Mission - Cutting edge research often requires development of new equipment not available commercially or requires modifications of available equipment. The Research Machine Shop has been established to meet these needs for the MUSC research community including the Clemson-MUSC Bioengineering Program at MUSC.

General Information:
Location - MUSC Quadrangle E, Room 109

Machinist - Johnny Mole, 792-9077, molejj@musc.edu
(work requests, inquiries)

Administrator - Patricia Fleenor, 792-4943, fleenor@musc.edu
(billing)

Facility Director - Dan Knapp, 792-5830, knappdr@musc.edu
(policy questions)

Charges - $40.00 per hour plus materials

Work Request Form:
Work requests are submitted to Johnny Mole on the Machine Shop Work Request Form and must be signed by the laboratory director.

Capabilities:
Most common turning and milling operations in plastics and metals.
CNC milling machine.
Three metal lathes, one Bridgeport type vertical mill.
Drill presses, bandsaws.
Grinder, belt and disc sanders.
Sheet metal shear, brake, notcher, spot welder.
TIG welder.
AutoCAD designs and drawings.
Designs for equipment using modular T-slotted aluminum framing (see http://www.8020.net)

A CNC Turning Center will be added in the near future.
The machinist also has access to microfabrication facilities including laser micromachining capable of features down to ten microns.

Policies:
1) Machine work is performed by the staff machinist; no equipment is available for "hands on" use and the shop is not authorized to loan tools.

2) Services are available to all members of the MUSC research community, and work is performed generally on a "first in - first out" basis subject to the following priorities (based upon sources of ongoing support to establish and maintain the shop):

a) Work associated with a funded project that supports a percentage effort of the machinist (if that effort is exceeded in a given year, the work becomes billable and subject to the other priorities).

b) Work from other investigators on campus at MUSC.

c) Work from investigators on other campuses.

3) So as to not unfairly compete and undercut prices of private sector machine shops, work is generally NOT performed for clients outside MUSC unless our shop has capabilities not available from the private sector in the area. Any questions regarding this should be referred to Dr. Knapp.

4) Work requests must be authorized by a person authorized to sign on the account paying for the work (i.e. the laboratory director or other authorized signatory must sign off on work requested by trainees or technicians).

Revised May 2, 2008

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