Jen- do you need a visual drawn up? Or/and the actual prototype made?

look for a local inventors club or meeting. we have a good one in the dallas area, free law Q&A, prototyping people to talk to, marketing guys and 2 patent lawers. all these people love to help!

Jen,

Small “job shops” really only need the prints (working drawings) of what you want to build. If they have the capacity to fabricate it (and are interested in building it) they will give you a quote based on the number of finished parts they need to dellivery to fullfill your need. Based on what you wrote, it doesn’t sound like you are ready to have a shop build a prototype, but actually need someone to create the drawings. I am I correct?

If so, find a “manufacturing engineer” in the field that matches your product line, ie plastics, sheetmetal, etc. They typically have the same kind of education as traditional engineer but are much more detail oriented and focused on their field of expertise.

Forget about google Sketchup. That is not engineering software. Good for somestuff, but not actually designing a prototype. If I had no design experience, I would not attempt to do this without input from and expert. Keep an open mind when recienving input, if they are good, they might not want to take the time to explain all the “why’s”. I would want to hire the engineer, not the engineering firm. That can cut the cost in half and double or double the quality of work (if they are good).

Have you tried Craigslist? You never know who may be in your area with the ability to help.