During the summer of 2018, a large storm whipped through the Waupaca, Wisconsin 社区, causing a couple of trees to fall, including some near the Hutchinson House and onto a historical bell residing there.
 
The Hutchinson House was built in 1854 and is a preserved home that resides in the Waupaca 社区, holding many treasures and artifacts from the Victorian era with many objects coming from Waupaca’s earliest settlers. One such artifact was an old school bell from Sunny View School, a one-room schoolhouse built in 1910 that operated as a place of learning until 1958. 当钟声响起时, dated to be from the late 1800’s remained intact, the storm had broken the over 100-year-old frame that held it upright.
 
The Waupaca Historical Society, not knowing what to do with the framework’s needed repairs, placed it into storage.
 
几年后, 特蕾西·贝伦特, the Waupaca Historical Society’s director, called upon one of the Society’s life members and special projects organizer, 莱恩特克, to aid in fixing the bell’s framework.
 
莱恩特克, a hobbyist welder, began a plan of welding the pieces together. However, understanding the scope of the project and wanting future generations that visited the Hutchinson House to be able to ring the bell, he recommended that the Historical Society utilize Waupaca铸造’s capabilities to create a long-lasting piece.
 
The Waupaca Historical Society then reached out to Waupaca铸造 to reconstruct the broken iron castings. The Plant 2/3 location’s layout department utilized its 3D scanning technology to scan the broken castings and reassemble the parts in a virtual 3D setting. Next, the new casting was reverse-engineered from the 3D scans to physical casting models. Tooling engineers utilized the scans to create 3D models and then gating systems to pour and then feed the castings.
 
Waupaca铸造 then partnered with Hoosier Pattern to create a 3D sand printing of the mold for Waupaca铸造 to utilize in its melt department. Once the mold was sent to Waupaca铸造, the melt team utilized a small hand ladle to fill the molds with molten gray iron, allowing to cool for 30 minutes. The millroom then broke off the gating system surrounding the casting and shot-blasted the parts to get them clean. By utilizing gray iron for the bell’s framework, it increased the durability, strength and the component’s longevity.

The new bell frame was then sent to 莱恩特克 where he painted the component black and reassembled it. This fall, the bell was placed again in the Hutchinson House’s backyard.
 
Since seeing the bell’s new frame Behrendt says, “It's just beautiful, and it looks perfect,“添加, “[Waupaca铸造] used the same text on one of the sides that was on the old pieces, and then put the Foundry’s name on the back, which is wonderful that we'll be able to have a little bit of both histories — about the current history of that frame being built and mold being built, and then what it was before.”
 
When looking back on the project, it could have been easy enough to keep the bell in storage. However, the preservation of its history is an important part of what makes up the Waupaca 社区.

"History is so important, not only for us to just have an appreciation for those who came before us and to understand where the 社区 came from but also so that we can learn and apply that to our future.” Behrendt says, “We have such a fascinating history. It’s so important to keep that going, and that's what [the Historical Society is] here for, and we feel like that we've been successful at it especially in the last five years or so, really trying to get the 社区 involved in our history. This is just one of those ways, by having a project that another business or organization can help us preserve that history.