[sdiy] Possibly quick / cheap pcb service - anyone interested?

[Tom Bugs]

I think it could certainly be of interest!
I'm sure there's a market for very small scale PCB productions as many 
board houses don't become viable until you reach, say, 20 PCBs.
George Hearn introduced me last year to www.PCBtrain.co.uk who offer 
relatively affordable one-off boards for prototyping - this may give 
some good ideas for chargeable prices, though this isn't a CNC based 
service.

I set up my own small CNC machine a few years ago and it has certainly 
proved useful for many prototyping needs. As always the time consuming 
part is the designing of the layout - once that's done it is relatively 
quick & easy to do the CNC work. But you're right to note that you'd be 
putting quite a lot of your time into any production due to the nature 
of the work and this can quickly raise the end-user prices.

Good luck!
Tom / BugBrand

On 30/01/2010 12:54, Julian wrote:
>
> Currently, when i want to make a pcb for myself, i use my CNC machine 
> to cut the traces (well, to be more accurate, cut the area arround the 
> traces)
>
> Quite nice boards can be produced from old pcb overlays, all drilled 
> etc by the machine.
>
> Here's an example that i made for a friend using the digisound 80-11a 
> (ringmod) overlay -
>
> http://www.thebeast.co.uk/cnc/digisound_80-11a.jpg
>
> Boards can, however, also be produced from eagle files, using the free 
> pcb-gcode software, which too gives nice results.
>
>
> Although i make front panels for people (eg 
> http://www.thebeast.co.uk/cnc/ ) ive always considered making pcbs to 
> be unfeasible, as, by the time ive prepared the code, paid for the 
> materials, run the job, cleaned it, packed it, invoiced for it, gone 
> to the post office, paid the accountant, paid the taxman... (well you 
> get the idea) it doest seem worth it for the ammount i would want to 
> charge.
>
>
> ...however, im considering the purchase of some slightly different 
> hardware which will make the production of pcbs quite a bit quicker, 
> and possibly make their production for other people viable.
>
> I havent yet worked out any figures, but i thought id ask if this may 
> be a service people would be interested in?
>
> Im not thinking as an alternative to the big pcb houses - im thinking 
> as a quick and (id like to think) cheap option for diy builders / 
> prototyping etc.
>
>
> So, im just trying to gauge interest at the moment, and id be curious 
> as to what such a service would need to be priced at to make it 
> attractive?  (like i say, i havent done any calculations at all yet, 
> so im just talking ball park for, say 100 x 80 mm single / double side 
> boards, with a quick lead time.  I would have to confirm the figures 
> for isolation, but as a general indication, production is fine enough 
> that tracks can be run in-between legs of standard DIL ics.
>
> Any feedback would be most welcome.  Even if its "no thats a rubbish 
> idea, you can get pcbs for 10 a penny from...."
>
> Thank you,
> Julian
>
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