Three TRAK machines are a gift-in-kind that will make a huge impact for future machinists

The Manufacturing Technology/Industrial Design Engineering program at Mt. SAC has three brand new TRAK machines thanks to a major gift-in-kind donation this year from Rich and Marion Leonhard. The program doesn’t usually receive gifts of this scale and department chair Stephen James says, “This was truly an amazing gift that will directly benefit hundreds of students for years to come.”

TRAK machine

These TRAK machines are made by Southwestern Industries and are milling machines designed to cut metal. They have to be accurate to within 1/1,000th of an inch so precision is very important when writing the codes that the machines use. That’s part of the training that Mt. SAC students will receive on these machines. The sheer size of the machines—4’x6’ and 2000 pounds—makes them a large gift, but the difference they will make in the department at Mt. SAC is even larger. “These machines are very special because they can be used both manually and automated under computer numerical control (CNC), so they are a great way for students to learn manually and transition to CNC using the same machine,” explains James. “They have many other unique features that make them great for quick prototyping projects which we do a lot of in both the Industrial Design Engineering and Manufacturing Technology programs.”

Several years ago, Rich Leonhard, who has been the president of Southwestern Industries for 50 years, devised what he called his “little scheme.” He has a team of trusted and experienced salespeople, and each one identifies a school with a strong machining program. Then Leonhard and his wife Marion buy TRAK machines from his company and donate them to the school. Why doesn’t Leonhard, as president of the company, donate the machines directly from Southwestern Industries? He knows that his employees get a share of the company’s profits and he doesn’t want his gift to impact their bottom line. After all, the gift is personal and should come from Leonhard himself. “This industry has been very good to me. This is our way to pay it forward,” he says.

Leonhard admits that these gifts are a little self-serving. There is a shortage of skilled labor in the United States, and Southwestern Industries’ salespeople encounter companies that say “I’ll buy one of your machines if you can find me someone to operate it.” The lack of interest in machining careers is short-sighted because the need for machining is ubiquitous. “People tend to look past these things, but if you look at things carefully, you can see that a lot of things are made out of metal,” Leonhard says. All those metal objects are made on machines by machinists.

Programs like Mt. SAC’s, which has 100 students enrolled per semester, are ensuring that there will be skilled workers who know how to use these TRAK machines. Of course, Leonhard also knows that his machines are best for training students, and James agrees. “It is important to us that equipment our students use is widely represented in industry as these machines are,” he says. The Foundation, the Manufacturing Technology/Industrial Design Engineering department, and the entire Mt. SAC community are grateful to Rich and Marion Leonhard for this generous donation.