Building a prototype of your innovation is a crucial link between conceiving the idea and commercializing it. A physical prototype helps you get immediate feedback from customers, designers, and financial backers as to the commercial viability of the project. It is a necessary step in the patent process.  It is a pivotal point in the โ€œGO vs. NO GOโ€ decision, and it can save an inventor money and time as even Abraham Lincoln found out when he prototyped his patented invention.

Prototyping can be difficult especially for a small company or independent inventor.  Here is help.  Imagine a 15,000 square-foot workshop with tools, equipment, and instruction to build and prototype your inventions. It is called TechShop, now with three locations in the U.S..  From their website:

โ€œYou can think of TechShop as a health club but with tools and equipment
instead of exercise equipment. It is sort of like a Kinkoโ€™s for makers,
or a Xerox PARC for the rest of us. TechShop is designed for everyone,
regardless of their skill level. TechShop is perfect for inventors,
โ€œmakersโ€, hackers, tinkerers, artists, roboteers, families,
entrepreneurs, youth groups, FIRST robotic teams, arts and crafts
enthusiasts, and anyone else who wants to be able to make things that
they dream up but donโ€™t have the tools, space or skills.

TechShop has milling machines and lathes, welding stations and a CNC plasma
cutter, sheet metal working equipment, drill presses and band saws,
industrial sewing machines, hand tools, plastic and wood working
equipment including a 4โ€ฒ x 8โ€ฒ ShopBot CNC router, electronics design
and fabrication facilities, Epilog laser cutters, tubing and metal
bending machines, a Dimension SST 3-D printer, electrical supplies and
tools and pretty much everything youโ€™d ever need to make just about
anything.โ€

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There are many resources for getting a prototype, but most of these are the โ€œDo-It-For-Youโ€ type.  TechShop is one of the few that lets you, the innovator, come in and use the machines to โ€œDo-It-Yourself.โ€  They offer a wide range of training courses as well as individual consultations when needed.  It is truly a โ€œhealthclubโ€ for innovators.

Perhaps the only thing I would add is a training course on:  how to innovate!