Clark State Community College will welcome members of the Boy Scouts of America to the Advanced Manufacturing Lab at 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 19. The Boy Scouts will complete an individual welding project to earn a Welding Merit Badge.

Welding Instructor Ralph Pack said Larry Barley, chairman of AWS Dayton Section of the Boy Scouts of America, reached out to him about the possibility of utilizing the state-of-the-art welding laboratory.

“I am excited for this opportunity to begin a relationship with the Boy Scouts of America and look forward to building relationships with other worthy organizations such as Clark County’s own 4-H,” said Pack.

A TAACCCT grant made it possible for Clark State to install new state-of-the-art equipment for an advanced manufacturing laboratory including a virtual welder, CNC machines and 3D printers. The lab officially opened in the fall of last year.

Up to 24 scouts from the Tecumseh Council (Clark, Champaign, Clinton, Greene and Logan counties) will be utilizing the Miller Electric Dynasty 280, the Miller Electric Millermatic 350P, the ESAB Powercut 1300 plasma torch and a Victor oxygen-propane cutting torch for their projects. 

Scouts will review safety, process and instructions prior to the hands-on welding session. Scouts will do stick and MIG welding with instructor supervision. 

Barley said the Dayton Section of the AWS has sponsored these events over the past few years at different CTC or JVS type institutions around the Dayton area (MVCTC, Upper Valley JVS).  “Our plan is to move this around to different schools to be able to promote the welding industry and welding technology to our youth,” he said.

Boy Scouts at the Troop level (ages 11 to 18) have upwards of 140 merit badges that they can work on to explore their interests.