Hi Chris and Jackson,

I do not plate the holes. Instead I use a conductive epoxy from LPKF. It's applied on a vacuum table (I built my own instead of paying the price LPKF wanted for theirs) that draws the epoxy through the holes, coating the inside and forming the barrels.

I considered setting up to do plating, but as before I decided against keeping and disposing of the hazardous materials required. The trade-off is that my boards are only prototypes. They are not suitable for commercial or retail production. My vias and thru-holes hold up just fine to normal use, but they do not survive very many rework cycles. In other words, if I have to change out a thru-hole chip, there's a good chance I'm going to pull a barrel out with it.

If anyone is doing their own prototypes, you can get around plating by just soldering a small (28 ga/wire wrap gauge) uninsulated wire through the via. Even on thru-hole chips, the flat leads in round holes allow plenty of room for such a small wire.

Joe