My question is: if you had access to such a facility, what would you,
as either an educator, hobbyist, career-changer, inventor, or
whatever you are, make? Would it be some cool physics demo items?
That rail-gun-in-the-garage your inner child always wanted to build?
An engineering prototype of the next greatest idea?
I'm obviously going to get experience learning to use manufacturing
machines I don't have ordinary access to. I'd like to combine this
with something that will necessitate learning additional physics of
the real-world variety. That is, I don't want to do something like
make an aluminum spice rack or a really really stable kitchen table
:-)
I'm looking for ideas. In this regard, I'm open-ended. I don't want
to just learn how to manufacture something - I want to make something
that requires some engineering or physics thought to go into it; I'll
learn twice as much. Maybe critical components for a desktop
home-made electron microscope? An engine of some sort? The rail gun,
after all? I have to use the groupon by mid-May, so I have time to
plan as well as take my time manufacturing.