Lawrence Lile wrote:
>
> My boss wants me to price up the equipment we would need to be able
> to produce up to 100 pre-production prototype circuits in our lab.
> Geez! With our present methods it takes a guy a day to make one!
>
> I'm thinking about a nice heated pumped ferric chloride etch tank (as
> opposed to our 9" x 12" glass tray and hotplate we use now)  a small
> CNC drill, dipping through hole boards in a solder pot (as opposed to
> using a soldering iron or a $50,000 wave solder machine)  and some
> kind of reflow oven for surface mount.
>
> I know we have discussed converting toaster ovens into reflow ovens -
> let's not go there again.  How bout the real thing?  Any body used
> them?
>
> Do I need some kiond of small pick and place system for surface
> mount?  So far we have made surface mount prototypes (with a lot of
> pain and eyestrain) using tweezers, syringes, and a soldering iron.
> It makes you nuts.  What do you guys use?
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Lawrence Lile

Unless you have really big bucks to spend on manufacturing, stay away!
The time saved on some guy soldering the smd devices, will be spent on
the same guy watching the pick'n place machine, or the oven, or both.
The CNC drill will always screw up half the boards, and your etching
will always have open and short circuits hidden from sight.

The cheaper, faster, and more economical way is to have PC boards made
up (We pay around USD45 for 1 square meter through hole PCB on a three
day turnaround) Take these boards to your usual manufacturer and let
him populate it for you. This has two extra advantages : 1) Every
manufacturer have their own little requirements, and they'll soon point
it out. 2) You can assess the quality to be expected from the layout.

--

Friendly Regards

Tjaart van der Walt
mailto:tjaart@wasp.co.za
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