Jim Hall Design & Prototyping Lab

Lab Policies: 

Shop hours are from 8am–7:45pm, Monday through Friday. Students, faculty, and staff may use the shop during these hours as long as there is a minimum of two people in the shop at all times. One member of the shop staff must be present in the shop if any of the machine tools are to be operated. If there is no shop staff present, students, faculty, and staff may only work at the benches with hand tools.

​The shop is open to the entire Caltech & JPL community. There are, however, a few restrictions. ME13/113 must have been completed prior to using any of the machine tools in the shop and ME23/123 must be completed prior to using any of the CNC machines.

Since this is the Mechanical Engineering shop, MCE students, faculty, and staff will have priority on the machines. This priority applies to time on the machines and to the completion of projects by the shop staff. Others will be accommodated as availability and time permit.

When classes are in session (such as ME14 or ME72), the shop will be heavily occupied. These students will have priority over all other shop users when these class are in session. If a class is meeting in the shop for a lecture or lab, the shop will be closed to all others until the class is over.

In order to use the main machinery in the lab, you must reserve the machinery in advance. You may do so by visiting the scheduling section of the Lab's Wiki site.

Additional Notes:

• • If any tooling is damaged by improper use, the user's PTA number will be charged for replacing it.

  • If any machinery is damaged by improper use, the user's PTA number will be charged for having the equipment repaired.