For many years (starting when I was a child), my dad and I worked on a sputtering system in our garage for solar cell research. This machine, dubbed the Small Reber Collider, fires a beam of ionized gas at a target in order to deposit atomically thin metal films onto surfaces. It operates under extreme vacuum and yes that is a woodworking clamp holding it together. Through this project I learned countless skills which helped me on my engineering journey.