Trine student project caps off CLC stairway renovation

KENDALLVILLE, Ind. — It can be difficult to find replacement pieces for a historic building, especially if you don’t know who made them.

When the Community Learning Center in Kendallville was faced with that dilemma, the organization turned to Trine University and its students for a solution.

Trine students designed and fabricated replacement newel post caps for stair rails in the CLC building that are more than a century old.

From high school to community center

The building that today is the Community Learning Center served as Kendallville High School until 1966. The oldest section of the existing building was built in 1915, with expansions added in 1922, 1938 and 1983.

After East Noble High School opened, the building was used as an elementary school and a middle school. It closed in 2018 when a new East Noble Middle School building opened.

An organization formed with the goal of saving and revitalizing the building, and meeting other community needs. Today the CLC houses foundations as well as cultural, educational, healthcare, social service and other organizations.

The building has undergone extensive renovation in the past five years. Part of that effort has included restoring stairways in the 1915 wing — including a few stair rails that had been covered by other renovations – to their original glory.

But there was a problem. Over the past century-plus, the caps for the newel posts had disappeared or been replaced with caps that weren’t as ornate as the originals.

Renovators found an original post cap on a section of stairwell that had been walled up. But, with its origins lost as time had passed, they had no way to order or manufacture new ones.

Working together

Seth Boszor, facilities director for the CLC, discussed the issue with Jason Blume, assistant vice president for Trine innovation 1. In addition to being an East Noble alumnus, Blume is part of a group that plays pickleball regularly in the CLC’s gymnasium.

In his role at Trine, Blume regularly works with organizations to leverage the talents and expertise of Trine students to develop solutions to business problems.

“It’s always exciting to assist area organizations and give our students a chance to gain real-world experience, but rarely do I get the opportunity to help something that’s played such an important part in my own history,” Blume said. “I jumped at the chance.”

Boszor said the project fit with the CLC’s mission as well.

“The tagline for the CLC is Connecting Communities, Strengthening Lives and Securing Futures,” he said. “We do that through collaboration and facilitating opportunities for someone to learn a skill of some sort. I'd say any collaboration with Trine fits that niche pretty well.”

Outfitting her former school

One of the students involved with the project was Madelyn Summers, who graduated from Trine in May with a mechanical engineering degree. Summers is from Kendallville and attended school in the building when it was East Noble Middle School.

Her family had additional connections to the school. Her great-grandparents attended when it was Kendallville High School, and her father worked maintenance there.

“The day the maintenance crew came to watch us pour the molds I got a chance to talk to one of the members,” she recalled. “I had mentioned my dad had worked the night shift there and he instantly asked if my dad was Jeffery Summers. I was so shocked he knew who my dad was because it was so long ago. My dad actually used to take us into work sometimes and we would play hide-and-go-seek there.”

“At first, I was sad to see the middle school go, but I love what they have done with the building.”

Summers was introduced to the post cap project through her Metallurgy class with Darryl Webber, Ph.D., chair of Trine’s Wade Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

The class designed a CAD model to create a 3D print of the post cap. Once printed, the model was used to create a matchplate for a sand mold.

“It kind of felt unreal to be doing work for my old middle school,” Summers said. “I thought once I went to college, I was going to be done with everything from back home.”

Casting, pouring and finishing

Trevor Towghi, who will complete his mechanical engineering degree at Trine in December, became involved with the project in fall 2022 when he took Webber’s Metal Castings class.

“Our class used a sand casting method with a core to cast a prototype design,” he said.

Webber assigned the task of creating the post caps to Towghi and Adam Ellert, another mechanical engineering major, as their senior design project.

Towghi served as project manager, modeling CAD designs in NX and SolidWorks. The team printed their designs on 3D printers in Trine’s new makerspace.

“To reduce production time, we designed the post cap in six separate cast parts that we fastened together using adhesive after casting,” he said. “We started by breaking down the previous CAD design of the entire post cap into four walls, a top and a bottom. We 3D printed each component in the makerspace and added them to two separate pattern boards to be cast.”

They then poured aluminum into molds in Trine’s foundry lab, and machined, polished and fastened the parts.

“After being satisfied with our prototype, we proceeded to cast all the other post caps in the foundry,” Towghi said. “Finally, we used primer and spray paint to give the post caps a matte black finish before delivering them to our customer. Through trial and error, we found that pouring our aluminum at 1350 degrees Fahrenheit resulted in the best surface finish.”

“Finishing the first post cap was a relief because it took about 10 hours to make with casting and machining. I felt very proud and satisfied after we produced all of them and saw them on the posts in the CLC.”

“Seeing the finished product of the post caps gave a sense of accomplishment,” agreed Summers, who is now working as a design engineer at Bollhoff Inc., a fastener manufacturer in Kendallville. “They turned out well and the maintenance crew loved them.”

Boszor said he had to make some minor adjustments to the post caps that have been delivered, but overall, “the finished product looks great. We are so appreciative of the work and effort that these students have put into our old building; helping us restore this little piece of local history.”

Other student groups or classes at Trine will produce the remaining caps this school year.

“I believe the students learned a number of problem-solving skills throughout the process. They were always kind and polite the three or four times we were in contact,” he said. “We look forward to students continuing the work on this project to finish up the last handful of caps, as well as opportunities for future collaboration with Trine University and its students.”