Hi, I’d like to manufacture my own PCBs with a good quality. I’d lioke to know where can I buy the supplies for PCB manufacturing:
- FR4 copper board
- LPI solder mask
- silkscreen
- Chemicals for the precess
Thanks for your answers
Several years ago you could get answers to questions like this in the Yahoo Group “Homebrew Printed Circuit Boards” Yahoo DIY PCB Group . I haven’t looked at that group in quite some time so I don’t know if that is still true.
Other Forums devoted to topics such as amateur radio or hobby electronics, such as “DIY Audio” may also be helpful.
Dale
thanks for the answers. I’m from Mexico but I have a shipping address in US. Some supplies like copper boards are easy to find in almost all electronic stores (like mouser or digikey), but I’m having problems finding the chemicals, silkscreen and LPI solder mask.
If you have a fabrication club like fablab, hackerspace or similar in your vicinity, you can talk to them. Most have the option to order stuff from RS, Farnell, Digikey, … (Companies who normally only sell to businesses.)
Digi-Key and Mouser both sell to individuals, at least in the US, not sure about other countries.
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Yes, both of those firms are quite willing to deal with anybody who has a valid credit card. (Digi-Key has ancient roots in the hobbyist business.) Do some investigating into their policies on shipping charges, handling fees, etc as well as the pricing structure for quantity purchases. Many hobbyists and small business who need, say, three transistors, five resistors, and an IC, will order ten of each just to bump the total order value over the threshold to get free shipping. Similarly, for some common passive parts it is actually less expensive to buy 100 than to buy 30!
The industrial distributors, such as Arrow and Avnet, are less friendly to individuals but will still sell to anybody who can pay in advance and meets their minimum order requirements.
Dale
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Hola,
Hi, I am in Mexico too and made my first Project with PCBs. I know the Prices for PCBs produced in Mexico are horrendous and therefor I decided to outsource the manufacturing.
The Prices are very very good and the Quality, OK I am no expert, Looks excellent and the turnover is Maximum 2 weeks from the day you send your Gerber files to the foreign company until you get the package delivered at home.
I made 2 Batches of PCBs and they cost me a fraction of what I would have paid in Mexico.
First Batch was 8 different PCBs and second Batch was 10 different.
If you want more detailed info please contact me via message and I can even give you some of my PCBs so you can judge the Quality
I also thought in making my PCBs but after evaluating all the involved work and chemicals I decided not to do it and better outsource it.
Saludos Rainer
Ebay is good for at least gathering the information you want in terms of what is available. There was a good discussion of some of this on EEVblog recently. You may find some of the chemicals are easier to procure/produce than you think.
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