SLO County high schooler just restored a 1950s bulldozer. ‘She’s doing a fantastic job’
A bright yellow 1950s-era bulldozer will be among the 80 student projects featured at Templeton High School’s Maker Faire on May 19.
The Agricat dozer had been ignored for years before Mackay Langley, a 17-year-old junior at Templeton High, decided to make restoring the corroded frame and rusty parts her yearlong project for Jason Diodati’s first-level engineering class.
But that didn’t deter Mackay. In fact, according to her dad and mentor, Nathan Langley, the deadline made his daughter even more determined to ace the assignment.
Diodati, an engineering teacher, encouraged her to “go for it,” Mackay said. “We were in distance learning, so my project was something the teacher was really excited about, because it already was an at-home project, not in school, which is what a maker project is supposed to be.
“We were already stuck on our computers” doing remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she explained, “so I could do my project hands on at home ... out of the classroom.
“Mr. Diodati was always available for advice, and we were welcome to ask questions. But part of the maker project is that it’s supposed to be something for you to figure out on your own.”
That said, “My dad helped me a lot,” Mackay continued. ”And that’s part of the project, too, us learning how to find the resources we need to get it done.”
“Dad is super, super mechanical,” Mackay said of her father, who works for Fluid Resource Management.
The student also relied a lot on advice and help from longtime family friend Garrett Taylor, according to Mackay’s grandmother, Gloria Fiscalini. Her son and Taylor, who Mackay calls “Uncle Garrett,” were able to track down some obscure, obsolete parts for the project.
Fiscalini said her granddaughter, a basketball and softball player who stands 5 feet, 9 inches tall, “has blossomed” at Templeton High. “I’m so proud of her. I stand back in awe. I know how very, very lucky I am to have them living on the ranch with me.”
“Mackay is totally self directed. She’s always studied hard,” Fiscalini said, adding that her son has helped Mackay further her education. “Just because she’s a girl, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t have to know about fixing things on the ranch, fixing her own car (and) how anything mechanical works.”
Nathan Langley said that his daughter “was always very curious. If I was working on something, she wanted to be there with me,” asking questions about what he was doing and why.
“I’ve had her welding when she was 8 years old,” he said. “She wanted to dismantle a Jeep chassis when she was 5 or 6. She wanted to help her dad.”
Langley recalled how he pestered his grandfather, rancher Louis Fiscalini, as a child. “I grew up driving my grandpa nuts, asking him questions like ‘What are you doing, grandpa?’ ” Langley said.
His answer, Langley said with a laugh, always was “making little boys ask me questions.”
“I don’t sit still well,” Langley added, “and being like me, Mackay wanted to go everywhere with me. So, off we’d go.”
Templeton High School student restores bulldozer
Mackay said she transferred to Templeton High from Coast Union High School because the larger school was a better fit for her.
The Cambria school’s agriculture program “wasn’t where I’m at, agriculture wise and generationally,” she said. “Since I left, they’ve ramped up their ag program, but it’s more about show animals. I’m more interested in the welding and mechanics side of ag.”
Originally, Langley was going to restore the dozer himself, after acquiring it years ago from a “buddy who was trying to reopen one of the gold mines up by Lucia. It didn’t work well for that, because the ground’s so hard up there.”
“Yeah, we figured we’d work on it here and there,” his daughter said. “But working on a ranch, we’re always busy with other stuff.”
So there the dozer parts sat, rusting away, until she decided to use the vehicle as her maker project.
By late April, when she and her dad finally got the dozer running, Mackay had spent up to 300 hours on the vehicle’s restoration.
Mackay “did welding, hand sanding, sandblasting, cleaning, grinding, reworking things,” her dad said. “It was a lot of work. It was missing one link of chain, so she machined a new link and welded it together.”
She said the Briggs & Stratton engine “isn’t the original, but it’s from the era and would have been almost identical to the one that was on there.”
A friend who restores Cub Cadet tractors, “was going to throw it away,” she said. “It was serendipity, being at the right place at the right time. My dad was like, ‘That would work perfect!’ ”
The dozer is about 90% restored, Mackay said, but will never be fully functional, due to its age and the cost of that last 10% of the project.
“The dozer got used really hard by its original owner,” she said, and a track part that attaches to the inside of the chain to drive it back or forward “doesn’t line up with the sprocket as well as it used to.”
SLO County engineering teacher talks about students’ projects
Mackay said that she takes two classes from Diodati, who teaches engineering and physics to Templeton High juniors and seniors.
“He was one of the first teachers I’ve had who doesn’t just teach the material,” she said. “He’s always willing to do something above and beyond, to take the time out of his own coursework to teach us as many life lessons as he can.”
Mackay said her teacher also “helps us explore things like managing time, life balance, figuring out where you want to go with life. He tells us ‘You’ve got to figure out what’s important to you, what you want. Is it a job with a lot of money but not much time for family or activities, or one with less money but more personal time?’ ’”
“To be kids, going out into life, on our own, to have a teacher that can help us with that kind of learning is awesome,” she said.
Diodati said that he teaches an “engineering pathway, career tech education, essentially. Both areas also are dual-enrolled with Cuesta College.”
That means Mackay will have more than two semesters of college credits when she enrolls in college. She might attend, Cuesta College for general education before transferring to Cal Poly’s agricultural engineering program.
Diodati said the Maker Faire projects are “really very independent for the students.”
With a total of 80 students in two classes, “there are just too many for me to help” them with every aspect of their projects.
His job, he said, is “to keep them motivated, keep them on track. They definitely have a lot of growth, making mistakes, correcting them, learning about them, becoming mini experts in their fields.”
“The diversity of the projects is tremendous,” the teacher said. “One girl made 30 handmade dolls with disabilities. Other students rebuilt cars. ... There’s one classic truck. Another student made a machine that cuts shapes out of wood. One kid built a super computer. Another student made an LED light-up coffee table. One rebuilt a cellar into music studio ...”
Other projects, he said, include manufacturing a skateboard deck and making a cutting board out of recycled plastic bottles.
“It’s a full range of science, covering electrical, mechanical, art and more,” he said, “so many skills and projects.”
And Mackay’s dozer restoration? “She’s doing a fantastic job,” Diodati said. “It’s a great project.”
Having talented girls in his classes pleases the teacher immensely, he said. “I have a daughter myself, and she’s in charge of a Women in Engineering club in high school.
“When I get female students in my class, interested in science and engineering,” he said, “Well, I just wish there were more of them.”
