What's new
By:
Filters

Side Hustle - Plasma Table

Etyler2

Etyler2

Your kind of Asshole
Joined
May 30, 2020
Member Number
1675
Messages
864
Loc
Grass Valley CA
I need a write-off, like working in the shop, and have room and some time for a side hustle to work from home. If it’s something I enjoy I’ll stay at it, pay for some parts, and take some pain off my taxes.

Been listening to 4X Labs plasma table buzzing away all day out my office window and got me to thinking that there may be a need locally or even on here for some small runs and custom one-offs.

It would just cost me electricity and of course the machine. I have the room, a laptop, and a 30-gallon 110v single-stage compressor that I would make do with for starting up, with the understanding that it would need to be upgraded and is loud as hell.

Don’t know much more about it which is any I’m here with this.

Help me spend money with some good advice please.

Yes the lager table and the Hypertherm are a better choice but I’m trying to stay at $5k for now.

We also have several local larger fairs all summer and I wouldn’t be opposed to sitting through some weekends under an EZ-Up peddling goods if it was profitable.

Thanks!

IMG_2586.png
 
I'm in a somewhat remote area and I could probably find 9 or 10 people with burn tables within 30 minutes of me. It's pretty saturated....and I'd assume it's similar in most places.

Also
Etyler2 said:
It would just cost me electricity and of course the machine. I have the room, a laptop, and a 30-gallon 110v single-stage compressor that I would make do with for starting up, with the understanding that it would need to be upgraded and is loud as hell.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt that will be able to run a plasma a table duty cylce for more than a minute or two at a time. Plan on upgrading that pretty much immediately.
 
I have the table as you have it configured. No regrets, but if I planned to do paid work I’d go for Hypertherm over the Razorweld.

The 3x4 has been fine for my use, but I could also see 4x8 being beneficial.
 
CarterKraft said:
IMO the product is more important than the production... It's easy to get shit cut but hard to prototype if you aren't doing so in house.

How are your cad skills?
Click to expand...
None so far. Grew up with Adobe Illustrator, did Graphic Design designing logos, owned a Tshirt shop from home. Not worried about that at all. Really enjoy technical drawing stuff, just don’t get to do anything creative any more.
 
JohnnyJ said:
I have the table as you have it configured. No regrets, but if I planned to do paid work I’d go for Hypertherm over the Razorweld.

The 3x4 has been fine for my use, but I could also see 4x8 being beneficial.
Click to expand...
Yes on the Hypertherm, which can be found used easy enough. Thanks.
 
you are about to jump into a pool that is a little deeper than you think

you are going to out grow or melt your listed start off tools quickly

lots of good advise posted above me

FYI, I started small, and two years ago I am now 3ph high voltage tools:laughing:
 
SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
you are about to jump into a pool that is a little deeper than you think

you are going to out grow or melt your listed start off tools quickly

lots of good advise posted above me

FYI, I started small, and two years ago I am now 3ph high voltage tools:laughing:
Click to expand...
Maybe, but that’s a good thing.

I have a FT job that pays all the bills and for the toys.

Youngest is in his Jr. year at Cal Poly, of it grows and he wants to jump in or take over, that works too.

I’m not trying to build something that will ever need employees.

For the next few years I’m good breaking even, making some parts for our rigs and some side cash, and writing some stuff off for taxes.
 
That's basically what I did (justify building a table) but I have no illusions of making money with it, my time is really to valuable to be a slave to the table.

If you want one and can afford it/need the tax benefit then get it you will use it no doubt.
 
There are a lot of shops with plasma tables. Sometimes I can get parts cut cheaper than the steel costs.

Might want to also look at the new langmuir cnc press brake. It would add a lot of capability to your offerings

As someone with a home FFL I don't make much, but the tax writeoff on toys critical workplace equipment is nice.
 
I hooked 2 of those 110v 30 gal compressors together to run my table. It was obnoxiously loud and ran 90 percent of the time torch was cutting
 
CarterKraft said:
IMO the product is more important than the production... It's easy to get shit cut but hard to prototype if you aren't doing so in house.

How are your cad skills?
Click to expand...
My brother has a side hussle with his cnc plasma. It turns out it’s cheaper to sub it out the production runs to one of the big laser shops than it is for him to cut them out on his table, The big shops get such a break on the raw materials that they can buy the material and cut it out cheaper than he can buy the sheet.

