After a year's worth of brainstorming and building, designing and problem-solving, the Kohler High School Engineering Club has constructed the mother of all monuments to summertime in Wisconsin.
Its year-long project, in association with a local organization — Project Grill — yielded a custom charcoal grill made from scratch that stands as an exact replica of Miller Park. One one-hundredth the size of the Milwaukee Brewers ballpark, the grill is fully functional, including a cool-to-the-touch outside due to inner insulation. It features all the recognizable aspects of the Brewers' baseball home — retractable roof included. Just add brats.
Paired with manufacturing partners at the Vollrath Company, instructor Dave DeBruin has used Project Grill as a means to encourage young engineers and educate them on every step of the manufacturing process from design to the machine shop to marketing.
The club has already made two other custom grills, including a replica airplane bomber, which serves as an ode to the school's mascot, but DeBruin said this project might have yielded the best final result.
"I said to myself and to the people that did that first project that we were never going to be able to top it," DeBruin said. "But I was thinking this could be pretty cool. It wasn't till the third quarter of building this thing that I realized that this was very impressive."
What may be even more impressive is the amount of work the club's members put into the custom grill. About 20 students each year often take part in the project after their already scheduled sporting events and practices. That work, on occasion, keeps them at the school until 10 or 11 p.m. on any given night.
"It probably took us 2,500 hours to build, design, get a protoype, problem solve, design again, and actually test it," DeBruin said.
But soon, that work could pay off in a big way for the future members of the club. Hoping to create a scholarship for dedicated engineering students in the club, DeBruin and his pupils are hoping to sell the grill and are currently considering a few buyers.
DeBruin said that, considering the cost of materials and manpower put into a custom-made grill like this one, it could sell for as much as $30,000.
And for something that stands as much a work of art as a piece of barbeque equipment, that could be a worthy investment for any die-hard Brewers tailgater this summer.
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