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by throwaway219450 15 days ago
In the past if you didn't live in the US, OSHPark was a great option. Local fabs were very expensive, had big setup fees and even the "maker" places charged more and you'd only get HASL. Meanwhile OSH gave you 3 with ENIG and the quality has always been excellent. They nailed the automation to make group buys cost effective.

If you live in the US, it's free shipping and for breakout boards or smaller work, still a great option. Unless you're a student, I think most side projects aren't make or break if the boards cost $5 vs $2. Even $20-25 I would consider fair for a one-off side project and they also do $1/sqin medium runs if you need > 10.

1 comments

Right now it's several hundred dollars to get anything electronic out of the US and into the UK, unless you're a big enough company to be able to lawyer your way out of it.

We'll see what 2026 brings, I suppose.

The UK has de minimis for a while yet, and PCBs are 0% import duty. The only thing you might get shafted by is Royal Mail's handling fee if it gets checked by customs. We're talking about hobbyist PCBs here, not production runs.