Small-volume cheap'n'basic PCB fab

[Theo Markettos]

I quite often have the need to run off small volumes of trivial PCBs - adaptor from connector A to connector B, that sort of thing. Single sided without much drilling I can probably etch myself, but double sided gets a bit fiddly especially as I tend to make small things with fine pitch surface mount and small vias. Quite often the board isn't bigger than 1-2 in^2.

There's a variety of 'pool' PCB places around, that collect up orders and do a mass fab run every so often, on a $few per in^2 basis. For example:

(in the US) (Bulgaria, currently suspended) (US again)

The trouble with these is the location of the pooling. BatchPCB fabs in China, ships to US, and then dispatches from there. If it's going to be fabbed in China it would make sense to ship to customers direct from there, or better ship the whole order to UK and then it's a simple second class stamp from there. Or simply fab in the UK, might be better than circling the globe.

So can anyone recommend a cheap PCB pooling service that works sensibly for people in the UK?

Thanks Theo

[Andy Burns]

I've never used them, but this lot always looked promising, and have been around for a fair while ...

[Theo Markettos]

They are the original pool house... unfortunately the pricing is a bit steep - 5 off 5cm x 5cm two layer boards come in at EUR86.46

While digging around a bit more I found:

which is 10pcs 5cm x 5cm two layer for $10+post (from China), which is more like it...

Theo

[Andy Burns]

I did wonder how come you didn't mention them on your li

[Gordon Henderson]

Let me know how you get on with them - particularly the currency conversions & importing... I've shied away from dealing with .cn directly for now, but maybe in the future...

I use

for quick jobs, but they're not cheap and (currently) for bigger jobs - the former is UK based, the latter UK based, but handle the dealings with .cn.

Gordon

[D.M.Chapman]

A friend used

to get 3 small boards made and shipped to UK. Worked well, and they were reasonably priced we thought.

Darren

[Man at B&Q]

Problem with itead is that the dimensions are fixed. The better places allow any size and shape board. You may only need a few to fill a panel with your own single design (they come in different sizes). It's the tooling that hits small orders.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

Also ALR PSP service

are UK based but not thge cheapest.

MBQ

[Theo Markettos]

Itead is any size or shape if it fits in the area you pay for (eg 5cm x 5cm)

('Description' tab)

They let you panelise, but you have to cut yourself, and max 5 designs per panel. (Huh, if I'm cutting myself then I can have as many as I like surely, it's just one big design?). I'm wondering about laser cutting for odd shapes - but I don't think FR4 will be very pleasant to laser cut (glass wasn't).

Apparently SeeedStudio is the same fab as Itead. Comparison:

Theo

[Gordon Henderson]

Eek! You can say that again. Over 150 for (say) 3 little 86x56 boards whereas

are about 85...

Gordon