Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

I've been making PCB's for quite some time for projects at work. I
use Protel. Whenever I had to make a PCB for myself, I would always
go with $33 special from 4PCB. I recently figured I would give this
whole - make your own PCB a try - would make prototyping circuits much
easier, especially since most of ICs nowadays are SMD. My question is
this - are the home-made PCBs any good? I saw some pictures, and it
looks pretty good when it comes to DIPs, and big power traces, but I
haven't really seen many SMT parts (apart from a few SOIC). I'm
working with DSP's, and flash memories, so we're talking mostly TSOPs
here, and LQFPs. Has anyone tried making LQFP-176 with these things?
How about TSOP-48? I use 8mil traces, and 26mil (pad) vias, with a 10
mil diameter holes. Is there any home method that would give me
acceptable results, and is less than what I currently pay?