How to find an engineer?

[Harry321]

Hey fellas,

Interested to hear from anyone that has had a physical product manufactured. I have a few ideas however I'm at a loss on engineering them..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[SteveO]

There are engineering firms that will design and build to specs. You should be able to find them with an internet search.

 

[TJPB]

I had great success with eLance. What type of engineer do you need?

 

[Harry321]

I created the thread to sort of spill my thoughts and conjure a little discussion on the topic, I appreciate it have seemed a little lazy.
To explain the problem I have so far:-

I have a problem that currently has a very poor solution in place. I don't have a solution in place yet but I feel that it is something that wouldn't be particularly hard to improve on..

I suppose what I'm really trying to find out is: For those of you who are not technically minded, how successful have you been in approaching engineers with a need and then both creating a solution from that?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ZCP]

Being the engineer, here are some suggestions:

- the more clearly you can define and describe what you want, the better .. sketches, drawings, pictures, other similar items
- provide all info that you already have, especially timeline/testing/'why' a change was made/etc.
- actually have a budget for accomplishing what you need done (no, we do not want equity!)
- use linkedin / google to find a local engineer or engineering firm doing things similar to what you need
- offer to pay them for their time for an initial meeting to discuss your project and help determine a scope of work
- get bids and select your engineer (do not be afraid to split up the work if things can run in parallel)
- pay your bills promptly!
- be prepared to answer the following questions
..what does this need to do
..what are the current problems as to why this does not already exist
..what testing has already been done
..what is on/off limits for changing in your current design (look, materials, size, function, etc.)
..what are your cost ratios and where is your largest cost
..do you want to make 1, 10, 200000?
..budget and schedule?

Hope that helps.