CADD student designs window mount for CDL semi

December 6, 2022

ASHLAND, Ky. – An ACTC student in the Computer Aided Drafting and Design (CADD) program recently applied what he had been learning in the classroom to assist another ACTC program. 

Chris Boggs, coordinator of the CDL program at ACTC, says the window on one of the CDL trucks would not roll up and down, and it was found that a broken plastic mount was the cause. He says this is a pretty common point of failure."

“The broken bracket was removed and brought to me to see if it could be found online to be purchased separately,” Boggs said. “The only way to repair it was to replace the entire window assembly.”

Boggs said the assembly would have cost around $500 to replace.  

“I sent a photo of the part to Mike Polley in our CADD program and he said he thought his drafting class could possibly make one. I sent the broken part to them and he assigned the project to one of his students,” he added. 

That student was Chandler Easterling, who is set to complete the program this semester. He says the mount was an interesting piece to recreate. 

“It had a lot of nooks and crannies within it,” Easterling said.  “It was a fun challenge and was I surprised to know that they couldn’t purchase that one piece. It means a lot to me to see that my program at ACTC was able to help another fellow ACTC program.”

Easterling is currently completing an internship at ENTRUST Solutions Group.

Mike Polley, CADD program coordinator, says he enjoys when these types of projects are presented to his students.

“I feel it's important to have our students work on real world projects when applicable, and in this case, it was having Chandler to reverse engineer the part our CDL program sent over, using our 3D modeling software, Autodesk Inventor Professional,” Polley said. “The part was somewhat intricate, and I felt this would be a nice, challenging project. We have a pretty impressive 3D printing lab, with a new carbon fiber printer we wanted to test out for this particular piece. Chandler did an outstanding job on it and completed it on his second attempt. He made it look way easier than it was.”

Polley added, “Chandler is an outstanding student and a super nice young man.  I think these types of projects are a nice way for students to see their accomplishments when they are presented a project to design and solve, or in this particular case, reverse engineer a part, and see it actually put to use for what it was intended.”

Boggs said the part engineered by Easterling is currently in use in the truck. He says it was a huge savings for the department and is confident it was a great learning experience for the Easterling.

For more information about the CADD program, visit https://ashland.kctcs.edu/education-training/program-finder/computer-aided-drafting-design.aspx. 

The CDL program is currently enrolling for January classes. Contact christopher.boggs@kctcs.edu for more information.