laser engraver ideas?

[Brandon Zalinsky]

I love the idea of Christmas tree ornaments! Maybe you could make some for your sponsors and send them as a Christmas gift from the team- it would definitely be unique, and I know that many sponsors like having active contact like that with the team.

[DRH2o]

We use this http://www.rowmark.com/laser/LaserMAX/lasermax.asp to make our "buttons" to give out the the events. We cut and engrave our logo. We also make earrings the give out -- they go VERY fast. We make parts for the robot out of ABS and up to 1/4" 7ply birch. Acrylic cuts great. Lexan will catch on fire. If it is a CO2 laser don't cut PVC!! The vapor given off is Hydrochloric acid!! We have two 35 watt and one 65 watt epilogs.

[MrBasse]

We use ours as a fundraiser too, so far just from staying in the school and selling engraved aluminum water bottles to school clubs, teams, and groups like the choir we have made over $500 and I just got the laser up and running in my classroom in August. We have been using bottles for Dollar Tree that were a buck a piece, but they are seasonal and won't be back until the summer rolls around again. At a cost of two or three dollars a bottle and a sale price of $6-10, it is a great way to make some quick funds happen.

We also got a ton of blue anodized aluminum donated from a sponsor and we make our sponsor gifts with those mounted on a piece of oak we get from the schools woodshop and route a nice edge on.

The laser will only engrave in aluminum that is coated because it doesn't have the power to do anything but burn off the coating. We have tried christmas ornaments, but without a jig to hold the ornament straight it gets real tough to hold onto them with the rotary table.

[colin340]

I see fundraisers! Some tech departments and engrave people's phones and other products for a fee and use the money for furthering the program.

I've been doing a lot of work with cardboard and the program 123D make.
There's a lot of rapid prototyping that can be done with this combination especially for complex formwork

[lorem3k]

Originally Posted by Flak-Bait

I love the idea of Christmas tree ornaments! Maybe you could make some for your sponsors and send them as a Christmas gift from the team- it would definitely be unique, and I know that many sponsors like having active contact like that with the team.

Selling engraved ornaments could also be a good fundraising idea at this time of year.

Maybe you could make engraved buttons to give out at competitions. That would certainly be unique!