“When you hold a student to a professional standard, they gain the confidence to become an entrepreneur…When students understand why a standard exists and can measure their own growth against it, they don’t just meet the bar. They look for ways to raise it.“

Frank Loeblein teaches welding at Warren Tech in Lakewood, Colorado, bringing a dynamic full-circle journey from student to professional engineer and educator. Having started his trade in the very same booths where he now instructs, he holds two associate degrees in Welding Technology from Red Rocks Community College and Ferris State, as well as a BS in Welding Engineering Technology. Before entering the classroom, he served as a Manufacturing Engineer at John Deere, supporting high-volume production lines and managing multi-million dollar capital equipment deployments. As a teacher, he bridges industrial reality with classroom rigor, holding students to professional standards through American Welding Society D1.1 structural code work, visual evaluations, and concurrent enrollment pathways.

In his lab, students master the full fabrication lifecycle, moving from raw concepts and CAD modeling to CNC plasma operation and code-quality welds. Operating the shop like an industrial production facility, he empowers students to serve as project leads in capstone courses where they model components in SolidWorks, source their own materials from steel distributors, and build custom fixtures. His structured expectations and booth-side coaching transform classroom engagement, guiding students to take full ownership of their work, track production metrics, and develop the technical precision required for high-demand careers and entrepreneurship.

 

Notes of Excellence

  • Business & Industry Alignment: Partnered with Miller Electric, which uses the lab as a regional training facility and provides a three-year equipment refresh cycle that recently outfitted the shop with 43 state-of-the-art machines.
  • Key Program Impact: Maintains a rigorous benchmark where approximately 90 percent of students earn college credit through Red Rocks Community College, and 44 students have successfully passed 151 bend tests.
  • Outstanding Student Project: Warren Tech students fabricated and installed a commercial-grade fume extraction system by applying end-to-end workforce readiness and manufacturing skills. They included custom mounting fixtures and elevated ladder framing 12 feet off the ground.