Although the majority of projects in the RFL are research or class-related, the equipment also sees significant use for personal projects — especially for gifts.

You saw the gift for Danae and Vasilis Salapatas, below, in an earlier post. This was black anodized aluminum, engraved with the laser cutter. Below is an early practice run (now covered in grease from my ever-greasy hands) — the final product was framed and matted.

Laser engraved LAM opening invitation

We’ve also used the RFL to make trophies — the below photo shows a trophy for MADMEC II in 2008. It’s a laser cut and engraved piece of acrylic mounted into an aluminum base that is a scale replica of the MIT columns on Killian Court. The aluminum base was turned on the CNC lathe, and the column flutes were milled on an indexing head on the CNC mill. The base also had an embedded LED, which illuminated the detail in the acrylic.

MADMEC II Trophy, 2008

We’ve made two gifts for American dignitaries for MIT-related events: the first for U.S. Army General Paul Kern, who has a fishing boat named “The General is Fishing.” We laser cut the below sign out of various pieces of colored acrylic and then epoxied them together. Word is he’ll install it on his boat. Big thanks to Michael Stern for help on this one.

The General, Paul Kern, is Fishing.

Dr. Georg Fantner — a post-doc in Prof. Angela Belcher’s lab, and now a professor at EPFL — built a case for their virus-driven battery technology for President Hockfield’s visit to Barack Obama in the White House. In a short amount of time, we’ve already made it into the hands of world leaders.

Obama checks out Georg's work in the RFL