I bought one of these from ebay:
http://www.bidservice.com/Browses/DHTML_PHOTOS.ASP?ProductID=13148&Mfg=MRSI&Mdl=501&InvNum=30063
for $1500, plus $600 to have it shipped to california, plus $350/mo for
a workspace to put it in (its just not going to fit in a studio
apartment.)  Powered it up, haven't run anything yet.  The 286-16mhz
rackmount was upgraded to a 486-66.  I'm going to replace the compy and
their vision+control system (written in dos for that 286...no
kidding...) with something custom, specifically to p&p from arbitrary
cut tape.

If anyone out there is thinking DIY for p&p, drop me a line.  The vision
system is the hard part, once I get the robotics going.  Got lots of
documentation and spare parts for the whole thing, altho programming the
robotics is done via a basic-like language, unfortunately documented in
french...  :)

a bit of an adventure.

pololu stencils and a decent toaster oven (4 burners, with fan) has been
working pretty well, my only complaint is I always have bridges on
tssops.  Would like to improve the pasting setup to avoid that.

J



Vitaliy wrote:
> Ray Newman wrote:
>> Still I should save up to buy my own SMT pick & place.
> There has to be some surplus equipment for all the failed USA companies.
> Wish I knew where to look.<
> 
> I've been looking on eBay and Craigslist, there is lots of stuff available. 
> We have products that are starting to take too much time to assemble by 
> hand, but are too expensive to outsource. The trouble is, I've never worked 
> for a contract manufacturer (missed my chance at 16 -- declined a job 
> offer), and don't really know what to look for.
> 
> What would be a good "starter" pick-and-place machine?
> 
> Vitaliy 
> 

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