Oh man, there are countless things I'd do with a laser machine! I used to work at a sign shop and used a laser engraving machine all day long. I would spend every free second experimenting with different materials, processes, settings and whatnot. Ever since I left that job, I have been trying to figure out how I can get one of my own or at least have unlimited access to, because they're the greatest thing ever! Here's what I would do if I had one at my disposal...

Cardboard: Raster photos into painted cardboard, cut out faces, letters, shapes for art, signs, baby decor. Cut out sections for small furniture/home decor projects...

Stahl's Cad-cut heat activated material: Continue to design t-shirt that I could heat press onto shirts, bags, hats, blankets...I would need a nice heat press though,an iron just doesn't cut it.

Wood: Skateboard decks, maps, wall art, picture frames, child animal toys, beautiful inlay signs using differnt types of wood, children's letter blocks, door stops, scrabble tiles with fresh typefaces, house address numbers...the lists goes on and on!

Acrylic: Light shades, Wall art, Candle stick holders, coasters, picture frames, napkin rings, night light covers, chilren's mobiles, small desk organizational products...

Packaging foam: Faces, logos, kids toys, baby wash sponges...

Plastic: Neck tie holders (to prevent your tie from flapping in the wind), name tags, signs, wall art, cutting boards, more picture frames, more inlay work...

I'd make stencils, magnetic things to rival those "Support our Troops" ribbons, masks for sandblasting (I'd need sandblasting equipment) and painting. Sandblasting stuff onto beverage bottles is way cool!, small candle shades out of wood, jack-o-lanterns, cutout cookies, sandwiches, pizza, jello, cheese, lunch meat, brownies, rolls, etc., cell phones, fabrics, leather bands, rubber, christmas snowflakes, custom cut post-it notes, business cards, journal covers, notepads, mousepads, small pillow cusions for the little baby, label my electrical control box for my house...and I could keep on going. The possibilities are endless with a laser machine in my hands!!!

Laser engravers and laser cutting systems are already used in an increasing number of businesses. Take a look at the businesses using Trotec laser machines.

i'd probably start out with some simple things cut out of the masses of plexiglass i have around, maybe some super-complex clear gear/ marble mover toys. Then I'd etch some sort of elaborate design into my powerbook, i'd probably use it to make cases and parts for some of my other projects, might use it to cut and put designs in a new plastic skirt cover for the side of one of my old motorcycles, as well as strap it to a shark's head. you have to have sharks with fricking laser cutters on their head.

I'd build a REPRAP, or maybe a whole bunch of them, then I'd build Hektor.

Reprap

Hektor

I would get a laptop to engrave, engrave my knife, and anything else that I thought would need it. I would never ever dream of selling it.

I got one. I found it is really good for cutting intricate pieces out of eighth inch (3mm) plywood. I have used it to make boxes, chips, toy dragons, several castles, and some other stuff. I have sold a number of pieces at RPG conventions, and have made identification badges for a club. I have pictures attached to my linkedin.com page. Donald Pelton.

Well, I suppose, first of all I would have to practice/play with it for about a month or so. Then I would if my practice had gotten me to the point where I was capable enough with it offer my services to the museum that has a lot of old tin plate photos of my family. I would etch reproductions of the photos that they only show on rare occasions into pieces of blond and aged wood so that the images could be seen year round, oh and not just the images of my family but a lot of the images detailing the history that is held in the museum. Another project I have in mind is etching likenesses of fallen heroes into plaques for families and town halls or court houses, so that they will be remembered for what they have given to our country. Not everyone may agree with what is going on but I being a disabled veteran have a special place in my heart for those who gave everything because they were told to do so whether they fully agreed with it or not. Simply because they served in the military that represents the country which they grew up in. On a more personal note I have been working on a 1/72nd scale set of models from the era in which I served. Not everything is available. From what has been said and from what I have seen, thin polystyrene could be cut to make custom models of things that do not currently exist. I dream of eventually combining them into a complete diorama of the shop in which I worked the longest with models of everything we worked on and models of all my friends cars sitting in the parking lot. The base has been closed down and the shop has been re-purposed but I like to do things with my hands. It holds off the eventual onset of complete disability of my body and keeps my mind sharp. Thats just a few Fuzzy

i would have to make some awesome gangster chopper bikes with custom rims then make some laser cut books

Another idea I had today would be to make patterns for vacuum forming....so many cool things that it could be used for....

