[sdiy] Building on Pad Per Hole?

[Scott Stites]

Colin Hintz Wrote:

>Weird. A few months ago, I searched *extensively* for a Vero distributor
>and came up with nothing -- and from the APW parent site in the UK, I'd
>concluded that Veroboard had gone the way of the Heathkit. Very nice to
>see that this stuff is still around -- the "Verostrip" is particularly
>handy for quick-and-simple circuits.

By sheer coincindence, a co-worker in the UK used to be an employee of Vero back
in the 80's and is still in contact with the general manager.  I gave him a call
today.  The sad news is that Vero no longer makes Veroboard (doubly sad, because
my friend was going to snag me a few sheets a while back).  According to him,
Maplin still has some, but it's bloody expensive.  That being said, I actually
have some stripboard from both RPElectronics, which I think is the real deal Vero
stuff, and I have some from Futurlec, which is obviously from a different
manufacturer (and was *much* less expensive).  So, it looks like it's still being
made, just not by Vero.  It's probably a case of a patent running out and then
having competition cranking out a cheaper product.

This assumption is supported by Paul Perry's post:

>"veroboard" is a proprietary name, so (although some companies do!)
>the stuff should be called stripboard or something like that.
>Which might be why it is hard to find when searching for 'vero'.
>here in Australia the Altronics catalog has it as "strip prototype
>board" (but, it is called 'veroboard' in the index!!)"

Paul Perry also writes:

>And so far as 'spot face cutters' go, I have one but I'm happier 
>with an appropriately sized drill bit in a holder.
>My secret weapon is a stiff wire brush that I scrape the board with 
>after soldering (don't do this if you have children, because of the lead dust)"

Cool idea!

Glen writes:

>I used to have some PCB stock that was pre-drilled, with holes arranged in
>a 0.1" grid. It was also fully copper-plated on one side. That's right, no
>pads--just holes in an otherwise solid copper sheet.

I *know* I've recently seen this stuff - I just can't remember where offhand.

Cheers,
Scott

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