- First of all, thank you for the very informative reply.

William Chops Westfield wrote:
> 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.)

According to the datasheet, S62 can do 0.1 mm (4 mils) for both track width 
and isolation width.

>> - 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.

I suspected that. :(

> The value of "immediate gratification" is not to be denied [...]

Well, this is kind of why I am looking at the plotter. There was a time last 
year when we were very close to the project deadline, when we had to pay 
$1200 for a second set of prototypes (one day service, next day shipping, 
etc). With the plotter, we would have found out the same day that there was 
a problem with the PCB layout.

Of course, considering the cost it is obvious that in the foreseeable future 
we will continue using a board house.

By the way, has anyone used a board house in Phoenix, Arizona?

Best regards,

Vitaliy 

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