Tufts' Scene Shop at 66 Colby Street, which is used to construct sets for Drama Department productions, regained its functionality as a welding space last month after strict enforcement of fire codes three years ago made the building unavailable for metalwork.
Although in the past few years the Scene Shop has only been able to create wood-based set pieces, the Department of Drama and Dance's production of "Our Class" this February will be the first welded set created in the renovated space, according to Interim Technical Director of the Drama Department John Mulligan
The renovation included converting a storage space into a welding workshop, which is empty of combustible material and is separated from the carpentry area by a two-hour firewall, Mulligan said. The update also included the addition of two exits, highly efficient ventilation, updated electrical wiring and new equipment in the welding room.
"It was a multi-step process," Mulligan said. "We worked very closely with the Tufts University Fire Marshal's office."
Mulligan said he made reinstating the Scene Shop's welding capacity one of his priorities when he became interim technical director in the fall of 2010.
The space at 66 Colby Street had been used as a hybrid shop for both wood and metal construction since the early 1990s, according to Mulligan. He explained that molten metal from welding must be kept at least thirty-five feet away from any combustible material, and about three years ago the enforcement of this rule shut the shop's welding operation down.
Simon Metcalf, a mechanical engineering student who has worked in the Scene Shop and serves as the Drivetrain Designer for the Tufts Hybrid Racing Team, said that welding is an important function of the shop at Tufts.
"Drama students build sets for their plays, and welding is a useful thing to be able to do for that," Metcalf, a junior, said.
"There's been a movement in the industry, in theater, to move away from wood and move to using metal frames. The advantages of metal frames are the metal is very consistent in its dimension, in its strength, but also it's completely recyclable," he said.
Now that there is an opportunity to weld, the next step is to train students to use the equipment. Metcalf is working with other engineering students to push for the creation of a welding class at Tufts.
"There are a lot of important safety steps that you have to learn, and then there's a bit of technique and theory, but the majority of it is just practicing," he said.
Jeffrey Richmond, a mechanical engineering student who has worked with Mulligan in the Scene Shop, has never practiced welding but is working with Metcalf to find an opportunity to learn.
"As a mechanical engineer, I felt very limited in the amount of hands-on experience I've gotten at Tufts, so I thought [a welding class] would be a great way to learn about the fabrication process," Richmond, a sophomore, said.
Although the group of students initially hoped for a class this semester, co-sponsored by the Drama and Dance and Mechanical Engineering departments, they now believe they will have to wait until next fall.
"We were hoping to get it going for [the spring] semester," Richmond said. "I'm not sure if that's going to happen because right now we're struggling, we're trying to find funding."
Mulligan is planning to propose a welding course to the department, although it would not solely focus on the industrial practice of welding.
"This is not a trade school," he said. "It's liberal studies. It's the idea of how does this thing relate to a whole host of other things, and I think that should be the spirit of the class."
