PCB supplier?

This came to me last evening via Steve G1KQH:

This link came from an article I read in PW recently, could be useful especially for a club:

http://www.3pcb.com/

73 Steve

http://g1kqh.blogspot.co.uk/

Cutting big pieces of copper laminate

When I was working I had access to a guillotine to snap out large pieces of copper laminate to convenient sizes for project breadboards. Being retired I no longer have this method to hand. SO, I asked a question on the GQRP Yahoo group this evening to find out what other people did. Several suggestions but the favourite is "scoring and snapping", summarised by the post from Duncan G4DFV which I have reproduced below.

"My method of cutting large pieces of copper laminate:-

• Place a steel rule along a previously drawn line on the board where you require to cut.
• Pressing down firmly on the rule, using a stanley or other utility knife, score along the line.
• Repeat the scoring in the same cut for perhaps 10 times, then
• looking at the edges of the board, you will see each point where the
• scoring starts and finishes. 
• Carefully mark these points over on to the other side of the board and  
• place the rule exactly along a line between these points and score as before.
• After about 10 scorings, place the board on a flat surface such that the
• scored line is on a straight edge.
• Holding the board down with one hand, press down over the straight edge with the other.
• The board should break cleanly along the scored line.
• Any uneven/rough edge can be smoothed with sandpaper.

Duncan G4DFV"

Building requests

In the last 24 hours I've had a couple of requests from people asking me if I'd build some of my projects for them. One person asked if I'd build them a Pipit 15m transceiver and another a 472kHz transverter. Regretfully I had to say sorry that I could not.

It is not that I don't want to. Rather, it is because I don't have enough spare time! I've so many projects on the go currently, and a stack more in my head waiting to get started, as well as trying to live a normal family life doing the usual chores. Then we have the grandchildren who take time, not that we mind this at all.  So, please do not ask if I can build projects for you. I always try to help with advice and suggestions when asked - I try to respond within 24 hours unless I am away -  but I do not want to do building.

Quite a few of my projects would benefit from a small PCB. This is also something that I rarely get around to because I've already moved on to something else. There is probably a small business possible, if I was inclined, designing projects, making a PCB and selling kits. This is unlikely ever to make me rich though and I'd prefer to be a source of ideas instead.

Problem with Sprint Layout 4 PCB package

Trying to do a small PCB for the XBM80-2 80m micro-transceiver using the Sprint Layout 4 PCB layout package I hit a problem: wanting to use a single sided PCB for low cost I did a groundplane fill. Then I wanted to connect certain pads to this. I cannot see how to do this! Several people have offered advice, but nothing seems to work: any attempt just results in a new clearance area being created. In the end I gave up and filled in the ground as another track and join it to the pads manually. The resultant draft PCB (1 inch square)  is shown here. I have not built it on a PCB yet, so this is only a suggestion. An SMT version could be half the size - i.e. VERY tiny indeed.

XBM80-2 video and PCB (draft)

A short video about the XBM80-2 80m CW micro-transceiver. This is built "ugly style" on a piece of copper clad board. It will get put in a box soon! I've also been having a go at a PCB (just 1 inch square - 25mm x 25mm).