UK suppliers of prototyping equipment - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 04, 2021, 02:54:12 pm
content: I'm trying to get the usual gear like a stencil printer, and oven. Is there anyone in the UK worth dealing with? I am talking to a company but fucking hard work is putting it mildly. But then their name is practically blunder.

author: SMTech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2021, 07:28:06 am
content: I actually don't understand why they sell it, all that stuff needs to be on a website with a price and a buy now button. They are setup for much bigger sales of much bigger things as well as the service and support to go with them, it makes that stuff basically irrelevant to sales. Maybe the guys that sell Neoden kit are a better bet?https://www.ams-electronics.co.uk/the printer looks very similar and that stuff gives them a low end focus Blundell only touch on with a few bits. PMTech and Grove are other places you could buy something cheap or 2nd hand. Sadly in all cases I think you may have to use one of those weird things you talk into.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 05, 2021, 12:10:29 pm
content: No one else seems to supply the small proto equipment. To be fair to Blundell it may be their suppliers that are cagy, they did not want me to see a manual until I had bought one so I pointed out that I had to sell the proposition to my boss yet I had no idea what the equipment is like except for a crap picture and cryptic descriptions. I now have a manual, that still does not even have a flaming diagram of the unit but never mind. This may be a supplier thing. To be honest if I was that bent on copying the damn thing I would just quietly order and and copy it. much of it is not rocket science, I could design my own kit from scratch if I wanted to go into production. Some I intend to but it will have nothing to do with the over priced junk you buy from these people.

author: 48X24X48X
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2021, 02:29:36 am
content: Just get it directly from the manufacturer (not reseller) in China and save yourself some money. Most of them are on Alibaba and speaks English. And it's not something too complicated to use that you need any hand holding from them. For example, Puhui that sells the cheap reflow oven also sells stencil printer that the rest of the reseller sells at a higher price. Why? Because they made them rather than resell them. Same goes for their oven. That is just 1 example, not asking you to get from Puhui.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 30, 2021, 12:52:54 pm
content: Has anyone used those manual pick and place aids? Do they actually help? Or would I just wind up better with some cheap/self built PnP machine running open PnP?

author: SMTech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2021, 09:06:37 pm
content: Opinion on here about manual Pick and place machines is deeply divided, we have one, I like it even tho' its old and not exactly as good as it once was. However I really wouldn't like to build a modern board on it myself. I use it to pick up in areas where the proper p&p is a poor option, this is mostly during small batches where components have come in short strips or bags and even while using it I may well place some parts with tweezers. A manual p&p will make bigger or more complex PCBs easier to build then doing it by hand but there are still limitation to what is physically possible for you or the machine to reach, display, point a laser at or whatever clever feature it might have. What is certainly true however is the commercial one are crazy expensive and 2nd user ones don't seem that common, some of them also appear to be awful.