[hackerspaces] pick and place..?

[charlie wallace]

We have a pick and place, its an old juki we picked up cheap and reworked.

like arclight says you need some people to look after it. I'm one of
them but i don't always have time to deal with it. it needs a lot of
setup time and looking after.

Stencils are easy enough if you have a laser, or a small cnc machine
or just can buy them various places, poulu(sp) are such a place.

It works great when you have a lot of the same component.

they'll pop up cheap on ebay but you have to be careful as usually
software, manuals or other parts are missing, the head for our juki is
worth its weight in gold, i bent it once and there is no straightening
it out

But we're setup for lots of electronics, we have lots of SMD equipment
so its a non brainer for us to have a PNP. Though we still do a lot of
hand placement since i haven't gotten around to finding a spot for it
where it can stay built up. Also after rebuilding it and rewriting all
the software for it, i got a bit burned out working on it.

It'll come down to the usual cost over convenience thing


charliex