Summer Access
The CAD/CAM lab remains open for GSD approved faculty research projects, and the wood- and metal shop is also available at certain times. The shops are generally closed for student use other than for work associated with the above mentioned projects.
Approval for projects is coordinated by the Executive Dean, Pat Roberts. Please provide her a brief description of your research project and list the people that you expect to be working on it. She will then have the department chair review your proposal. All users must be GSD faculty or students, and all summer projects must be approved by the school to be fully covered by Harvard’s insurance. GSD students can only use the lab if they are part of a faculty research project team. The CAD/CAM shop manager is available during the summer to help with the lasers, 3D printing, digitizers and monitor use of the CNC router. Arranging time for 3D printing and CNC Milling must be scheduled in advance. Submittal of files for 3D printing or CNC milling should be done by placing watertight files in 3Dtmp or CNCtmp folder on Terra > Public. Also email the shop manager when submitting files. Monitors for the wood- and metal shop may not be available at all times, so please plan ahead and schedule time well in advance.
It is the responsibility of the faculty member to ensure that only qualified students have access to the shops to work on their projects. Project participants need to share shop resources and are expected to coordinate the use of spaces and facilities amongst themselves. All projects need to vacate the shops, remove remaining materials and clean up the areas used one week before orientation week.
All project costs must be covered by research funds. Shop monitors are to provide for a safe operation; they are not expected to actually work on specific projects. All 3D printing for faculty research must be either pre-paid, or a billing code has to be submitted prior to the printing.
Wood-and Metalshop
A monitor or shop manager must be present at all times. All users must have attended the shop orientation and follow all safety rules. For safety reasons it is not permitted to work in the shops after midnight.
Laser Cutters in Room L40
All users need to attend a laser tutorial and sign the user agreement in order to get 24/7 swipe-card access to the Lasers. Users that have not attended the tutorial during the semester should contact the Laser TA. Please see the laser information online for more details.
3D Printers
Only the shop manager or 3D TAs are permitted to access these machines, since they are very expensive and break easily if handled incorrectly. Please see the 3D printing information online for more details. All material costs are to be covered by the project funds. Research projects must pre-pay or submit a billing code prior to the printing.
Digitizers and Phantom Freeform (Rooms L 40a and L 40c)
Users need to be trained to access these tools. Please contact the shop manager.
CNC Router and CNC Milling Machines
Users need to be properly trained by the shop manager or the CNC TA
to access these tools. Please remember to bring your own bits!
1. New User: The shop manager or a CNC TA must be present when users are
using either machine for the first few times. Please email the shop mangers
to make an appointment. All users are expected to study the online tutorials
prior to attending the orientation session. These are potentially risky
tools, and compliance with all safety rules is required. Access privileges
will be revoked if safety rules are violated.
2. Experienced User: Once a user has run several routing operations successfully
the 'buddy' system can be used. Here the shop managers help the student to
set up and verify the files, and start the running of the toolpath. For
the remainder of the milling the manager or TA can monitor the operations
in the CNC room over the video cam from anywhere in Gund Hall. If for
some reason the video cam is not working the shop manager or TA needs
to be present near L 40d while the machine is running.