MIT Machine Shop - Tools and Techniques Series

In 1995 the director of MIT’s machine shop for the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (Robotics Group) made ten videos, totaling more than seven hours, that teach students how to use machine tools. They show how to set up and do basic machining operations on a mill, lathe, drill press and other common shop equipment.

Machine Shop 1 – Machining Skills for Prototype Development (Length: 40:32)

Basic tour of the machine shop
Layout techniques (including transferring hole locations)
Basic tools: drill press, band saw, belt sander and grinder
Locating and drilling holes (includes using a center finder and deburring)
Tapping holes (including using a tap guide)

Machine Shop 2 – Machining Skills for Prototype Development (57:33)

Drilling holes
Special drills for plastics and hard or abrasive materials
Drill press limitations
Bandsaw
Suitable speeds, feeds and materials
Bandsaw setup
Using the drill press vise

Machine Shop 3 – Machining Skills for Prototype Development (30:02)

Good practice – clean up
Small belt sander configurations
Grinder operations and materials
Deburring and buffing
Finishing techniques

Machine Shop 4 – Milling Machine 1 (50:33)

Parts and controls of a Bridgeport Mill
Quill feed
Axis handfeeds (11:20) backlash explanation (12:15)
Gib locks (14:40)
Power feed (18:33)
Digital readouts (21:07)
Milling machine set-up – squaring/tramming the head square (22:37)
Squaring the vise – adjusting the vise so the stationary jaw is parallel to the bed (32:33)
Milling machine accessories and workholding techniques (41:15)

Machine Shop 5 – Milling Machine 2 (1:03:33)

Square and hex collet blocks – used to hold/clamp parts to machine features on 4 and 6 sides of a part respectively (1:02)
V-blocks (2:10)
Hold-down clamps – used to hold large or irregularly shaped parts (3:40)
Using angle blocks – used to hold materials to machine features not perpendicular on a part (6:15)
Drill press vise – using a vise within a vise (8:29)
Lathe chuck with vise – can be used to hold parts in the milling machine (11:11)
Double sided tape – can be used to securely hold a part without distortion (12:00)
Squaring high aspect ratio parts (16:02)
Right angle attachment (23:04)
Slitting saws – used to cut slots/slits/features in a part (33:21)
Rotary table – used to machine circular parts, grooves, circles, and segments (41:16). A dial indicator (43:20) or Coaxial indicator (47:25) can be used to square/center the table to the X & Y axes
5C collet indexer – used to hold collets and to position parts in up to 24 positions (52:42)

Machine Shop 6 – Milling Machine 3 (42:36)

Squaring a part – machining a piece of metal so all of the surfaces are flat, perpendicular and milled to the nominal size (1:00). Also covers using a fly-cutter (4:50) and deburring (8:40)
Squaring a plate (17:52)
Using the edgefinder (32:00)
Drilling holes with a mill (35:32)

Machine Shop 7 – Milling Machine 4 (23:07)

Reaming holes (1:00)
Boring holes with a boring Head (3:04) - also covers using Plug Gages to measure hole sizes (8:54)
Milling a slot (10:45)
Milling a shoulder, conventional and climb milling (17:11)
Cleaning the machine (21:05)

Machine Shop 8 – Lathe 1 (42:37)

The Lathe components
Turning tools (6:40)
Turning and facing (11:04)
Cutting off a part (22:45)
Drilling (32:20)

Machine Shop 9 – Lathe 2 (46:15)

Tapping
Boring (7:31)
Knurling with a bump knurler (15:30)
Cutting tapers with the vompound (22:21)
Turning shafts – using a live center (26:18)
Single point thread turning (31:03)

Machine Shop 10 – Lathe 3 (29:00)

Lathe chuck
Lathe arbors (6:42)
Turning between centers (15:40)
Face plate irregular shapes (19:00)
Face plate thin materials (21:13)