Making physical stuff using modern techniques requires access to several machines that cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each. It would sure be nice

Making physical stuff using modern techniques requires access to several machines that cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each. It would sure be nice to rent & share. How do companies do it? They either CAD up the work and contract it out to a machine shop (expensive and unfulfilling) or they are a machine shop (and understandably don't want to moonlight the same thing as their day job). Occasionally a university or corporate R&D lab will have decent machines on site. When this happens, it is magical. If you have access, you are a very happy person, and when you lose access you become a very sad person who wishes they could rent access again.