Allpcb - global free shipping!

[Yansi]

Just to keep this thread updated, I was about to place an order and found their prices have gone up a little bit.
For a 20x20 board - 30 pcs, was $15, now $20 (+$5)
For a 50x50 board - 50 pcs, was $27, now $35 (+$8)

There was a way around this, if you have ordered before, you could re-order the same boards for the same price but it looks like that method has an error now.

Yeah, prices going steeply up now.  Just wanted to order a 5pcs 75x60 pcbs and the cost was $21 !  So I have switched to JLCPCB too and used the cheap "registered airmail" option (23 days stated) which is slow. But for this I don't care, as I will be waiting for some other stuff like enclosure and cables from aliexpress anyway.

[mrpackethead]

4 layer+ boards still seem better value at Allpcb.  2 layer are cheaper at JL

[cracked_machine]

After many months of using allpcb.com, I order a new pcb today and found the shipping charges were now mandatory (to the UK). They also had some xmas discount on, but it ended up being more expensive than usual...

Hopefully this is just temporary

[zero9]

They dont offer anymore free DHL shipping and thats why I will not use them anymore for proto.
They were only special with free shipping offer, otherwise - build quality was decent, but lead time were good. For almost the same price (DHL) You can get boards from WellPCB - with far more better build quality.
 

[cracked_machine]

Ah thats a shame. While I don't expect free shipping, it was the one thing that set them apart from the rest of the pack.

Thanks for the tip.    I will shop around for a bit.

[Mr. Scram]

They dont offer anymore free DHL shipping and thats why I will not use them anymore for proto.
They were only special with free shipping offer, otherwise - build quality was decent, but lead time were good. For almost the same price (DHL) You can get boards from WellPCB - with far more better build quality.

Can you elaborate on what's better?

[cracked_machine]

Now DHL have told me there is an import charge. What cost me £20 total just last week, is now costing me over £60.

If HR Customs is trying to drive me back to using UK fab houses....it's probably going to work. I could try another Chinese company, but I'm not sure I want to to take the risk or deal with the hassle.  Looks like the party is over, for me at least 

[AndyC_772]

If you can find a UK supplier which will make prototype boards for anything like £60, do please let me know. The closest I've found is PCB Train, but last time I used them (Chinese new year) the cost was an order of magnitude higher than AllPCB.

The sad thing is, although I'm sure most of us would happily pay 'a bit' more for a local supplier, 'a bit' isn't an option. Buying small quantity prototype boards locally is stupidly, ridiculously, disproportionately more, and UK suppliers don't even bother to try and compete. I don't blame them; they really don't have a hope given how labour intensive small batch prototypes are.

The irony is that the availability of inexpensive, fast turnaround prototype PCBs from China means that I in turn have been able to offer a similarly fast turnaround, relatively low cost prototype service to my own customers. This last year I've done good business hand assembling the first few samples of various jobs, and delivering working prototypes instead of just CAD data, which would otherwise have been uneconomic for me to do.

Ironically, this means that *more* manufacturing value has remained in the UK, given that the alternative would have been PCB fabrication and assembly in a Chinese factory.

[mrpackethead]

I echo Andys' comments.   The availiablity of low cost pcbs ( even with shipping costs ) that are of good enough quality and mostly are very timely actually means i can do things that i would have never done previously..   10 or 20 dollars more for freight, is not a show stopper.

[Yansi]

The sad thing is, although I'm sure most of us would happily pay 'a bit' more for a local supplier, 'a bit' isn't an option. Buying small quantity prototype boards locally is stupidly, ridiculously, disproportionately more, and UK suppliers don't even bother to try and compete. I don't blame them; they really don't have a hope given how labour intensive small batch prototypes are.

Bullshit. They are just as labour intensive as any other pcbs to make.  You don't even need to make the films anymore these days, they directly digitally expose pcbs, no films.

Any larger than very small pcb manufacturer will have processes highly automated. An those parts of technological process where human intervention is required, does not really depend on whether it is a prototype or a large batch.

...yet the local fabs has enough insolence to say "we need to make the prototype service more expensive due to the raw material prices has gone higher".  (and then they publish on the same website, they not need to make films no more, due to upgrade with a machine for direct digital PCB exposure, with up to 8000DPI resolution). 

[AndyC_772]

Tip: if you're going to call BS on something, your argument becomes a lot stronger if you can actually prove as much.

In this case, it's obvious how to do so: just find a supplier outside China that charges no more for a small batch (say, 10-20 pcs) than AllPCB and their ilk. If you can, I'll happily admit I'm wrong, and start using them.

In the meantime, is it not obvious that the fixed costs associated with any PCB job become relatively more significant when the job is small?

[Yansi]

Sorry, but where did I write that local suppliers are cheaper or as cheap as china? Can you please take the time to point that out?