Woodworking to 3D Printing

Wooden duck & 3D Printed Duck

1955 Woodshop Carved Duck – 2024 3D Printed Duck Highlands Woodworking Class, Industrial Arts, Engineering

Donors: Don Borches, Class of 1957, Bob Rottgers, Class of 1975, Conner Wehby, Class of 2024

Authors: Kara Laber and Ryan Schaber, Class of 2027

Story Contributors: Don Borches, Class of 1957, and Bob Rottgers, Class of 1975

Web Page Designer: Bradyen Moeves, Class of 2024

With sawdust flying through the air and the smell of cedar, Highlands High School Alumni, Don Borches carves away at a wooden duck, as memories from the Highlands woodshop class of the 1950s flood his mind.

Don Borches, a graduate of 1957, attended what the students called shop class, taught by Bernie Sadowski. This class was a large part of Borches’ life as it started his desire to create things from just a block of bask wood. 

Don Borches wooden duck – HHS 1957

Highlands Wood “Shop” Class, (1956 annual)

The woodshop class was taught at Highlands for many decades. Going back to the 50s, to a small shop class where students were taught how to make whatever they wanted with a chisel and a hammer, that is where everything clicked for Don Borches. 

From Highlands High School to a class in Fort Wayne, Borches used the skills he acquired to carve wooden ducks. He soon learned that this may become his passion and something he would want

to do as a hobby. Teacher, Bernie Sadowski, made the class a home for his students, always welcoming them with open arms and trying to get them to embrace woodcarving as much as possible as well as teaching them the safe way to be creative.

Borches describes the class as “a good introduction to the different types of woods and different ways you can make things. Like I said we made some minor projects, the biggest tool I had was sandpaper. So that pretty much shaped everything. But it was, (I believe) It was a pleasure at that time.” 

The shop class of 1957 was a great environment for students to learn and grow in an area of fine arts that does not get recognized very often.

Years later, in the 1970’s, the woodworking class had acquired more advanced machines. We interviewed one bright student, Father Bob Rottgers, who was named “Mr. Woodworking.” He made many great contributions, such as playing football as the center, involvement in industrial arts, winning science awards, being part of the senior committee, and attending the woodworking class all through high school. 

One of his favorite things about Highlands was the woodworking class. Part of the class was being able to help teachers around the school when they needed something built. 

Although the class was fun and about being creative, the students were required to learn the proper safety to use the tools.

Rottgers said, “Well, we had to get checked out. We had to go through a safety lesson on each machine that we used. And then we had to take a test. Then we were allowed to use the machine and then they kind of watched us the first couple of times, to make sure we could go with all 10 fingers.” With all the different kinds of tools used, safety was a very important detail of the class. 

Probably the most interesting part of the class was the projects that were made. Rottgers’ class made many intriguing pieces, but one that was taught in the class was a water pump lamp made by hand.  According to Phil Waddell (HHS '67), the water pump lamp was a required assignment, because in the course of making the lamp, every tool in the shop needed to be used.

“Well, everybody had to make the same thing. We were given, the designs and the drawings for that lamp. And it all had to be done by hand. Tools… We were not allowed to use any power tools. So all the holes and all of the stuff, even the, the big one that went up the bottom for the cord and stuff was with a, a hand drill bitten brace. Oh wow. Um, hand saws and wood planes. So that was all done by hand.” 

Evidently, the woodshop class of 1975 made remarkable projects and certainly made an impact on the students who took it.

Overall the shop class was very helpful. Borches and Rottgers, whose graduations were about 20 years apart, report very different stories about the class. Both seemed to enjoy the class thoroughly and it seemed to be a large part of both their high school experiences. Both went on to learn how much they loved woodworking and continued making stuff even after they graduated. 

By the 1970’s the Highlands shop classes expanded to “Industrial Arts,” which included welding and woodworking. Unfortunately, Highlands no longer offers these classes, as they’re consolidated at Campbell County High School. However, if students are interested in staying on the Highlands campus, engineering class may be worth investigating.

Bob Rottgers’, water pump lamp, Highlands 1974

Industrial Arts students, Dave Burlage, Joe Naiser and Tom Rolf observe while Jerry Mohr works on his grandfather clock project. (Highlands 1979 annual)

3D Printed Duck

Senior engineering student, Conner Wehby (Class of 2024), used a 3D printer to create the yellow duck, featured. Instead of carving the duck, like the students of the 1950’s, Conner used a computer and coded in the instructions for the printer to carve the 3D Duck.