HETA Apprentices complete scrapheap challenge project
2 HETA apprentices have made a water fountain as part of the scrapheap challenge project. The challenge was to design and manufacture an attractive, innovative, functional, replica or artistic product made purely from scrap either from around the work shop or from outside or HETA
Ryan Watkin (Door Repair and Service) and Joe McDonald (Saint Gobain Glass) both based at HETA’s Hull site, completed all aspects of the project including acquiring parts, design, risk assessment and build.
As stated in the guidelines for the challenge, all the parts must be scrap or unwanted. Ryan said “one of the hardest parts was finding the scrap to make the fountain. We got some from the welding section, used old unwanted parts from the rig at HETA and even went to Kintech next door to get the materials for the box section.”
The next step was the design of the fountain which was put together as a CAD drawing (right). Joe said “This is the original design we came up with for our water feature. We decided to use box section for the main spiral section as they could be easily welded together and were easy to find. We came up with the spiral design as we thought it looked good and we didn’t want it to be just a simple water feature. ”
There were a few problems going from design to build. Ryan stated “We ran the feature to test it worked and it did what we wanted it to do. The water was flowing off the box section edges and into the base and onto the floor. We decided to weld some edging along each side to keep the water in and we also used mastic to seal the joints of each section. This prevented the water overflowing.”
The finished product was on show in the HETA workshop towards the end of the apprentices first year in July and is sought after by several members of staff as a garden accessory! Asked whether the apprentices were pleased with the final outcome Ryan said “we wanted to create something different that HETA could keep or use in the future. We were pleased with our effort and think the finished piece is quite aesthetically pleasing.”
