DIY Through Hole Plating of PCBs (2017)

Re:DIY Through Hole Plating of PCBs (2017) by uuidgen on Sunday March 14, 2021 @11:27AM (#26456160)

Ordering from china is inexpensive but it takes time. I can send a pdf to a local printing house in the evening, get the negatives around the noon while the PCB is drilled. Then etch and mask it in about 2 hours and solder all the vias in next 3 or 4. (I wasn't able to get reliable plating.) Overall one day to have a prototype ready.

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Re:DIY Through Hole Plating of PCBs (2017) by syedkarim on Sunday March 14, 2021 @12:18PM (#26456506)

Where are you getting this kind of turnaround? Is this in the US? I purchase a couple dozen protoboards a year and am constantly looking for US board houses, but they all have lot charges of at least $500 and take a couple days just to get a quote back.

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Re:DIY Through Hole Plating of PCBs (2017) by HeyLaughingBoy on Sunday March 14, 2021 @12:52PM (#26456745)

I use OSHPark for prototyping. I don't know where they send the boards, but they hit a reasonable compromise between cheap & fast: $5/sq inch for 3 boards. The quoting is immediate on their website. I usually have boards back in a week after ordering from OSH Park.

For production quantities, I use JLCPcb (China) with Airborne for shipping (so it doesn't take a month to get here). Their quality is very good. Pay the extra $20 and get a stencil to make paste application easy. It's worth it. I think my last order of 50 board roughly 2.5x3.5" with a metal stencil came to about $70 total with an additional $30 for 3-5 day shipping via Airborne.

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Re:DIY Through Hole Plating of PCBs (2017) by uuidgen on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @02:45PM (#26481095)

In Poland I can get a board or 3 in a week but it will be expensive (about $150-$200 for a small one), normal, cheap delivery time is about 3 weeks. China is even cheaper but takes 4-8 weeks.

That's why I made a lot of boards myself as described in my comment - I get film exposed at professional house that does it for offset printing, and this is pretty fast and cheap (about $3-$4). I pick it up myself. The rest is done with photosensitive 3M dry film and Chinese wet soldermask. Drilling on DIY CNC.

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Re:DIY Through Hole Plating of PCBs (2017) by leoedin on Sunday March 14, 2021 @01:42PM (#26457126)

If you pay for fast delivery, a Chinese board can be in your hands within a week of ordering. Sure, it's not instant, but you can do something else in the mean time.

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Re:DIY Through Hole Plating of PCBs (2017) by Brian_K_White on Monday March 15, 2021 @08:32AM (#26465240)

What I usually do in the mean time is.... revise the board.

Sometimes I get 4 revisions in the pipeline where 3 versions I haven't even received yet are already obsolete and go right from the mailbox to the trash.

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