[sdiy] DIY PCB-making in top quality

[Tony Clark]

On Mon, 4 Apr 2005, Tim Parkhurst wrote:

> The reflow ovens might be okay for DIY (if you've got room for a 10 to 15
> foot long oven, and 220VAC to run it,

   You left off the most important deal, 220V _3 phase_!  And larger 
ovens run off of 440V 3 phase, like the Quad machine I have at work!  The 
size of the copper that runs that machine is astounding!

> The tape feeders require at least a foot
> (or more) of empty 'leader' to be threaded into the feeder mechanism

   Just use a bit of scotch tape to extend the tape cover back to the 
spooling reel.  After the machine advances a couple of inches, the new 
stuff will be in the pinch rollers and all is golden.

> And here you all were, ready to bid the $70K to $150K (US$) a used Siemens
> Pick and Place machine will run...

   You can find some used machines for around $1000.00, good ones (ie decent 
fast placers) for around $5-6K, but the shipping will kill you.  :)  
And so will buying parts.  Feeders tend to run around $300 each _used_.  
The little nozzle that picks up parts?  $800+.  You don't even want to 
know what other parts run!
   It can be an expensive investment, but if you make a lot of boards, 
they pay for themselves in no time at all!  Consider stuffing and hand 
soldering 10 boards that takes 1 person about 2 hours to do (1.5 hours 
for the fast workers), my Quad IVc will do that same board, 12 of them, 
in under 8 minutes.  :)  And it's on the low end of placement machines.  
Get a modern 6 or 8 head turret placer, and those boards would be done in 
under a minute easy.

   Cheers,

   Tony

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