Hi,

It is possible to make PWBs with hand drilling. The first time I ever made a board, back in 1983, I used hand sliced electrical tape (for etch resist) and a Black & Decker (a power drill). I used an office hole punch to make the hole pad patterns (out of the electrical tape). It was a single sided board and it looked as home-made as it sounds, but it worked.

I soon moved up to dry transfer tape patterns (for etch resist) and a micro-hand drill (the old egg-beater type) with wire gauge bits. Eventually I improved from the hand drill to a Dremel tool fitted with a micro-chuck mounted in a drill press frame (I still have it somewhere in the corner of my lab). It was still as tedious, but it took a lot of strain off my fingers (having to work that micro-egg-beater drill (which I alse still have for sentimental reasons).

My point is this. It is indeed possible to make functional circuit boards by hand, but it is tedious and (as has been pointed out) will never produce the same quality and reliability of automated machines and processes. Still, if it's the best choice you have available, it's what you must deal with.

So toward that end I would make two suggestions. First, I would suggest that the board manufacturer at least pretend that he's a professional by accepting the job in the industry standard format of Gerber files. There's really no excuse for him not to, since anyone can download Gerber viewer software for free (e.g. http://www.graphicode.com/GC-Prevue_Gerber_Viewer, a web search will yield a host of other choices).

My second suggestion is that you find a board manufacturer who will stand behind his product. As I said, it is a tedious job, but it can be done. If your board shop is delivering product with broken traces and open vias, either he should make it right or you should find another manufacturer.

And if there are no board shops that will accept Gerber data and stand behind their work, then maybe you should.

Joe