Options for inexpensive PCB assembly

Using Arduino General Electronics
1

How much does it cost to have a PCB assembled in quantities of 10 ?
For example, a board that's about similar size and complexity as an Arduino Uno.

I understand that is a low quantity, but I have a requirement to make professional-quality boards for a design I have been working on. (I have experience with hot air gun and hand-soldering, but for quality reasons, wish to source it to a assembly house, whether in US or Europe or China, etc.)

I am wondering whether options exist to do it for less than US $ 20 per board. That exact figure is probably unrealistic but I want to see how close I can get to my target.

2

Try www.cbas-usa.com in CA.
Expect $350-400 for pick & place programming & solderpaste template creation, then $5-6/board for actual assembly.

3

Single or double sided?

I've helped other forum members with single sided designs. They provide all the materials and I'll reflow the boards.

4

@CrossRoads - not bad at all! I could give that a shot.

@KirAsh4: It's double sided. Although relatively few parts on the bottom side.
(Based on my own oven reflow experiments, none of them were heavy enough to fall during reflow.)

5

sent a PM

6

CrossRoads:
Try www.cbas-usa.com in CA.
Expect $350-400 for pick & place programming & solderpaste template creation, then $5-6/board for actual assembly.

We pay $285 just to get stencils, so I wonder if your prices are realistic in the US.

7

KirAsh4:
Single or double sided?
I've helped other forum members with single sided designs. They provide all the materials and I'll reflow the boards.

What do you use to clean the boards after?

8

db2db:

CrossRoads:
Try www.cbas-usa.com in CA.
Expect $350-400 for pick & place programming & solderpaste template creation, then $5-6/board for actual assembly.

We pay $285 just to get stencils, so I wonder if your prices are realistic in the US.

http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/smd-stencil.html

9

Those prices are realistic because that is what I have paid for several assembly jobs.

$285 just for stencils seems overly expensive. Any number of places can do way better than that.

10

I have not seen pricing much less for real production stencils.

11

http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/smd-stencil.html

So I imagine US suppliers might be more. Perhaps the programming is the small part of the stencil purchase/pick & place programming cost.

12

The stencil that would not fit on the stencil pasting machines we use are about $185 at Itead. That not a lot cheaper than local service with much shorter delivery times. The frame quality we get is better as well.

Programming costs vary on complexity of board of course. 100 resistors is a lot faster to program than 100 mixed packages.