[Animats]

Commercial services for making PC boards are so competitive [1] that making them yourself is rarely worth the trouble. The standard photochemical process is quite good, better than any of the do-it-yourself processes. (In Shentzen, you can get 4-hour turnaround at no extra charge.) Machines for milling one-off boards have been around for decades, but they've never been used much.

Small-scale solder paste printing and pick and place is more useful. Those are hard to do by hand, expensive to get done for one-offs, and solder paste/place/reflow all have to be done in close sequence. Reflow ovens are easy; toaster ovens with special temperature controllers are often used.

[1] http://www.ladyada.net/wiki/tutorials/library/pcb/manufactur...