On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 03:34:17PM -0700, Jim Stephens wrote:
My understanding was that they charged more by the hole
than by size.
Also double sided if the layout was doable that way would make the
board order from a real board house way cheaper.
Oshpark.com and
batchpcb.com charge *only* by size, which is great for tiny
SMT stuff but gets expensive quickly for flip-chips or dual/quad modules
which have to be big no matter how sparsely populated they are. I've had
small-volume prototype stuff done all over (very good prices in Macau) but
for stuff in big enough volumes to sell, I've been doing everything in the
US since the EPA may be largely useless but at least it eventually puts a
stop to *really* needless pollution, and I'm worried about what happens to
waste in less regulated countries. And in the US, getting any kind of real
area for $12 a pop wouldn't be easy...
I knew the fellow who did the card tabs here in Orange
County, Stu
Phillips for MDB, Dilog and Emulex, but he died a few years ago, and
I think his company changed hands.
Oh man I'm so sorry to hear that! I've seen his name stamped on the back
of tons of handles and if I ever found the contact information I swear I've
got for him around here somewhere, I was going to order a run of "D Bit"
handles, if he was still making them. He did really nice work.
Otherwise I'd look him up and try to get his dies.
The dies cost,
the runs and material don't. Helped that he knew some tool and die
makers who owed him to get into the business in the first place.
I've never held any 3D-printed output in my own hands and the pictures I've
seen vary from "suspiciously perfect" to "looks like shredded wheat",
so I
don't know if it's dumb to ask if 3D-printed flip-chip handles could handle
the violence of doing their job? Same question about DEC-style edge connectors
and/or obsolete Mate-N-Loks (either way the contacts aren't much of a problem
to dig up but the shells are long gone).
Otherwise, what really goes into making a die? I've got an el cheapo Sieg X2
mini-mill and lots of free time ... and there are lots of plastics companies
here in western Mass ... yeah another dumb question.
John Wilson
D Bit