Teaching and Research Machine Shop

Students in NAU’s College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences have a great resource available

These and many other questions have found their answers at the Teaching & Research Machine Shop at NAU in Flagstaff.  Instrument Maker/Designer Greg Florian can make virtually anything out of metal, plastic, or wood, and is often able to make it better than you first envisioned, and for much less money—25 to 80 percent less—than having it done elsewhere.

With more than 3,000 projects completed in 20 years, the CEFNS Teaching & Research Machine Shop at NAU is the place to bring your ideas for research, lab, or field-oriented equipment fabrication. The shop provides design consultation and fabrication using a variety of materials and machining services, including milling, grinding, welding, lathe work, and cutting of all types of materials, including wood, plastics, steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and brass.

Project examples include:

• acid evaporation chamber
• Livingston Coring tool
• slot corer
• podoscope, foot measuring platform
• isopod rearing station
• radiation guards
• camera mount
• pressure chamber
• instrument tower
• solar panel frames
• telescope stand
• tree hugger

At the Teaching and Research Machine Shop, simple things like plastic gel boxes for DNA research, plastic “Y” mazes for animal behavior research, more complex items like foot measuring devices used in gait and shoe design research, custom stand for NAU’s 20” telescope and digital camera, leg and arm ergometers, and lake coring tools can be constructed.

You’ll also see Greg’s handiwork across the NAU campus in unexpected places. Greg designed and built the pool bulkhead at the Wall Aquatic Center. The center needed 25-yard lanes for certain events, but the pool was not originally designed with them. The bulkhead Greg designed has a sturdy walkway along the top, allowing coaches to walk out to talk to athletes in the pool.

   Did you know the CEFNS Teaching and Research Machine Shop can also repair equipment and tools that are worn or broken? The shop can save researchers considerable time, energy, and money with a low hourly rate and on-campus support.  NAU employees can also pay to use the equipment in the shop for university projects.