Homebrew PCBs

Hi All,
..so I used to make simple boards myself, but I think the price 
points have come down so much for proto borads that it is really okay 
to get them made professionaly...for as little as $13 a borad

I bought a few boards from pcbFABexpress (not to be confused with 
pcbexpress) and this is what i found:
The minimum quantity is 5 boards; (it may work for some of you but I 
would like minimum to be a little less than 5)
HOWEVER..the $13 for 2 layer price is applicable to this..you DON'T 
have to buy 15 or 20 to get that price as other companies do.
The boards have been GREAT in quality...no problems at all..you can 
tell they get it made from some good shops.


ALSO pcbFABexpress has a great referral program. Some silly name like 
Gimme20. But essentially if you refer a friend to the site and that 
friend orders boards..you get $20 off!

So I was able to get 5 double sided boards for about $40 using that 
$20 online coupon! That's $8 a board..mask, silkscreen(legend) 
tooling ALL INCLUDED..I don;t know how these guys can offer it at 
such low prices --hope they have a biz model that works in the long 
run..but in the short term i am enjoying the prices. 

I even got my senior year project boards (from college)re-made at 
these prices..so they look nice and clean and I can prodly show them 
around as the first boards I ever designed.


has anybody used pcb-pool.com? Let me know if you have..i might try 
them out too.


James










--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Roan" <bob@t...> wrote:
> I am trying to make my own PCB boards and have identified at least 
(!)
> two areas where I need help.
>  
> #1 - When I held the drill in my hand to drill the holes, they 
weren't
> in very good alignment (probably an understatement.)
>  
> #2 - When I try a two sided board, I will have to connect the 
circuits
> on the two sides with what I think are called vias.
>  
> I'm willing to spend some money (under $200) would be nice on 
equipment
> to help me in these areas.  I particularly like the idea of cnc, if 
I'm
> correct that it would automatically position the drill, but I am not
> very skilled at designing and assembling hardware.  But I might be 
able
> to do something simple.  I'm a pretty good programmer, so I might be
> able to compensate on the software side for these shortcomings.
>  
> any suggestions?
>  
> thanks
>  
> bob
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]