Industrial designer/mechanical engineer here too. For fairly complicated or complexly surfaced plastic injection plastic products, machined and fabricated metal, composite parts... I recommend designing it in SolidWorks and finding a freelancer off Craigslist to draw it up. They can render it photo-realistically, create manufacture drawings, and have CAD files you can send out for quoting.
And if you are just starting or have low-medium volumes, have it done locally. There are hundreds of injection molders, tool makers, machine shops, fabricators, etc... in every metropolitan area in America. I can't tell you haw many fuck ups, quality issues, extra expenses, importation problems, wrong/bad material used, corners cut, longer than promised lead times... I have had to manage. Rule of thumb - they will say yes to anything you ask for even if they can't. That said, if you have a good relationship, you can save a lot of money.
And if you are just starting or have low-medium volumes, have it done locally. There are hundreds of injection molders, tool makers, machine shops, fabricators, etc... in every metropolitan area in America. I can't tell you haw many fuck ups, quality issues, extra expenses, importation problems, wrong/bad material used, corners cut, longer than promised lead times... I have had to manage. Rule of thumb - they will say yes to anything you ask for even if they can't. That said, if you have a good relationship, you can save a lot of money.