By Louie DePhillips, Class of 2026
This article is a part of a series of student stories of growth curated for the 2025 One Event. If you enjoy this story, please donate and tell us which student’s story inspired you to give.
At the end of my first year at One Stone, I took part in a machining experience. This was the first time I truly led my own learning. The experience centered around using the CNC machine in One Stone's Foundry to create anything you wanted within reason. I decided I wanted to make a "robot arm."
To prototype and design my robot, I downloaded a software called Fusion 360. This software became the backbone of my project. While I had dabbled with it before, I was by no means experienced. After a few days of trying different things and tinkering around in the software, I felt lost. I didn’t think I could learn quickly enough to make a final product.
That realization led me to talk to the Foundry lead and the coach for the experience, Sam Johnson. He understood where I was coming from and had a possible solution. He mentioned that one of his friends, Dan Beyer, was a Fusion 360 genius. Dan had been using it for years and was highly skilled. Sam offered to email him for me. A few days later, Dan responded and said he’d be happy to come in for a session and show me some of the basics.
That was great news for me. A few days later, Dan came in with his computer and spent two hours walking me through Fusion. He taught me the basics and showed me several useful techniques that made the software much easier to navigate. It was exactly what I needed, and by the end of the session, I felt much more confident in my ability to move forward with my design.
Once he left, I immediately started designing. My first designs were pretty rough, but as I kept working on them and making adjustments, they started to improve. With each iteration, the process became more intuitive, and I began to understand everything better.
As my designs were good enough, I began using the laser cutter. I had to learn how to convert my 3D files into PDFs so I could cut them to scale for my project. After wasting a lot of wood and acrylic, I started to get the hang of it. This led me to order electronics, such as servos, potentiometers, buttons, and Arduinos, so that I could control the arm. I then began measuring and incorporating these pieces into my designs, which brought its own set of challenges.
I want to say I made about five or six variations of each piece, improving them every time. But as the experience was coming to an end, I wasn’t able to cut out my final pieces. But I’m alright with that. The process of figuring out the design and working through challenges was rewarding enough. This experience showed me how much I can really drive my own learning and gave me a better sense of how much flexibility I have when it comes to my education. Even if I didn’t finish the final product, I gained many skills that have and will help me with future projects.
