Wow these services are getting cheap. That’s really awesome. Thanks for sharing that.

Even cheaper (both senses of the word) are Chinese shops like jlcpcb and allpcb.

Strange Parts[1] made a great factory tour video of the JLC facility in China for anyone that interested in such things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljOoGyCso8s

[1] https://strangeparts.com/

Scotty is doing a good job of catching everyone up on what is going on in China. Chinese manufacturers have been putting out 10x10x10 boards for 50 RMB ($7 USD) for many years now. Rush order (24 hours)? Another 50 RMB. Yellow solder mask? Also another 50 RMB. Once you start talking about 4 layer, flex, rgba solder mask or other customization the difference is even greater.

I used a cheap* Chinese service recently and the quality was excellent. They're a great option if the dimensions of your design make OSH Park's by-the-square-inch pricing uneconomical. In addition, the boards were delivered in under a week.

*100mm x 150mm x 2 layer x 10pc order for $44

If you can squeeze your board down, 100 x 100mm seems to be the sweet spot with the cheap Chinese board makers that I've used [1].

10 boards under 100x100 are typically around $5-10, whereas a 10mm more pushes it to around $30

JLC are currently showing me some sort of promotional pricing of $2 for 10 x 100x100mm 2-layer boards (+$6 shipping - I'm close), which is ridiculously cheap.

[1] https://jlcpcb.com, https://www.pcbway.com

I’ve done a ton of those boards with JLCPCB now. I think possibly 200 boards. It’s ridiculously cheap.

They’re the best of the lot as well.

I’ve tried others but they all seem to have layer registration problems or screw up the edges of your boards when panelising them (OSHpark do that)

Thanks for the links I didn't know about these services.

They use TG-130 or TG-140 which are lower temperature (130C/140C) FR4 board ratings. The surface may melt when de-soldering at high temperature. I usually prefer TG-170/TG-180 boards as I find them to be more reliable during rework.

But can't argue with those prices. :)

This.

I dumped my trusty UV box and stacks of chemicals earlier this year, developed some patience and get JLCPCB to do the honours. It’s cheaper for me to run a not too small 2 layer board there than pay for the substrate and consumables here and the boards are several orders of magnitude better.

Plus you really can’t spin a decent SMD board at home.