I hope this is an appropriate question to ask it here.
I work for a small start up company that has a limited budget. We have UV box, etching tank, etc from manufacturer like Mega UK.
Our problem is that it is too problematic to manufacture a PCB that includes an IC that has a tiny distance between its pins. For example, 80 pin MCU that has 0.2mm spacing between pins, or thin traces (e.g., 0.25mm) are really really problematic. The layouts are printed fine with a dark ink, the UV source is even, and PCB that we use are good quality, printed side is closer to the copper, etc. but, it still requires too much attempt to produce a board correctly. It is usually overwhelming to deal with it.
We use a Chinese manufacturing house that accepts small quantity and do not charge tooling cost etc. which is good for prototyping. But, it is still not cheap (30USD DHL freight + duty cost + PCBs + cost of cross-border payment) and takes too long to receive the boards (5 working days for manufacturing + 3 days for delivery) for a PCB that is not mature enough. It is an often case for me to produce a PCB multiple time to fix some errors or optimize it. So, we cannot afford the time to order it from abroad.
I think it is better to go for an alternative way to produce a PCB in house that will save a lot time. This method should be easy to produce a PCB that has tiny pitch sizes. Do you know any method that would be less problematic than a UV etching and not too expensive to hurt our budget.
I have seen some modified CNCs that route and mill PCBs according to the uploaded gerber files, and looks impressive with the accuracy. However, they are what I see on the web and has never seen it real life. Also, the prices that I have seen are expensive (£2000). Do you have any experience on such CNC devices and could tell me if there is any issue to use them (life time, accuracy, calibration, etc.) or suggest me such CNC that would not be less costly than £2000 and have a fine accuracy.