Prototyping

Bay Area Prototyping Resources

Shops

Stanford Product Realization Lab http://www.stanford.edu/group/prl/prl_site/

Students can take a one hour safety training session and then use the lab for a daily or quarterly fee. Open for four hour blocks of time throughout the quarter. Not open during the summer. Resources include “traditional machining, woodworking, foundry, plastics molding, welding, finishing, and metrology tools. State-of-the-art computer-aided drawing, manufacturing, and prototyping systems are also available.”

Tech Shop – Menlo Park and San Francisco http://techshop.ws/

Monthly membership and various classes give you access to everything from CNC plasma cutters to industrial sewing machines. This is sort of like a PRL for non-university folks and they have equipment that the PRL doesn't have.

Materials

PRL Suppliers list http://www.stanford.edu/group/prl/prl_site/ Go to the PRL website and click on the “suppliers” link in the upper right corner. Great list of places to get stuff in the Bay Area.

McMaster Carr mcmaster.com They have almost any piece of hardware you could ever want. Prices are ok.

TAP Plastics – Mountain View, San Francisco http://www.tapplastics.com/ Best Local supplier of plastics

On-line Metals http://www.onlinemetals.com/ Great place to get small amounts of metal

Pick N Pull = San Jose, Oakland http://www.picknpull.com/ Do it yourself junk yard. Not the cheapest but you can sometimes get good deals.

HSC (Halted) Electronics – Santa Clara http://www.halted.com/ Good local resource for surplus electronics. Close to El Camino Mongolian BBQ resturaunt and Central Computers.

Douglas & Sturgess – San Francisco Supplier of all things sculptural – great supply of silicon and epoxy needs.

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