LitePlacer.com forums

Hi there, I have the task of putting together 1000 PCBs, but no more, and I was considering buying a pick and place machine then selling it on once finished. Will I be able to redeem a considerable amount of my investment once finished?

Thanks

The assembly, fine-tuning, learning & job setup is a big part of your initial costs.You may also have additional costs for PC,table, power supply & tools.

For 1000 PCBs you may have lots of time overhead swapping new tapes in as they empty up (unless you also have a feeder)

Based on what you posted I would also look into a PCBA supplier in China or elsewhere.

I also use JPCPCB who provide an excellent service for SMD assembly as an alternative to my Liteplacer. There is a limited but large set of parts available with JLCPCB, but no through hole parts. (UPDATE: they now offer a lot of TH part placement/soldering on the same side as the SMD parts only. Also seems good value.)

Today I got a job delivered with 45 PCBs (on 5 panels) and only 10 discretes populated. The total cost was circa $0.60 per PCB including PCB, assembly, components and shipping. Courier would add $10->$15 extra per delivery. Their quality has been excellent.

From observations here on the forum I expect you could take a hit of at least $1K on the nominal purchase price if reselling, unless you did a deal in advance with someone local to you

Thanks! The advice is much appreciated, will reconsider my options.