Here is one off the wall. Say I have a few drawings of fitness equipment that I think would be better than any I have seen. How would I go about moving forward with this? How would I get a prototype built? Just real curious.
Patent it. Market it to exercise equipment execs.
Visit local non-chain gyms. The ones I useto train at have equipment built by local outfits.
And they do place their “signature” (complete with contact info) on the equipment that they build.
Also, since most equipment may have to be welded, why don’t you inquire at local welding companies?
Dude I do custom design for a living. Pm me I can help you out. Ciao. 
jp,
before you do anything, if you really believe you have come up with something unique, you should protect your idea.
In a nutshell, write down what it is, what it does, and put together some drawing, even rough out an actualy model from would or whatever.
Then, have a some friends(witnesses to your idea, but people who will not benefit financially from you invention) to look at the stuff and sign /date on each page write “read and understood”, meaning they read about your invention and they understand what it is for and how it works. This establishes what is called date of invention.
Now your idea is actually protected, if you widget shows up on the market you may be able to prove you thought of it first == money for you.
If you really think you have something special, it’s worth protecting.
-Sean
it’s good to patent it, but if you go up against a company who took your idea, it’s all about how much you think you can make off of this idea. They will fight you to death, just to keep their idea, although it is your idea. A patent is only as good as how much money you are willing to put up to defend it.