[sdiy] rising cost of PCB's?

[Tom Corbitt]

For the most part, the cost of the copper in a PCB is negligible, What
you're paying for is the etch, drill hits, plating on the vias,
laminating and any lpi (solder mask) /silkscreen work (and all the
machines required for the above plus the people required to run them)
Complexity, not size is the main driving force behind cost.

There isn't a lot of profit in boards and a lot of places have winked
out in the past 5 years. Most of the places you see with the $10/board
ads are companies that simply buy excess space on other companies
panels (Most companies save a certain amount of panel space to
accommodate rush orders but if they don't sell they still need to fill
them before the run) so you're really paying a middleman fee, which
has gone up since fewer vendors means less space.

If you want to lower your pcb costs, find a vendor and learn their
process. Do they prefer score or tab routes? What panel size do they
usually run? What day of the week is lightest? Once they know that
your gerbers normally don't need much fixed and that you're easy to
work with, you'll start getting better prices.

Of course, once you get over 4-6 layers, away from FR-4 or under 6-6
all bets are off.

Tom Corbitt

On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 2:00 AM, Dan Snazelle <subjectivity at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> hey there
>
> i started doing synth diy about 2 and half almost 3 yrs ago. when i first started buying pcbs many of them were in the 5 to 10  or at most 12  to 15 dollar range. (plus shipping)
>
> now i am seeing more and more boards that are 15, 17, 18,  20, 25, 30 and up up up
>
> i was just wondering if this is due to the cost of pcb manufacturing going up? the strength of the dollar?
>
> or am i just crazy and imagining that the prices are going up?
>
> granted i am not talking about big pcb boards. multi board projects or things like the asm2.
>
> just wondering.
>
> thanks!
>
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------
> check out various dan music at:
>
>  http://www.myspace.com/lossnyc
>
> (updated monthly)
>
> http://www.soundclick.com/lossnyc.htm
>
>
>
> http://www.indie911.com/dan-snazelle
>
> (or for techno) http://www.myspace.com/snazelle
>
> ALSO check out Dan synth/Fx projects:
>
> AUDIO ARK:
>
> www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJRpvaOcUic
>
> www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqIa_lXQNTA&feature=channel_page
>
> www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4nJPjGgOcU&feature=channel_page
>
> and soundtrack/design work:
>
> NEW: check out Dan's sound design from the 1998 award winning film SAFARI by catherine chalmers
>
> http://www.catherinechalmers.com/videos.cfm
>
>
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