I am a hobbyist, and my job will probably never require me to design and print anything for work.
I do really enjoy the process of conceptualizing, designing, and printing, and have done so for myself and some close acquaintances.
I’ve spent many hours/days learning the tools of the trade and was wondering if there was an opportunity to make some money as a side gig. Has anyone been successful doing this, and how did you go about it?
Here are a couple of my early designs, I plan to upload more once I clean things up a bit.
Pre-edit: I just realized I never actually answered your question. I honestly don’t know how most people go about finding someone to design and prototype, but judging by some of the responses here I think we’ll get some good advice. Feel free to contact me directly if you want me to look into the draft.
What has been super helpful to me iwhen people come to me with requests is to send me the most detailed diagrams or images of any currently available offerings or a combination of them so I have a good starting point.
As a specific example, someone asked me to design a handheld door lock retainer to practice lockpicking. The overall shape and ergonomic design were up to me, but this image was provided which included very specific measurements for the lock:
Thanks! I found a design on printables, now I just need someone to print me like…200 of them. Hallelujah, no more paying DMC for their crappy product that only kind of works.