Homebrew PCBs

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Stefan Trethan" 
<stefan_trethan@g...> wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 10:45:56 -0000, Vasile Surducan <vasile@s...>  
> wrote:
> 
> >
> >   With all respect Steve, the photo's there are quite far away
> > from "commercial quality" as you named it. The problems begun 
when
> > you need 100 similar boards with metalised through holes and 
able to
> > be populate with just 0603 or 0805 series (and last one is 
huge!).
> > With a high component density and other than 100 mil DIP 
packages or
> > 50mil distance between pin to pin of SMD components. The other
> > problem is the silk screen if needs less (or equal) of 10 mil
> > resolution. Not the last one is the isolating varnish and thermal
> > and mechanical resistange of this.
> > And a huge problem is when you need for instance a 15x15 inch 
board
> > (or any other bigger dimension where the printing error will 
affect
> > seriously the board quality).
> >   Prototyping yes. Very small series yes. But production never.
> > best regards,
> > Vasile
> > http://surducan.netfirms.com
> 
> 
> Vasile, production is not interesting because it wouldn't be 
cheaper at  
> all.
> 
> As for the quality discussion, let me explain it differently:
> If you look at homebrew beer, do you believe one can make a beer 
that is  
> as good as commercial bear? Given enough time and devotion? 

 Hi Stefan, of course homebrew beer is alltimes better than 
commercial !

>The same is  true for PCBs.

 Yess, agree, if you have 20'th, good eyes and you don't produce PCB 
in this way for living purposes.
 But don't forget, 20 flies away, glases on the nose come quickly 
and beautiful girls are good just to look at.

:)


> The more money and effort you put in the better the boards will be.
> There are members here who make multilayer boards, with 
throughhole  
> plating. that is as  good as it gets commercially. (add photo-
sensitive  
> soldermask). At least one uses a inkjet so printing distortion 
isn't an  
> issue.
> Those people make great boards, for sure, but their setup is very  
> expensive too. Nowadays you get a commercial board for 10 bucks or 
so, but  
> that isn't why they are making the boards, they do it because the 
want to  
> make that prototype _today_.
> 
> Now, as said a multilayer - throughhole plating setup is very, 
very  
> expensive. If you can live with 2 layers and no plating it gets 
very, very  
> cheap (below 10 bucks equipment cost).

 For this reason I'm staying on two layers even for production 
boards.



> I can live without throughhole plating and multilayer, because i 
get a  
> board in under an hour and for less than 1$ in exchange. I make 
component  
> legend as good as a commercial board, but i don't do soldermask 
simply  
> because i don't need it and don't want to make a photo-process 
setup again.
> 
> So, you see, commercial quality isn't a question of possibility, 
just a  
> question of what you want to spend for it. At some point it gets  
> economically not viable and the only reason you have for making 
you own is  
> very, very short time until you have the board in hands.
> 

 Now, be honest, how many boards produced in the indicated manner 
looks EXACTLY the same? How many problems do you have when are 
mounting SMD devices on those boards? Show me please a picture with 
your highest desity PCB board, homebrewed.

best regards,
Vasile