Homebrew PCBs

Steve,
      I designed and built a simple plotter with power so people 
could Scratch and Etch boards. Then the floor wax idea hit. So I 
dropped the ball. One year later I dropped by only to find nobody got 
it to work. Have you ever refilled a cartridge? Sometimes that does 
not work out well! The whole thing reminds of the dental drill on the 
plotter. The plotter can barely handle the pen never mind a drill 
bit. The guy who wrote the article must have used a plotter from the 
70s. Now they had power!

                                                John 






--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <alienrelics@y...> 
wrote:
> Eh, I wasn't worried, it isn't like you are spamming.
> 
> Pretty much anything made one-of is going to cost -way- more in time
> than would be worth it if you were to sell it. This includes making
> our own printed circuit boards.
> 
> Which is why hobbyists and small prototypers make this stuff
> ourselves, but big places tend to send out to have it done.
> 
> I've bought an XY table to convert into a small CNC milling machine.
> This was the one suggested in the Nuts 'N Volts article, and I was
> fortunate to get it on sale at nearly half-price. I'm just stalled 
on
> it because of the thousands of other projects I'm working on.
> 
> Speaking of time vs money- I bought a 16F877 development board 
rather
> than assemble something because 1. I have no time on this particular
> project (I should be working on it right now) and 2. I got it for 
only
> $27 plus shipping. I won't recommend the company, though, unless you
> are in no hurry to receive your items. I was in a hurry, and paid
> extra for 3 to 6 day shipping, and it took 10 days to get here. But
> they are refunding the extra I'd paid for expedited shipping. I felt
> they were rather disenginuous about when and where it shipped from,
> and why there was a small overcharge.
> 
> The boards, however, are superb and I could not have done as well,
> certainly not in the time I have.
> 
> However, I have other projects for which space and money is at a
> premium so I am using SMT and am going to make my own PCBs.
> 
> Yes, so far the Future Floor polish thing is an urban myth. Stefan 
is
> the only person I know who confirms that he tried it, and that 
didn't
> work out. I do have that Epson 800 piezo head to try but not until
> after this weekend, as that when my current project has to be up and
> running.
> 
> Steve Greenfield
> 
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "crankorgan" <john@k...> 
wrote:
> > Steve,
> >       I went back and looked at my first message. It looks more 
like 
> > an ad than what I was trying to say. What I wanted to say is 
selling 
> > a built machine is very hard. Even if you charged $500 each the 
> > profit would be small. Several people made one of my machines and 
> > sold it on Ebay. They made $25 profit not counting their time!