Have muse idea...how to manufacture?

[Walkaman]

I've got a muse idea but don't really know where to go from here...

It's a smoking recession device that involves hard plastic. Any help on how to get my first prototype and then how to get it manufactured would be great!...on a low budget, ofcourse.

[Sven]

if you want info, you have to supply data...

[4hourworkweak]

Yep, agree we need more info here, but I thought I would just share a little tip from when I was getting high quality surrounds for TV screens manufactured in Plexiglass.

We originally started to talk to the manufacturers in the city where we were based, but they had so much work that they really weren't interested in small fry like us. They were arrogant and quoted thousands of dollars in set up costs and manufacturing for small runs.

Discouraged, we decided to give a small town supplier a try. What a difference! They took a whole day to sit down with us and help us redesign small features of our product to make it actually manufacturable. They then manufactured a prototype and we payed only for the materials and for a couple of hours costs. A total bargain. We never hid the fact we were always going to be small scale and they became much more like partners. Since then we have sent several thousands of dollars of work to them.

The moral of the story is that small town manufacturers will be more friendly, cheaper and more flexible than their city big brothers. This also applies to things such as printing in my experiance.