Robert Hedan wrote:
> I'll probably stick with printing on transparencies and using
> photo-sensitive boards. I get near professional quality every time, and the
> process is so simple. It may be a bit more expensive, but I appreciate the
> quality, speed and ease of use.
>
If you're doing mid-scale, it may not even be much more. Get the stuff and
sensitize your own boards, and it works out reasonably cheap. I normally
recommend against it for general hacking since you can easily touch up the odd
transfer for now and then work, but with 10's and 100's around the corner it'll
be worth the extras if one of the several things I'm trying don't pan out soon.
> We have a yearly collection of hazardous material in our town. That's how I
> plan on disposing of the crap.
>
> I've been looking into fabricating my own CNC drilling station, but I'm just
> a bit screws short of being able to do that yet. :D Soon...
I've built one, it's realtively simple too. $75 or so plus spare motors and
my own built driver board. All just a few different parts from Lowes etc. I
need to take better pictures and write it up, I think it's about as minimal as
you can get and still have an almost entirely metal machine. The good drawer
rails and aluminum angle and threaded rod and connecting nuts. If you know the
right things to do you can make everything free and aligned while eliminating
most play and centering what's there. Mine will drill with #80 bits, most
people say you need a real machine to do that, it just needs to have proper
alignment.
>
> Outsourcing is definitely the way to go once I increase volume, I have no
> doubt on that. I was just hoping to be able to push that back a bit, but
> that seems unlikely given the results I've been having with toner transfer
> and laminators.
>
Yes been looking myself. Most low cost manufacturers want a rediculously
high premium per board for multiple board panels vs the same board size as a
single board. Rediculous 'you're doing a lot, we need more of your profit even
though you're not getting any more board than someone with a single big board'
reasoning instead of realizing that of course more small boards means you're
selling more $5 or $10 items instead of $200 items. If my boards hit $10 each
they aren't worth doing.
When I find a decent place that does a reasonable flat rate or at least a
much more reasonable per board extra I'll post it here..
Alan