve a fabricator, a moulder, a fitter and turner, a sheet metal worker and usually a patternmaker.
Patternmakers craft the solid shapes that form the moulds into which moulders pour molten metals.
Patternmaking is one of the oldest trades and three generations of patternmaking teachers: Anthony Freemantle, Les Johnson and Nev Buckley, recently compared notes on how the trade has changed when they met at the new SkillsTech Australia Foundry at the Acacia Ridge Training Centre.
The SkillsTech Australia Patternshop at Acacia Ridge is fitted out with the latest digital wood-machining and CAD drawing technology.
It was the perfect location for patternmakers Nev Buckley, Les Johnson and Anthony Freemantle to compare more than 50 years of training delivered between them.
Nev learned patternmaking in the 1950s, worked in Tramway Workshops making patterns for trams and buses and started teaching in 1961. He taught Les pattern-making in 1960s at Yeronga Institute of TAFE.
Nev has retired and Les is now a Leading Vocational Teacher at the SkillsTech Australia Foundry where he was joined in 2005 by Anthony.
Anthony trained with a South African railway in the early nineties, and went to work for Toyota and Bradken before coming to SkillsTech Australia as a patternmaking teacher.
Nev, whose only machinery when he started patternmaking was a band saw and a wood lathe, says a lot has changed in the industry.
“The new technology at this foundry is mind boggling,” said Nev.
“It makes me feel like primitive Pete.”
Les, who oversaw the construction of the new SkillsTech Australia Foundry, says the foundations for the modern new training facility were laid by traditional patternmakers like Nev.
“Nev was responsible for the development of the new training campus at the Yeronga Institute of TAFE in 1966 and he taught me the importance of hand skills like carving and shaping of timber.
“We still teach the old hand skills needed in the patternmaking trade.”
Anthony agrees.
“The original skills are the same,” said Anthony. “It’s not that different despite all the new technology. We are not letting the original skills go.”
However Anthony says the trade is becoming focussed on product design and development and the future is computurised patternmaking technology.
These days Les and Anthony play an active role attracting young people to their trade, showing off the foundry and patternmaking skills at Try’a Trade days.
SkillsTech Australia Institute Director Steve Ghost says the $7.5 million foundry and patternmaking facility fills a small but significant training need in the manufacturing industry.
“Without trained people in the foundry industry, all those things from taps and wheels to axels for trains will be made offshore,” he said.
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