Hi Joseph,

That's a sad tale you're telling. Apparently we are better off here in Europe!

At a 'regular' board house I would expect to pay some €550 (some $650) for a 2-layer panel and around € 700 ($ 800 - 850) for a 4-layer panel. So $1000 seems way too high, let alone $2000.
The mainstay of the price is the initial cost for making the films. The 'discount' producers overcome this by collecting designs from various clients and putting them together on one single set of films. That way they can produce several different boards on one panel.

I too am a 'one-man operation' and, yes, I do understand what you mean by "mental inertia" :o) But the company I mentioned in my previous post produce proto's in days, not weeks (the 15 day minimum delivery Steve talked about is entirely temporary and due to their moving their production facilities).

As an example, consider this recent product of mine:


The board is double-sided, measures 110x80 mm. and was on my desk in four days for €90, including shipping (and excluding components and assembly, obviously).
Once you've got your LPKF up and running, you're welcome to make me a quotation I can't refuse ;o))

Regards,
Rob.