Are some pcb's generally just too junky to be bothered with?

[xdfo]

I am trying to finish up a kit, I'm not going to name the manufacturer - but what I noticed when fixing a couple of mistakes (good ol'backwards transistor and cap) was the pcb throughholes appeared to be teflon with a foil coating.  What became apparent was just looking hard at these holes would cause the foil to flake off. 

Is this common with diy pcbs? Or indicative of crap quality?  And is it possible this fragility might be the source of some completely undebuggable issues I'm having? 

Is there a fast way to check if througholes that appear ok upon soldering might actually be damaged?

Cheers,

[iainpunk]

Is this common with diy pcbs? Or indicative of crap quality?

depends if you etched or milled them yourself, or ordered them through a quality supplier.
i have had very wide range of quality on DIY etched pcb's at school, but i have never had trouble with PCB's i ordered.

And is it possible this fragility might be the source of some completely undebuggable issues I'm having?

that's a possibility, yes, i have had that with the first fuzz face i build, i etched a pcb at school, but while soldering, i totally overheated the pads and traces.

Is there a fast way to check if througholes that appear ok upon soldering might actually be damaged?

yes, a multi-meter at the beep-setting

cheers, Iain

[xdfo]

Oh this wasn't a pcb I'd made. This was more of a question like do some commercially available pcb's have really low quality.

[idy]

Some do have traces that lift too easily, but this is also often "operator error" with the soldering iron. Ironically, a soldering iron that is not hot enough means you spend too long on a joint and spread too much heat. A good hot tip only takes a second or 3.

[xdfo]

Yeah to note I had to spin a cap I had placed backwards and after re-tinning the joints, clipping the cap off, putting flux on my braid and gently removing the solder there was still damage because the lead, as I was pulling it out, brushed against the hole and tore off the foil 

[iainpunk]

Oh this wasn't a pcb I'd made. This was more of a question like do some commercially available pcb's have really low quality.

owh, yeha, there are some questionable PCB's available for cheap on the web, especially from India, sometimes from China too, but less frequent.

cheers, Iain

[xdfo]

Yeah this was a somewhat expensive modular synth board from the UK   Tayda's pedal pcb's are at least twice as resilient.