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Mitchell Smith, 17, in Grade 12, pushes wood through the Lambrick Park secondary’s Weinig moulder machine as part of his after school milling job. Led by teacher Roger Conrod, Lambrick Park has quietly run a lumber milling operation for 14 years using equipment he has had donated from American industrial companies. Edward Hill/News staff
A classroom and a lumber business Students drive Lambrick Park secondary’s low-key but successful wood milling operation Edward Hill News staff
Lambrick Park secondary is all but empty on a Friday afternoon, except for a handful of kids in goggles and ear protection, working machines in the woodshop hall. The grinding noise is constant as Mitchell Smith leads lengths of lumber through the high-tech Weinig moulder. Michael McCue stacks precisely beveled and rounded strips that are spit out the other end. The operation has an industrial
mill vibe, and it should. After the rest of the school’s staff and students go home, the woodwork classroom turns into the woodwork business. It’s taken 14 years and many trade shows, but teacher Roger Conrod has built up a woodworking shop that is the envy of any trades school, let alone a high school. Lambrick is the owner of seven high-end industrial woodcrafting machines, all donated and installed by mainly American companies. In turn, Conrod has parlayed that into a niche lumber business,
which gives students hands-on experience and employs them at the same time, at better than minimum wage. At age 17 with three years experience, Smith is the foreman of the operation and the only student still qualified on the forklift – the school has three, also donated. “Kiln dry wood, stack lumber, run siding, run flooring, making tables,” Smith says, describing his weekly work routine. “It’s a great experience, it’s a great introduction into the trades.” A main thrust of the business is custom wood drying in the Koet-
ter kiln, typically red or yellow cedar, fir and pine. With aluminum siding it resembles an oversized garden shed, but the kiln can suck moisture out of up to 3,000 board-feet of lumber over a two or three week period. “The dry kiln was the real start. I worked wood shows and developed a sponsorship from 3M Canada. That opened the doors,” Conrod says. “Koetter came onboard with a kiln. Over all of Victoria, we’re the only one with a dry kiln to this day.” Conrod has attended industrial lumber conventions across the
U.S. with binder in hand of what his students have accomplished as a small business. After enough convincing – or badgering – machining companies have trucked the machines to Lambrick Park, at times months or years later. Conrod says companies donate the expensive machines as a means to train a local workforce and to show B.C. lumber companies that qualified operators are here. PLEASE SEE: School focuses, Page A10
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