• nom_nom@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    Just wanted to add me .2c here since I have some real-world experience with this and no dog in this fight. We’re a small computer engineering company with 1 mechanical engineer on the team. We had designed a custom chassis for one of our products (first time we had ever done this), and were looking for quotations to build a prototype. After some research and recommendations, we narrowed it down to 3 companies: A German, American and a Canadian company; all were highly reputable. We were given quotes of $15,000 - $20,000 USD, and told our CAD files need to be heavily modified because some parts of our design were ‘impossible’. We were also told it would take approx. 3 months to receive the prototype. Out of curiosity, we sent the CAD files to our PCB manufacturer in China and asked if they knew anyone who could build the chassis. They quoted us $300 and said it would take a week. We paid them, and honestly, we expected to receive garbage - it wasn’t. We had minor complaints but overall, esp. for $300 and a week, it was excellent.