Rumor has it that Don Y may have mentioned these words:
Registration becomes the issue.
Are you speaking of registering 2-sided boards, or of problems that can
come from non-linearity of media for even single-sided boards?
In my experience, it's just not
worth it, nowadays, unless you're making a HiFi amplifier or
something equally "non-dense". Saving a couple of dollars on
a bare board just doesn't justify the cost (in time)
1) experience of doing it yourself?
2) bragging rights?
3) need quick turnaround?
4) 1-off prototypes?
Granted, depending on the application, none of these may apply... and the
costs of a hobby (time & $$) are *never* justifiable, unless "Because I
wanted to" is a valid justification. ;-)
E.g., why not make your own memory SIMM/DIMMs too?
:>
Someone was trying to make their own, but the board thickness might not be
a standard thickness for what's available in the hobbyist market, IIRC...
not to mention cutting the boards with the little notches & whatnot may not
be very easy in a hobbyist setting. Lasers good, Dremels bad... ;-)
Years ago we had our own etch tank, wave, etc. and
*still* ended
up pushing board fab to outside vendors (messy process).
Yes, but was that for 1-off prototype stuff, or for a run of boards?
Prototype boards are a lot more expensive compared to a run of 1000, or
even 100.
But what do I know - I'm just the Village Idiot when it comes to board
manufacture... ;-) [[ Done a lot of reading on it, have a couple of kit
systems, but never taken the time to do enough with it to get used to it... ]]
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger | "Bugs of a feather flock together."
sysadmin, Iceberg Computers | Russell Nelson
zmerch at
30below.com |