Does It Make Sense To Hand Make Printed Circuit Boards?

An anonymous reader writes: A Hackaday author told the hackers that it isn't worth making your own PC boards anymore. Good tools, fast shipping, and cheap manufacturing capacity means that spending a day making a board that is much worse than a 'pro' board just isn't worthwhile anymore. The reaction was worse than when Kirk told the Star Trek fans to get a life. Although there have been some who agree, many of the readers have taken it as an affront to their very way of life.

Comments

He has got some points

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, he has got some points... i too hate making my own PCBs (i'm not a young enthusiast anymore).
Most of what i make are only prototypes useful to me only and it is a huge waste of time to:
1) create the layout via software (maybe i also need to create my own components before because i can't find a library with all the ICs/components that i need)
2) go through all the lengthy steps to make a real PCB out of it
3) get rid of the chemicals once done paying attention to not ruin anything (i ruined a whole wall one day when i was a teen at my first attempts...)

There is a good, although a little bit forgot, alternative though... it is called "wire-wrapping".
Yes, it is not as beautiful as a specialized PCB, but if you have the correct wires and tools it becomes quite a fast process.
You don't need to use any software for the layout. Did you f*ck something up? No worries... just unwrap and fix the mistake! It is strong enough to be usable in real-world scenarios.

Of course, if you need to make several copies of your board... then the PCB is the way to go. But if you only need one damn copy or you are just prototyping... then wire-wrapping makes a lot of sense.

Re:Totally not worth the trouble

[serviscope_minor]

I don't make my own PCBs. I do surface mount stuff and I like going for small sized. Lots of tiny vias, tiny component pitches, double sided, and of course a solder mask.

I know people who do make PCBs and they of course use it for big fat coarse things. You can do coarse pitch surface mount without a solder mask. That removes the need for holes, too and if you're size is large you can get away with single sided + a few jumpers too.

- Drilling the holes dead center

Etch a dot out of the middle of the pad. The drills self-align.

- No plated through holes.

Use rivets, or chemical plating:
http://www.instructables.com/i...
or electroplating:
http://www.thinktink.com/stack...

- No solder mask.

There's spray, but apparently film is easier to use:

http://www.instructables.com/i...

Here's what a home made PCB can look like if you take it to the max:

http://kavionic.com/blog/Makin...

So it's actually amazing what you can do at home, and the top-end PCB home brewers can actually produce some pretty professional PCBs. No way I'm investing the time and money into that proess though.

Re: Yes

[Khyber]

"If you're prototyping, why in hell not use "hole-mounted stuff"?"

Because the capacitors with the uF ratings I require are SUB MILLIMETER and SURFACE MOUNT *ONLY.*

Because the ceramic high-wattage resistors I use are SURFACE MOUNT ONLY.

Because the LEDs I use are SURFACE MOUNT ONLY.

Because you can't hole-mount a BGA package without adding in another component and thus forcing you to redo all your damned math to take into account the added resistance of a connection adapter.

Because most breadboard designs are garbage.

Because breadboards aren't made of metal like MCPCBs and are thus useless for my high-heat design work.

Because it's 2015.

Re: Yes

[Khyber]

All you need is a good printer with high-DPI for mask printing, and a proper technique that involves pre-tinning the BGA pads on the PCB, then setting your BGA part on the board and heating up the board to reflow the solder. The component will align itself without shorts due to surface tension from the solder.

I've done plenty of memory stick and GPU mounting/re-mounting work.

I work with traces in the single-digit micron range working on repairing LCD screens.

It's not that difficult.