Homebrew PCBs

I asked this question before and I have used
http://www.silvercircuits.com/ with great success.

$40 for your basic 1 board + $12 shipping

Panel service available also.

There lead time is pretty reasonable (<1 week).

Making your own pcbs is cool but unless it's for a single sided board,
it's way easier to send it off for $40.

I've experimented with several different methods.  CNC mill is pretty
painless but by no means fast.  Nice part is that with a system with
an auto tool change, you can mill the board and drill the holes in one
step.  Takes an hour or two to mill out a board but probably takes me
an hour or two to align the vice and double check pcb-gcode isn't
doing something funny.  Inkjet printing works ok but then you still
need to drill the holes.  Both require pretty careful alignment in
flipping the board over to do the other side.  Finally, those drill
bits and tools wear out pretty quickly too.

I got both working but the real thing that made me give up was the
solder mask.  I absolutely need it for fine trace parts otherwise the
soldering process just spills over and it takes me forever to clean it
up.

If you need a milled pcb, I just use a praxxon scroll saw:
http://www.amazon.com/Proxxon-37088-115-Scroll-Saw/dp/B0017NUBMQ

I don't know maybe I'm just getting lazy but I have a hard time
justifying making my own boards unless I'm a super rush or make more
than 1 design a week.

On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 8:19 AM, Viper62pr <viper62pr@...> wrote:
>
>
> I have been using Gold Phoenix for over a year now, it usually takes 10 days
> from the time I send in my gerbers to the time it arrives here. Shipping to
> the US is included in the price.
> I was thinking of doing my prototype boards at home but don't want to mess
> with chemicals.
>
> --- On Mon, 5/18/09, Brian <blue_eagle74@...> wrote:
>
> From: Brian <blue_eagle74@...>
> Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] professional board making
>
> To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Monday, May 18, 2009, 1:32 AM
>
> who is the cheapest and best to use for panalized boards with masking.
>
> Brian
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>