On Mar 10, 2006, at 1:22 PM, Vitaliy wrote:

> I'd be interested to hear from people whose company owns
> this or a similar plotter.

I have a personal (older) LPKF 92s machine.

>
> - How much should one expect to pay for one of these?

About $10k for new low-end systems (C20/s ?)  The major
competitor is http://www.t-tech.com/  The machines turn
up occasionally on eBay or similar; mine cost about $5k
(and it wasn't originally a low-end unit, and it came with
a bunch of tooling and material.  I think I got a good deal.)


> The price is impossible to find on the LPKF website. Last
> year's article lists the price as "under $25,000"

I suspect that means that that machine costs very close to $25k


> - What are the advantages of this tool?

Immediate gratification.
Doubles as FR4 "shape cutter."
Ability to refine designs rapidly (sort like using a word processor
     to write a novel, this is a mixed blessing.  It's "fun", but it's
     not clear that the time you spend is worth the effort.)
The software is pretty good, especially compared to the stuff you
     might find to homebrew CNC-router based machines.
Very nice, compared to PCB houses, if your usual board is small and
   not very populated.
Works nicely as a drilling machine.
We apparently have one at work somewhere, used for some of the
   fiddly RF layout stuff (?)  A fair amount of the marketing of
   the machine is aimed at such usages, I think.


> - What are the disadvantages?

pretty slow and noisy.
Double-sided boards are possible, but do NOT have PTH (and the
   addons to do PTH seem expensive and awkward), which makes a
   lot of things quite difficult.
The generic etching tool has a cut width of .2 to .3mm, which
   puts a limit on the pin pitch of chips you can support. I'm
   not sure where the real limit is, but I start to feel worried
   about 1mm pitch (which is NOT "fine" by todays standards.)

> - Are there any gotchas?

Consumables, mostly in the form of mechanical etching bits,
   are more expensive than you'd think, and don't last as long
   as you'd like.  http://www.lpkfusa.com/Store has examples.
   (lightly used drills are easy to find on the surplus market.
    The special milling tools; not...)
You don't get soldermasks, or tin plating, or silkscreens.  All
   the machine does is replace the "etch", "drill", and "cut" phases.

> - At what point it becomes economical to buy this machine,
>   instead of ordering boards from a place like 4PCB.com?

Hmm.  Potentially never.  Consumable cost for mid-sized boards
is going to be close to what you'd spend at a board house (if you
follow the rules, anyway), without even taking into account the
cost of the machine.  On the other hand, if you constantly do
board designs that don't match the usual protoboard services
(small boards and odd shapes, for instance), it makes more sense.
The value of "immediate gratification" is not to be denied, especially
when you're in a "learning" phase of PCB development (several
universities seem to have equipment like this.)  I don't think
I would have bought the machine at all if I hadn't had in mind
"alternative applications" where a FR4-cutting CNC router might
be useful :-)  On the third hand, I don't regret the purchase, and
I've "played" with it more than some of the powertools I've bought!

BillW
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