i have few ideas that i think would sell or at least make things easier when doing things for hondas.

but i still cant understand how this whole process works

i know i have to make prototypes ( which i already did)

but it seems like its a complicated process and not very cheap to patent the things

and then to make them into at least a limited production and have a mold saved


i know there are shops fabricating all kinds of stuff how do they do it.

i cant find any local companies that would do the prototype or mold


one part is alluminum bracket or high heat plastic

other part is plexiglass or alluminum sheet cut to certain shape or molded.
and some other parts that i have already made prototypes for


i know i can make every single part by hand but thats time consuming and not very efficient.

 

mold making...jumm try www.cnczone.com/forums/moldmaking

 

Depends on what scale you're looking to do.

Full on production scale - source a production machine shop or sheet metal shop. Order enough of them and the price comes down a ton. I order proto parts all the time, unfortunately I only need one or two so I pay a ton. The money is in the setup though. If I ordered 500 the price would go from $100 a part for 2 to probably $5. My company has a bunch of machine shops but we make surgical implants, we crank out anywhere from a dozen to 100,000 of a given part. Costs us a shitload less to make the same thing 100,000 times than making 100 things once.

Small scale: Find a local small machine shop and get a quote. You'll need at least a drawing and a qty. They'll probably give you prices for a few qty's. The more the cheaper obviously. Many small machine shops can do vacuumm form plastic mouldings. Don't give them your prototype and tell them to make it, give them a drawing. They'll have to inspect the prototype and charge you much more money.

A lot of the shops you're referrring to have small machine shops on site, and simply make their own "production runs" of parts. The only thing you don't normally see in a small speed shop is a injection molding press, the tooling is so expensive its usually easier to have a dedicated platics manufacturing company make those parts. Hence why you don't see too many small shops putting out plastic parts. They would, but the cost and pay back isn't worth it.

I wouldn't worry about a patent unless you've got a real "diamond". Not worth the attorney's fees until you're full large production scale, or it cost you more than 30grand to produce one.