Homebrew PCBs

Alan King wrote:
> Russell Shaw wrote:
> 
>>Alan King wrote:
>>
>>>Russell Shaw wrote:
>>>
>>>>Even if they gave the boards to me for free, it's still much more expensive
>>>>than doing it myself. If i design a pcb, i can build it in an hour keeping
>>>>my same train of thought and get a result, and even iterate a new board if
>>>>needed. Getting them made outside means waiting atleast a week (usually two
>>>>or three unless you pay double).
>>>
>>> Hey, if you need that, then knock yourself out.  I can generally 
>>>remember exactly what I was doing a week or two later, and don't have 
>>>the slightest problem with a 2 week delay on that front.
>>
>>That means i have to find something else to do while the client waits
>>because of ones laziness to do it themself.
>>
>>>But for sure, 
>>>after costs and time you're not coming out as much ahead of my $3 per 
>>>board as you are thinking, and I'm getting PTH, mask, and not even 
>>>having to make a board..
>>
>>I'd still be in front compared to waiting for two weeks for a pcb and
>>having the pcb vendor pay me $200. Anything more than simple PCBs usually
>>need a second refinement, and it's far better to have the vendor make
>>only the final design.
> 
>   Great, guess what, your special need for immediate boards was already 
> excepted in my original message with "Still ok if you just have to have 
> an instant board, but that usually isn't so important vs a week or so.", 
> you must have missed it.  So everything you've said doesn't have 
> anything to do with what was being discussed in the first place, actual 
> dollar cost of the boards, and no, you're not really ahead on that by 
> much.  At $150ish for 5 8x10"s you can't be more than $150 ahead, and 
> after taking out board costs etc it'll be notably less.  Plus your time 
> not spent doing more productive things than making boards, or wasted if 
> you like being lazy or don't have any work to do.  Plus no mask.  Plus 
> you had the work of making the boards.  Just like I said in the original..

If i save 2 weeks (it's
usually more than that) on an item that's made in a product to a total
value of $100k/month, i've moved the income stream closer by a value of
$50k. That's the reason there's buyers for crappy little milling machines
for $20k. Hopefully someone on the group will come out with a better and
cheaper one. I'm going to make my own anyway.

So regardless of a pissy little $3 a board or $200, time is everything,
hence this group.