April 4, 2008

The American Precision Museum in Windsor, Vermont is recruiting adult volunteer interpreters to staff its new working machine shop scheduled to open May 24, 2008.  The shop is an innovative manufacturing-cultural heritage partnership with funding from the Vermont Department of Labor's Workforce Education and Training Fund Internship Program.  The volunteer interpreters will work with student interns at the museum during the 2008 exhibit season.

This new initiative is a partnership between the American Precision Museum (APM), in Windsor, VT and the River Valley Technical Center (RVTC) in Springfield, VT.  The machine shop will integrate historic machines from the museum's education collection with contemporary computerized numerical control (CNC) machines on loan from RVTC.

Christopher Gray, an RVTC instructor, and museum staff will train the adult volunteer and student intern interpreters to operate the shop, and convey how the historic tools worked, and how modern computer-driven tools are based on them, as well as the importance of Vermont's precision manufacturing sector to the region and manufacturing throughout the nation and the world.

The American Precision Museum in Windsor is housed in the 1846 Robbins and Lawrence Armory, a National Historic Landmark.  The building is a classic example of a mid-nineteenth century water-powered mill site. It was in this building that the artisan craft of gun-making was transformed into a true manufacturing process through the development of machine tools that created interchangeable parts.  Although much of the museum's highly regarded collection of historic machine tools has been on display for years, it is trained and enthusiastic interpreters who make the story of the machine and their work come alive for visitors.

The Manufacturing and Engineering Laboratory at the RVTC is one of only a hand-full of fully functional manufacturing training facilities in Vermont.  Its state-of-the-art machine shop has more than 25 functioning manual and CNC machining centers.

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