"Soundhaspriority" wrote in message
...
It is not viable as a brick-and-mortar operation. There are, however, web
machine shops, and companies that fabricate circuit boards based upon their
own proprietary, free, layout software. Perhaps a one-stop "go-to" for
individuals who wish to make one-offs or or small runs. The territory,
however, would have to be an entire continent. Nothing smaller could support
it.
It doesn't cost a lot of money to setup for simple 2 layer board
fabrication. I used to work with a guy in college who did
one off PCB layout and etch in his basement.
Heres a kit for do it yourself.
http://www.jdr.com/interact/item.asp?itemno=PCB-KIT
The bigger hurdle is surface mount soldering for the do it yourselfer.
There really isn't any low cost solder deposition, part place & reflow
equipment out there. Applying rework process tools to whole cca
assembly will work but is extremely slow and the quality/reliability
of the result will be substandard.
Using CMs is expensive as the solder stencil tooling and part
placement programming is expensive. And you can't get one of
components on tape and reel.
ScottW