We present a simple high school and university undergraduate laboratory setup, with which we are able to texture microscopic structures into polymer and dye films using a homemade UV nitrogen laser. We describe both the laser and the microstructuring setup and provide detailed information on the laser and its beam characteristics. Although this is a low-cost setup, we are able to directly write or texture high-quality patterns into thin films, either by manually controlling a positioning stage or by programming a desired sequence for an automated structuring process. We introduce several hands-on experiments for high school and university undergraduate students and present our first results.