[abbasaamer]

Serious question about point #1: I've thought about contacting local manufacturers, but I don't know where to find people such as yourself.

Do you also get discovered through Alibaba or is there some U.S. equivalent version of the site?

I'd love to try someone local for some prototypes I'm building.

[tomkinstinch]

Picking up a phone book is one option for finding local manufacturing firms; one benefit of dealing with someone local is that you can pick up a phone and speak to them in your own language. Another is that it significantly reduces the iteration time during the prototyping stage, since you can drive over to inspect things yourself.

Another is by web search: "contract manufacturing <city name>", "injection molding <city name>", or "machine shop <city name>".

[awqrre]

While it's true that you can find them using a phone book or any search engine, it is not a similar experience to using Alibaba.

[gregpilling]

Some US manufacturers are on Alibaba, and I am planning to list us also one day soon. Just select the countries you want, and they will filter the results for you.

If you know what kinds of stuff you want to make, look for someone who builds similar stuff and ask if they take outside work. Some will, some won't.

The manufacturing communities can be fairly well knit also, so if the first company you call can't help you, they might know someone who can.