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

It is possible to produce a $150 PCBMill.(Just the machine minus
the motors,drivers and software) You build it out of MDF and use
aluminum rails with Delrin slides. All parts done production style.
Each day you do a few parts. You will need to build at least 50
machines at once in order to get bulk discounts on the parts. The
problem I found is the shipping cost for each will be the same as the
profit you make on each machine. If a machine gets lost or broken you
are screwed. If you are lucky you can pay yourself 50 cents per hour
after they are sold.

As I was selling off my proto machines I was shocked at the
shipping prices. Lets say a 2'X 4' piece of MDF costs $12. When you
turn it into a machine it cost $30 to ship minus packing material and
box. Forget about the packing and shipping time. I did better selling
the parts off the machine and throwing the MDF in the garbage.