V G wrote:
>> For $109 you can 100 square inches of
>> finished PCB from Gold Phoenix, with silkscreen on top, solder mask
>> top and bottom, plated thru vias, electrically tested, and
>> delivered. Unless you
>> work for the University of Outer Bizzarristan and get paid a bowl of
>> rice
>> and three yak dung paddies a day, you are doing your employer a
>> disservice
>> by costing more to make a inferior product.
>
> That's also wrong. I can etch a PCB for $10 in under 10 minutes.

Maybe the actual etching part, but there's more to it than that.  You have
forgotten to include time and cost of getting the raw boards, applying or
exposing the resist depending on your process, cleaning the resist off the
board, time to buy the chemicals, mix up fresh batches when needed, dispose
of them when exhausted, amortized time and cost to set up this process
originally, amortized time for the occasional mis-etch, and there's probabl=
y
more.

It's rather more expensive when you add up the true costs, not just the
immediately obvious one.

> Can you order and have delivered a PCB from wherever in under 10
> minutes?

Of course not, but it's very rare that this matters.  With any reasonable
planning, the 1 1/2 weeks it usually takes from sending gerber files to
receiving boards is no issue.  Usually I send out the gerber files when don=
e
laying out the board.  Then it's on to making the BOM (that takes a lot mor=
e
than 10 minutes, at least if you do it right) and ordering parts.  Usually
the parts and the boards show up at about the same time, so getting the PCB
in quicker wouldn't be much use.

Reasons for someone to etch their own boards are:

  1 - I need them really really fast.

  2 - Instant gratification.

  3 - I like doing the process myself for the challenge and
      fun of it.

  4 - I consider my time worth very little, so it's cheaper than
      getting them made commercially.

#1 happens, but is very rare.  You may like #2 and #3, but whoever is payin=
g
for your time is unlikely to want to pay for that.  #4 doesn't apply if
you're doing this as part of a real job in a first world country.

> Right, because one person out of a building of 1000+ is going to tax
> the air conditioning system a whole lot...

The point was that your true cost to your employer is more than just what
you get paid.  Ask your boss how much overhead his budget gets charged to
have you around.  You may be suprprised.

>> Then consider the extra labor cost putting in jumpers because you
>> don't have plated thru holes, fixing the human errors that a good
>> silkscreen would have prevented, the solder bridges the solder mask
>> would have prevented, etc.
>
> Never made those kinds of mistakes, and I've made several boards now.

When you do though, it will likely more than negate any previous "savings".

> Believe me, it adds up.

Sorry I don't, at least not without some hard numbers to prove your case.


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