When Newton resident Noel Pollard’s Honda Goldwing trike suffered a broken drive shaft, he faced a major problem: the part wasn’t just broken, it was obsolete. The company that manufactured the trike kit was no longer in business, and local machine shops didn’t have the time or resources to produce a single custom shaft.

But thanks to the skills and dedication of Newton High School senior Charlie Musser, Pollard is hitting the road again.

Pollard enjoys riding his Goldwing in local parades while carrying flags, initially sought help from several area machine shops. They referred him to the NHS machining program, under teacher Clayton Baughman.

Coincidentally, it was Musser himself who had helped push Pollard’s trike off the road when it broke down.

Musser, a student in the Machining II course, took on the challenge. He began by taking measurements of the damaged drive shaft and creating a 3D CAD model using the Fusion 360 program. From there, the class developed a detailed manufacturing plan to produce the replacement part using the school’s CNC lathe and 4th axis CNC milling machine.

Due to the need for heat treating, a process that can affect final dimensions, the team machined several shafts with slight dimensional variations to ensure at least one would meet the correct specifications post-treatment.

For Musser, this project served as a real-world application of the skills they learn in the machine shop. And for Pollard, it means the possibility of returning to one of his favorite traditions: riding his bike in parades.