Using it to build something like the Fab@Home fabber would also be great as the chassis is primarily constructed of acrylic......you could probably even modify that chassis design to make a small NC mill that could create circuit boards and wax models.
http://www.fabathome.org

I would open an eye-laser-op-store and offer cheap laser operations for peoples eyes. ;) not really, but I think I would laser some cool stuff

I was a little disappointed when Instructables said they were changing the rules and not doing the essay. I had already hashed most of mine out. So I figured I would post it up anyways, I posted it first as an instructable but I was asked to move it to here.....

What can be done with the "Laser"

This is what I intend to do with the "Laser" if I win it. If I don't win, I hope that others will find inspiration in this and make some really neat stuff.

First and foremost, if I win, I promise to always make quotes with my fingers whenever saying the word "laser", like Dr. Evil does.

3d not so rapid prototyper

I would like to use this "laser" as a not so rapid prototype maker. By cutting each layer out of cardboard or plastic and then gluing them together using guide pins, I can make 3d shapes. I have experimented with this before and I made a Geneva stop gear just to see how it worked. check out what this is here. It took forever cutting the card used with an exacto knife and was hard to get really tight tolerances. I have not tried it since but would love to get back into it.

Mold making

I think it would be cool to make molds out of cardboard or plastic in the same way I suggested making 3d parts. Then you too could make a lame sculpture like this that looks like how HR Giger would make an alien ducky ;P

A really neat thing is that you would not need any glue. Just stack all the sheets on the alignment pins and clamp from top to bottom. Fill with your favorite material, plaster, wax, resin etc and then pull off the paper a couple sheets at a time. The positive could then be used to make further molds in sand or something else and you could end up with a metal part from paper. Awesome!

The resolution and finish will be determined by the thickness of the material, thinner paper equals finer finish but means more work.

The pages could be numbered by the "laser" as they print out so they don't get mixed up.

Fabric

I am curious what the "laser" would do to cotton or nylon? Probably it will just catch on fire but it would be cool to singe designs onto T shirts. It would also help my sewing if I could cut out fabric shapes or at least mark a pattern on them.

Anodized aluminum

Rock climbing carabiners could be done very fancy. I have made gifts in the past by writing peoples names on them in a nice font and engraving them (on non structural parts) I could do some awesome stuff with the engraver. Even the cheap little keychain biners could be given some gusto!

Food

You may already know that I enjoy working with food, imagine cherry tomatoes with faces on them, killer pancakes with portraits or cool pictures, hot dogs with paisleys tattooed all over them, the sky is the limit, everything in my fridge will fear the "laser"!

Jack-O-Lanterns

I know that you are saying- no way will a pumpkin fit inside this thing! What if you cut out a "face plate" in the front, you would probably have to shave it way down to thin it out. You could cut some amazing art out of it and then fit it back into the pumpkin (like you do with the top)

In Conclusion

Lets be honest- If I win this "laser", I am going to probably stick anything in it that will fit and that the instructions don't explicitly say not to stick in, like ABS, PVC or pets (all not allowed). This would be sooooo much fun to play around with.

This is obviously not a legally binding statement but I pledge to post photos of the "laser" work (if not full instructables) at least once a month (probably more for the first while) for a minimum of a year (again, probably more)

I have no intention of giving money to charity (that idea has been taken) but I love to help people and if you showed up at my door with some material and a flash card I would likely just let you use it. In fact, A friend and I who both have some cool tools but not enough space were bouncing around the idea of making what we called a "tool pool". We would rent a small industrial shop and pool our tools with a few other like minded individuals. I know you guys have some similar things in California but this idea is unheard of where I live. This would allow the "laser" to be used by lots of people.

