ARLINGTON – Jesse Klein is in no rush to get to the patent office.
Michael V. Martina / The Herald Jesse Klein (left), an Arlington High School graduate, explains his waffle maker to Joe Luckraft of the Lakewood school district, along with his brother Justin.
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His invention – a robot that toasts, butters, pours syrup and spreads whipped cream on waffles – is both ingenious and absurd.
It’s a contraption in the mold of Rube Goldberg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist known for his drawings of inventions that make simple tasks agonizingly complex.
When Arlington High School teacher Brett Sarver wanted to impress a vocational education advisory board last week, he called on Klein, a recent graduate, to demonstrate his machine.
“It was just such a good example of what students are capable of,” Sarver said.
Klein, 18, applied numerous disciplines during the project – including physics, math, drafting, welding and agricultural mechanics.
Klein’s machine toasted the waffle, and a five-pronged mechanical jaw grabbed it and placed in on a plate. A mechanical arm moved the plate from station to station – a butter drop, a syrup squeezer and a whipped cream slatherer.
Michael V. Martina / The Herald
“I just added whipped cream for the fun of it,” Klein said.
Steve VanValkenburg taught Klein’s agricultural mechanics class four years ago. It was through VanValkenburg that Klein learned about electrical wiring, a key to his waffle machine.
The teacher was gratified to see how his former student was able to apply his knowledge with precision.
“You want to see what we are getting out of these students after all that time and money,” VanValkenburg said. “Jesse is evidence that students have learned something.”
Klein and his father made all the parts in the family workshop. His mother started logging how many hours her son and husband spent in the shop. She stopped at 150.
“The best part of it was working alongside my dad,” Klein said.
Eighty percent of the work was trial and error, Klein said. At one point, he blew the breaker switch and the shop went dark.
For Klein, the class assignment last spring fulfilled a lifetime dream of building a robot. He has been tinkering since he was 5, when he rigged up strings in his room that allowed him to turn his light switch on and off and close his door without leaving his bed.
By 6, he was at it again, using an alarm clock, a string and weight to automatically open his blinds in the morning.
At 8, he was getting his first lessons in welding.
Klein used his welding skills at after-school jobs. Today, he works at Diesel Electric Supplies in Oso.
The waffle project became more than a physics assignment. Klein had not been thinking about college until then. Now he is considering studying mechanical engineering.
Waffles are fine, but Klein can imagine a different machine.
“I would rather have it make ice cream sundaes,” he said.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
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