At 09:46 AM 04/02/2010, you wrote:
>I have been asked by an acquaintance if I would be interested in doing
>some PCB board stuffing/soldering on a piecework basis. I said that I
>would be interested and of course the question of costing came up. The
>boards he wants done range in size from approximately 4"X3" up to 6"X8".
>They are all of the ThruHole type. The components will be supplied with
>the boards so all I have to do is stuff them and solder them. A run will
>be all of one size, only two sided and will never be greater than 30
>boards. The component count will be reasonable for the board size. There
>is a possibility that the boards will already contain a few SMT components.
>
>I am at a loss to know how to price a job like this out. I consider
>myself competent to do the work satisfactorily and am confident that I
>can do the work in a timely manner. I would appreciate any comments as
>to how to quote a job like this.
>
>Any enlightenment will be appreciated.
>
>Vic Fraenckel
>KC2GUI
>windswaytoo ATSIGN gmail DOT com

IME prices are all over the map for low quantities like this. You should
estimate the time to make sure you'll be making enough, and probably
check out the market to see what others are charging. Don't forget to
allow enough time to organize the parts and deal with shortages/overages.

You'll need to clean the flux off the boards in order to be able to
inspect them properly. Also consider the cost of solder, cutters and
cleaning chemicals if they are not supplied. A decent first MINIMUM
estimate might be double what you'd pay in gross salary to a skilled
employee to do the work, plus materials. The maximum depends on what the
customer is willing to pay, and if you bring any special talents to the table.

A guess might be 30-50 cents per component with fewer than 20 leads, but it
could be half that or double that. Regular arrangements of similar parts
(say an 8-output relay board or 16-input opto-isolator board) are
faster per component to stuff and check than tightly packed designs with a
large number of different parts. Relatively high quantities can get
prices down to the penny a part or less, but nobody in a developed country can
afford to do that by hand (and often not by machine). Expect the first ones
to take longer, of course.

Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com



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