Hey guys, me again. Considering going freelance

[OTE_TheMissile]

What's up fellas? Been awhile, I miss you guys :wink:

So here's the deal: I love working at RIVCO, my coworkers are all crazy beer-fueled bikers and I have a blast working with them. But despite my hopeful predictions and thanks to the economy, my hours just haven't been improving. I've worked one half-day per week the past 2 weeks, and this week I'll be submitting yet another goose egg to Wisconsin Unemployment. And they're not really crazy about me, since I'm approaching the 1-year mark on my unemployment benefits.

I did have enough dough on me to take advantage of the $100/seat deal that the Alibre crew offered on v11.2 (thanks loads for that guys), and with my current financial situation circling the drain I'm seriously considering the freelance route. What I need to know is...what the hell do I do?

Here's what I got:
-A truck, light pickup actually, '98 Chevy S10 to be precise. So assuming they're fairly local I can go directly to the customer and get hands-on with whatever they want me to draw. And with the little plug-in power inverter I've got I can almost indefinitely run my...
-Laptop, an HP Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment, which has the seat of v11.2 Standard installed on it. Got my AC adapter and a Targus laptop bag with enough stuff to almost live out of. Mouse, HD camera, Garmin GPS, data cable, and a 1GB thumb drive. Have computer, will travel.

So I guess the biggest things I need to know is how and where to advertise, what to advertise, and last but not least, what to charge for my services.

 

[wathavy4]

Hey,Mike!
I was wondering why the hell you didn't notice me....here.
The hell of bikers here in Japan buy anything for H.D. with any amount of money.

What one could do here in Japan even today, is to produce things for H.D. and sell it to whoever asked for it.
They call it 'Wan ohffu' or 'One off' who knows about the Japlish or Englinese.
This is used for custom order for specific parts.

I see so many of them touring around with so much gadgets on their bikes. Fully decorated brightness and shiny metallic colored stuffs.
I donno how much they pay for these custom stuffs.
But, their need is to have uniqueness for their Harley Davidsons. So, you can just create them and sell it to them on line, I guess.

There are so many subsidiaries of HD here in Japan. They all have their customers in their own palms. I tell you, you got a unique opportunity to tell them that you are the one who produced all those gadgets in the mother land of Harley.

All I could imagine of is that I rip you off and get those things imported from you and sell them to their customers.

Sales, marketing is what you need.

Which could be those shop keepers in Japan.
And again, I can rip off both ends. :mrgreen:

 

[OTE_TheMissile]

Hey Toshi, good to hear from ya again 8)

I'll do more than motorcycle accessory design of course, the seat I have basically only prevents me from doing sheetmetal (which I didn't much enjoy to begin with, as I assume you all remember :mrgreen: ). Just a CAD guy for hire here, trying to make a buck (yen, pound, ruble, whatever)

 

[BernardK]

Hi Mike,

You might like to check this thread viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8924

Thoughts I have is that there must be engineering places that are looking to convert paper drawings to CAD. This kind of work would be ideal.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

[NateLiquidGravity]

Hey man!
Myself I'd lean more to the custom designed stuff or converting prints/parts/2d cad to 3d. I'd start out local with just a small ad in the paper. Something like:

Need CAD work done?
Freelance 3D CAD Designer Seeking projects
Convert prints/parts/2D CAD/custom designs
to 3D CAD fast.
Call Mike ###-####
YOURSITE.COM

If you want a website for free temporarily I can offer you a subdomain of my site and hosting.

I'd also come up with some kind of written liability release for projects to cover your ass when customers want something without going through any engineering.

FYI IANAL TINLA

 

[OTE_TheMissile]

I figured I should do some scribbling so I've got something to show to potential clients...makes sense, right?

Disk brake assembly. Because brake rotors are fun to model

An almost-fancy wristwatch. Bonus: my first ever attempt at assembling some form of a "chain"

More to come as I think of stuff in my spare time...welcome to suggestions :mrgreen:

 

[wathavy4]

Oh, good works!

(I've never tried that chain thing... it seems it's some work to maintain the relations.) :shock:

 

[OTE_TheMissile]

Yeah it was one of the more intense assemblies I've done. Not difficult, just time-consuming and really easy to lose track of which two parts you're working with. I went one piece at a time (insert Johnny Cash song here), both the center links and the side links have planes going straight through them. So the first center link is at some angle to the main part of the watch, the first side link is at an angle to the first center link, the second center link is at an angle to the first side link, the second side link is at an angle to the second center link...and on and on and on until I had all of the center links and all of the side links on one side. Then the other row of side links are just a Mate and two coaxial Aligns each.

What's really amazing is how that watch took 37 total parts equaling, like, three times the height of my screen in assembly constraints in the Design Explorer :mrgreen:

 

[BernardK]

Hi Mike,

Both pics look nice.

For the watch strap I might have modelled a centre link and two side links as an assembly. Then created a second assembly with 5 link assys to form a 'half' strap and finally built 2 half straps into the final watch. This might reduce the confusion from long lists of constraints.

Either way the results look good!

 

[bobster]

If you have time on your hands and 3D models to build you might consider modeling HD engines, transmissions, front ends, triple trees and the like.
There are scratch builders out there that use this stuff in designing custom frames.
Check out these links, one is very high level using Pro E and selling his models direct, the second is a site that you can sell your 3D models on.

http://www.dbbp.com/

http://www.turbosquid.com/