Homebrew PCBs

After watching the thread on CustomPCB vs Olimex vs whoever for finished boards it strikes me that all the pricing I've seen for naked board stock is pretty high by comparison. 

Where do folks get their stock? I'm near Baltimore and haven't found a motherload anywhere nearby.

I'm looking for 1/32 primarily for small boards.

tnx
jim

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005 18:57:19 +0100, Jim Miller <jim@...> wrote:

> After watching the thread on CustomPCB vs Olimex vs whoever for finished  
> boards it strikes me that all the pricing I've seen for naked
> board stock is pretty high by comparison.
>
>
> Where do folks get their stock? I'm near Baltimore and haven't found a  
> motherload anywhere nearby.
>
>
> I'm looking for 1/32 primarily for small boards.
>
>
> tnx
>
> jim


retail prices are just too high (maybe a bit under 1eur for a 100x160mm  
pcb).
BUT, cutoffs from PCB houses are really cheap. Now if you don't know any  
or don't want to ask them for those look at ebay, they turn up regularly.  
You can by the stuff real cheap there.
Don't buy at ebay if it costs more than one tenth of retail.

Cutoffs doesn't mean small, they can be quite large sometimes.


ST

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005, Jim Miller wrote:

> After watching the thread on CustomPCB vs Olimex vs whoever for finished
> boards it strikes me that all the pricing I've seen for naked board
> stock is pretty high by comparison.
>
> Where do folks get their stock? I'm near Baltimore and haven't found a
> motherload anywhere nearby.
>
> I'm looking for 1/32 primarily for small boards.

There are a few people on Ebay selling surplussed board stock.  That's
where I get mine.


-- 
David Griffith
dgriffi@...

thanks all

don't know why i keep forgetting about ebay...

tnx
jim

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Jim Miller" <jim@...>
To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 6:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Board stock?


> thanks all
> 
> don't know why i keep forgetting about ebay...

Here's a reminder. Which of the following is a reason to not use eBay?

A) vendors are unreliable.
B) products are seldom accurately and completely spec'ed.
C) lead time is enormous.
D) service infrastructure is non-existent.
E) payment service wants unlimited access to your bank account.
F) ALL OF THE ABOVE.

In a message dated 11/20/2005 12:53:13 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
jim@... writes:

Where do  folks get their stock?<<
Jim:  I don't know about PCB shops "up there," but I have  gotten 4" 
"cut-offs" from local shops, as anything narrower than 4" is useless  in their 
plating/etching rigs, so they shear off the "work" and trash the  cut-offs.  These 
are about 3' long!  ONE trip will supply me for two  or three years of 
tinkering-PCB  work!        Jan Rowland

 


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In a message dated 11/20/2005 7:23:08 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
mikewhy@... writes:

Which of  the following is a reason to not use eBay?



F ! !  !              


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Here's a reminder why you maybe should:

A) prices are _low_ (one tenth and lower).
B) huge selection of products.
C) bad sellers can easily be avoided with some brains.
D) no incompetent salespeople telling you lies (and trying to sell you a  
bloody mobile phone).
E) payment service can be secure for you easily, again if you use the  
stuff kept inside head.
F) all of the above.

but then, the less people buying there, the lower the prices, the better  
for me ;-)

ST


On Mon, 21 Nov 2005 02:20:55 +0100, Mike Young <mikewhy@...>  
wrote:

>
>
>
>> thanks all
>
>>
>
>> don't know why i keep forgetting about ebay...
>
>
> Here's a reminder. Which of the following is a reason to not use eBay?
>
>
> A) vendors are unreliable.
>
> B) products are seldom accurately and completely spec'ed.
>
> C) lead time is enormous.
>
> D) service infrastructure is non-existent.
>
> E) payment service wants unlimited access to your bank account.
>
> F) ALL OF THE ABOVE.

Stefan Trethan wrote:

>Here's a reminder why you maybe should:
>
>A) prices are _low_ (one tenth and lower).
>B) huge selection of products.
>C) bad sellers can easily be avoided with some brains.
>D) no incompetent salespeople telling you lies (and trying to sell you a  
>bloody mobile phone).
>E) payment service can be secure for you easily, again if you use the  
>stuff kept inside head.
>F) all of the above.
>  
>
  All of the above and then some.  With hundreds of transactions, only a 
few went bad, vast majority without the slightest problem.  Even if $1 
out of $10 went bad, you'd still come out 50% or more ahead of about 
anything else available.

  Don't get attached to any one auction, and with a little patience 
you'll get a ton of PCB material for around $25 or $30 shipped..  Do pay 
attention, and don't get weird thicknesses unless you know for sure it 
is what you want.  Read through even high feedback seller's feedbacks to 
make sure there won't likely be problems. 

Alan

On Mon, 21 Nov 2005 09:21:58 +0100, Alan King <alan@...> wrote:

>  Don't get attached to any one auction,
> Alan


I do agree.

I don't mind it at all if sb. outbids me. What i HATE is if i either  
forgot an auction, or the software messed up, or.. and have to see it did  
go for a bargain to someone else. Especially if it is a once every 5 years  
item like yesterday.......
That makes me slightly mad and interested in strangling the people  
maintaining the ebay servers with the bloody LAN cable they must have  
pulled to spite me.

By the way - unlikely things sometimes happen. I sell very little at ebay,  
maybe 3 things a year. The last one went to a guy in another country with  
the same postcode as me ;-) That's a 1 in 99999 chance! I should play the  
lottery after all.

It just takes some common sense and you won't have bad deals at ebay, or  
at least only a tiny percentage. True, some sellers are a pain to deal  
with, but if you are on good terms with the major delivery services it  
helps a lot.

ST