[slededit]

Things have changed a lot. You can get proper stainless steel stencils from lots of providers now, most PCB houses have it available as well - done to the same specs as your PCB.

The only time it really fails is if I'm lazy applying the solder paste or if I stop paying attention during reflow. Doing it in house saves a ton of money which is really important when you are trying to get your first prototypes up and running. Plus it also keeps you deeply in tune with what is possible to manufacture and what isn't. DFM stops being just a checklist.

We'd have a lot more hardware startups if people realized how cheap and easy its become. You need the prototype to get funding.