I can only see one downside to winning and that is when my wife sees the electricity bill from the "laser" running almost constantly. I will probably have to learn how to make jewelry and somehow engrave it on the "laser" to appease her. (I know it won't engrave metal but I'll have to figure something out)

You can't imagine how bad I want this "laser". (maybe you can, just think about how bad you want it and multiply by ten) My friends are getting sick of hearing about it.

I think it's really amazing that there is a contest for something like this as a prize. Someone (hopefully me) is going to be very lucky in just over a month. Thanks

Honestly, my first instinct would be to sell it. My 2nd instinct would be for the following projects. 1 - Make 3D Dinosaur and City puzzles out of balsa wood or cardboard. 2 - Engrave control panel pieces for all types of industrial uses. Off the top of my head, the Ambulance and Aeronautical industries would be good starting points for that. 3 - Make braille signs, if that's even possible with such a device. 4 - Etch measurement gradients on anodized aluminum control knobs. 5 - Etch paintball gun parts. Ya know, it might be the height of stupidity to sell something like this.

Does anyone know if an altoid, or similar mint/gum containers could be engraved with this laser, or not?

Vendigroth, I think there are parental waivers that can be signed if you are under 18. I hope so, at least. I would definitely charge people a dollar each to laser-etch their valuables, so I would get some revenue to pay for the electricity (it said 1000W peak, so it wouldn't be much, but still...) and like Brennn10 said, use it to laser-cut parts for aircraft models. I went to a local university open house for the aerospace engineering department, and they have a laser cutter. All their models had beautiful laser-cut wing-ribs. Does anyone know the limitations on what it could cut? Such as, could it slice an 1/8" steel or aluminum plate? Or glass?

My idea would be to start a laser service- with a twist. Let's say someone posts an instructable in the laser group that requires the use of the laser for their project. I would provide that at a given cost based on the complexity of the job- let's just say $40. From that $40, 20% would go into a Paypal/bank account to be held seperately for a charity. Now let's say that person wants duplicates for themselves to sell on eBay or wherever. I would do this at a reduced cost, say $30. This is because the setup work has already been done. Now 25% of the money goes into the charity account. Now let's say that someone reads the original instructable and wants to create the item for themselves. It would cost them $40 but now $5 goes back to the creator of the instructable and still 20% goes into the charity account. When the charity account reaches $500 everyone that has posted an instructable in the laser group votes on where the money goes- it can be a school, Humane Society, Habitat for Humanity, needy family, scholarship fund, etc. but it will have to be limited to a few choices during every voting session. The money is then donated in the name of Instructables.com -everyone that creates something here gets to see their projects create a direct impact on the world around them in the form of this charity donation. The original creator of the instructable also gets $5 every time their instructable is used to create a product that they designed! Well that's my idea- I know the rules concerning the contest have changed but I'm still going to do this anyway if I'm lucky enough to win. That's been my plan all along and I think it's something that benefits everyone and I'm sticking to it! :P

The company calls it a 'laser engraver,' not laser cutter. There is a huge difference!!! Id be surprised if it could cut more than thin sheets of plastic . . .

It would be a great little business to sell name plates and things like that. I don't know if it's big enough, but you could cut drum heads too.

"I want you to cry" James bond villan guy in some movie. (I can't remember the first part)

PCBs, en masse. But alas, I'm Canadian, so it's not gonna happen. Maybe I could pretend to be the super of an apartment building in Port Angeles, have it shipped there, and dive it across the border.

I'd make custom parts (frames, sub-frames, connecting rods, actuator housings, etc.) to build robots from "scratch" using designs that depart from the conventional.

If I won, not likely though, I would maybe: 1)Make a Laser-Etching porgram for school 2)Make cool sculpture type things and sell them. 3)Sell it to the Tech-ED department of my school and get the money for it. 4)I'll have to think about this fourth one.

i'd do everything if i won that laser cutter, but i'm not going to be able to do anything, because i can't win. Actually, i had a plan planned out the moment i saw the contest, but its all moot now anyway