cheapest place for low quantity small PCBs?

[nleahcim]

Hi - does anybody have any suggestions as to a good cheap place for PCBs in low quantities? I was just about to send an order to Sparkfun when I realized that they just recently DOUBLED their prices (now $5/in^2). a $20 order suddenly became a $40 order and I became a whole lot less interested in their service. Right now I'm thinking I'll probabaly go with Olimex - as they do 10cmx16cm boards for $42 - and they also allow you to put multiple different boards on the same panel and they'll cut them out for you. (I have a bunch of differently sized, but all very small, boards - so this is very useful for me)

But are there any other options out there? The boards I'm having made are just too fine too find to hand etch...

 

[tangent]

I've tried the cheap services, and keep coming back to the ones that end up being at least $60 per board run. I use several board houses, for various reasons, and some of them will end up being $120 or so for a prototype run. The cheapest I've ever bought prototypes is $10/board, and I haven't been 100% satisfied with that service. Advanced Circuits wants $33/board in prototype quantities, and it shows: their product is top-shelf. I've had no problems with them, ever. And, compared to ExpressPCB, $33/board is actually cheap.

Bottom line, you get what you pay for.

 

[peranders]

www.olimex.com... sorry I didn't read too close..... notice though that they have serious restrictions in order to get the low price.

 

[nleahcim]

I thought I should update this thread - I ordered a board recently from Sparkfun. I designed it in Eagle - and followed a short guide to make it into a format readable by Sparkfun. The board was about 1.9 in^2, so it costed $10 for the board and like $2 for the shipping. So that wasn't too spendy - but since I did everything right, if I order up any more boards from them it will be $2.50/in^2, which I think is very reasonable. (The $5/in^2 cost is to cover the time they spend with getting people to send files that they can use)

The board arrived in about two weeks. Looks perfect - I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever - so I highly reccomend them to anybody here looking for a cheap place to have a single board made.

edit: in case anybody's interested, here's how the board looks: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/mnoone/www...al_Board_3.jpg

 

[JWFokker]

I need to get into PCB design so I can build a through hole T-Amp. I hate SMDs. I've got an amp from 41hz.com that I've yet to build. $2.50/sq in sounds pretty reasonable.

 

[gmarsh]

my usual choices...

olimex.com = cheapest of anyone, but the quality is questionable. Don't do fine pitch SMT with them.
custompcb.com = more expensive than olimex, but excellent quality, and lead free too.
sierraprotoexpress.com = cheap four layer service