21. Well, when i had access to a 10W engraver from Universal Laser Systems, i made the biohazard symbol on a piece of 6" square plexiglass (it was opaque black).

However, i ment to engrave my laptop before i left, but i never got around to it. now im attending the Missouri University of Science and Technology (formally Univeristy of Missouri-Rolla), and i know that somewhere on campus we have several cutters (and one 200MW laser)

Posted at 2:03PM on Mar 10th 2008 by Cris Abbott

22. "What Can I Do With an Epilog?": http://epiloglaser.com/laser_industries.htm

There go my crazy ideas. I'd make a custom faceplate for a car pc.

Posted at 2:05PM on Mar 10th 2008 by M

23. that was supposed to be a 200megawatt, not milliwatt, as caps are so nicely disabled.
as far as what to do with one... ive always wanted to make circuit boards...almost effortless, but it would require a laser much more powerful than 45w

Posted at 2:06PM on Mar 10th 2008 by Cris Abbott

24. i second the lockpicking biddness cards!
(yes i know it's spelled business, lol)

Posted at 2:10PM on Mar 10th 2008 by chr0n1c

25. I will do a fine leather or wood cuted display cover for my laptop (replacing the aluminum part on the dell M90.

Or white bussiness card with your name cuted on it.

But you can also do your custom heatsink / radiator for any kind of electronic component/cpu cooling.

custom cuted biscuit, cut the dough before baking it (What about a nice hack a day cookie?)

Etc!

Posted at 2:17PM on Mar 10th 2008 by Crazygreg

26. I'd burn a few pics into on some 1/2" hardwood plates, I'm not sure how you'd do it, but if you do it correctly, you can actually blast away some of the wood and get a contoured image.

Or, like most people would do, you could just use it to etch the hackaday logo into anything you can find that will fit in the tray, laptops, ipods, mice, body parts, ect.

Posted at 2:29PM on Mar 10th 2008 by Wolf

27. Computer Engraving
A laser cutter would be nicer to work with than my dremmel. Design patterns in 3DS max / Autocad, and cut out the panels on my computer case. Then I'd do my friends cases. After that, sky's the limit, go into custom casing, wiring's the easy part, the design needs to look clean and this'd allow for much finer work than a dremmel does.

Posted at 2:42PM on Mar 10th 2008 by Dave

28. Assuming it can cut carbon fiber sheets you could cut some outstanding wet lay up patterns for carbon fiber rotor blades. Left and and right hand propeller patterns. Then if you could cut carbon fiber flat stock, you could cut some servo shaft gears or sprockets at any pitch. The best use would be to cut encoder wheels out of the center spool of a retractable reel id badge holders. Then you could use them as cheap linear encoders.

Posted at 2:50PM on Mar 10th 2008 by Ken Russell

29. I would use it to etch PCB boards. of course i would not buy a laser cutter just to do that, but if i had access to one. or, i am not sure about the accuracy of the laser, make little watch parts and build a pocket watch.

Posted at 2:50PM on Mar 10th 2008 by elliott

30. I'd hook it up to something like the milk scanner: http://www.hackaday.com/2007/06/05/milkscanner/ and create a 3d copy machine.

Posted at 2:51PM on Mar 10th 2008 by mark

31. If it could be done, and that's a big if, etched DVD would look pretty cool. I have to imagine that done wrong they could be thrown out of balance or the substrate could be damaged. But they would look mighty fine.

Posted at 2:51PM on Mar 10th 2008 by Spencer Crosby

32. I would make a Hexapod skeleton for one of these:

http://www.lynxmotion.com/Category.aspx?CategoryID=101

Posted at 3:21PM on Mar 10th 2008 by Shadyman

33. Start out with some custom aluminum badges for my truck. Not quite sure what the images would be. But getting the stock ford logos off would be a nice change. Then go for a set of transformers emblems on the sides of my desktop's case seeing how I don't own a laptop that I can modify.

Posted at 3:24PM on Mar 10th 2008 by Nate

34. I would engrave the top of my laptop with a whole vinyl album and put it on a turntable and play it.
It would also be cool to put a lathe in the laser cutter to tattoo aluminum baseball bats.

Posted at 3:26PM on Mar 10th 2008 by Kelly

35. I would love to get my laptop engraved... It's an X61, and I know that there is titanium under the black coating. I would love to melt off that coating to make a slick design...

Posted at 3:35PM on Mar 10th 2008 by jonny

36. Man, you are so lucky. My school's graphics lab has a full size one 32x20! We have cut so much crap in that thing! The most interesting thing would have to be a banana. You can raster the leather on your shoes, jeans, toast.

Ok for the ideas:

1) Use multiple sheets of stacked acrylic to make a 3d landscape.

2)An easy way to steampunk anything. Buy (or make) sheets of 1/4 inch pine and cut out a case for a laptop, mac mini, phone, whatever. It is great because you can even cut out the letters for the keyboard (just make sure they don't fall through the grate).

A word of advice to everyone who ever uses one of these: Do a test run on cardboard before you start and check it to make sure it is square. The laser we had would cut things a little longer in the x direction than the y.

Posted at 3:39PM on Mar 10th 2008 by David Major

37. I'd decorate my Thinkpad with a trace of the keyboard, so it looked open when it was closed. The colors count for a lot in making the iconic laptop design recognizable, but the three-button arrangement below the spacebar and off-color function & Enter keys should be enough.

I'm a little disappointed you can't cut serious metal with it. My original thoughts were along the lines of rapid-prototyping: cut out slices of a solid object-to-be, align them, and braise them together.

You could turn a decent profit laser-etching cheap swords. Anime fan favorite katanas are out thanks to the 26" diagonal, but knives and tantos are game.

1200 DPI's pretty sharp... maybe take a page from NASA's book (no pun intended) and sneak some softcore porn-laden glass slides into the nearest convenient laboratory? Most Chem-E's I know are female, so be sure to choose your images with the right target audience in mind. At this resolution, you could engrave "HACKADAY.COM" on your staples, maybe even paperclips.

Oh, here's a good one - coins. Technically illegal, but let's say you're using Euros or pounds sterling. What can you fit into the flat spaces on either side of a portrait? A QR code for Hackaday, maybe? A skull-and-crosswrenches tattoo for the Queen? Perhaps hand out flat-edged coins with your name & phone number on the rim in place of business cards.

Posted at 3:40PM on Mar 10th 2008 by mindbleach

38. i would love to cut out a few pieces of aluminum and bend them to make a laser cut remote control or some custom made laser cut wallet

Posted at 3:45PM on Mar 10th 2008 by eitan g

39. use the laser cutter to etch custom logos/designs into the packaging (plastic case) of an integrated circuit (i.e. hack a day logo) to give a finished PCB circuit board a customized look, if the laser cutter is capable of doing so without going through the packaging and damaging the die.

Posted at 3:55PM on Mar 10th 2008 by CaliRaisin

40. I would cut out an aluminum origami Wall-E completely from sheet aluminum and wire weld the entire project together using only the cutouts from the laser.

Posted at 3:58PM on Mar 10th 2008 by Jawa Lunk