The cnc plasma market is over saturated imo. Unless you can justify buying it to fix your own shit making money off it is tough. My brother sells 200k a year in trinkets but he really hustles to do it. It’s 100% his own product, goes to trade shows, goes around selling to the big outdoor stores. He is an artist by nature, engineer by trade, landscaper by day so designing Stuff that people want comes naturally to him. :lmao:
 
Last edited:
in OP defense , people will buy a bunch of files off of the internet, export them to their table, cut them and people think they are a a magical wizard
there is a guy at our state fair that sells football logos from NFL teams
he is there every year, same shit, over and over
 
Last edited:
SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
in OP defense , people will buy a bunch of files off of the internet, export them to their table, cut them and people think they are a a magical wizard
there is a guy at our state fail that sells football logos from NFL teams
he is there every year, same sit, over and over
Click to expand...
Sitting at those shows is painful. Answer the same question over and over again. Dragging all the shit all over the place setting up and tearing down. I would rather be at the dentist. :lmao:
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Sitting at those shows is painful. Answer the same question over and over again. Dragging all the shit all over the place setting up and tearing down. I would rather be at the dentist. :lmao:
Click to expand...
oh, they guy hasn't shaved in a week, he has high blood pressure, his feet hurt, and he is dead in the eyes:laughing:

as a fab guy, I am....you stole a trademarked item and are taking credit for it
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Yeah people who never had a business use the write off term way too loosely. I could see him write off the tools but once that’s done there isn’t much left to write off maybe some of the power bill ans consumables that’s about it.
Click to expand...
Even then, isn't your tax write off a percentage of what you produced throughout the year? So you can't make nothing and have a tax write off. I'm not smart in the ways of business big or small so that all might be wrong or misconstrued also.

Seems like it would almost be easier to just sell things under the table and buy the tools outright at that point.
 
SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
in OP defense , people will buy a bunch of files off of the internet, export them to their table, cut them and people think they are a a magical wizard
there is a guy at our state fail that sells football logos from NFL teams
he is there every year, same sit, over and over
Click to expand...
I was pretty surprised to see the DXF market might be as big as the actual plasma market.
Many aren't capable of designing or even drawing a product in cad so its easy for them to just get what they need off of Etsy.
 
Ghetto Fab. said:
Even then, isn't your tax write off a percentage of what you produced throughout the year? So you can't make nothing and have a tax write off. I'm not smart in the ways of business big or small so that all might be wrong or misconstrued also.

Seems like it would almost be easier to just sell things under the table and buy the tools outright at that point.
Click to expand...
If you have a FT job you are paying in a chunk, it's not really the same thing as having only side income. Every $ you have to report from your side hustle will have a more than negative effect to your income tax.
 
Ghetto Fab. said:
Even then, isn't your tax write off a percentage of what you produced throughout the year? So you can't make nothing and have a tax write off. I'm not smart in the ways of business big or small so that all might be wrong or misconstrued also.

Seems like it would almost be easier to just sell things under the table and buy the tools outright at that point.
Click to expand...
This is the second part I omitted in my reply. I always say you need to make the money before you can write it off. If the op thinks he’s gonna reduce the taxes he makes now off his day job no way.
 
CarterKraft said:
If you have a FT job you are paying in a chunk, it's not really the same thing as having only side income. Every $ you have to report from your side hustle will have a more than negative effect to your income tax.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I guess I need to learn more about this. I'm not seeing how adding to your income decreases it, unless your also recording all the expenses of side hustle, but then wouldn't that have to be filed as a seperate business entity and not under personal taxes? Sorry, I should stop fucking up OPs thread.
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
This is the second part I omitted in my reply. I always say you need to make the money before you can write it off. If the op thinks he’s gonna reduce the taxes he makes now off his day job no way.
Click to expand...
I was going to point that out too

otherwise I'd be writing a whole garage of toys :grinpimp:
 
Ghetto Fab. said:
Interesting. I guess I need to learn more about this. I'm not seeing how adding to your income decreases it, unless your also recording all the expenses of side hustle, but then wouldn't that have to be filed as a seperate business entity and not under personal taxes? Sorry, I should stop fucking up OPs thread.
Click to expand...
what you are talking about, that is standard protocol :laughing:
 
Ghetto Fab. said:
Interesting. I guess I need to learn more about this. I'm not seeing how adding to your income decreases it, unless your also recording all the expenses of side hustle, but then wouldn't that have to be filed as a seperate business entity and not under personal taxes? Sorry, I should stop fucking up OPs thread.
Click to expand...
Depending on the business structure. Llc sole proprietors, s corps profits gets taxed as personal income rates. C corp profits get taxed at the corporate rate.

So if your business makes 20k in profit it gets added to what you make from your full time job and taxed accordingly. I get a paycheck from my business which I have the government take a boat load extra in taxes every week to cover the businesses’s profit for the year. If you come up way short at the end of the year you get penalties and get the privilege of paying in quarterly.
 
Last edited:
Ghetto Fab. said:
Interesting. I guess I need to learn more about this. I'm not seeing how adding to your income decreases it, unless your also recording all the expenses of side hustle, but then wouldn't that have to be filed as a seperate business entity and not under personal taxes? Sorry, I should stop fucking up OPs thread.
Click to expand...
I am far from expert but my w9 income increases my tax burden almost 1:1.5 (with out withholding any extra tax) so if I made $15k I owed $10k which is not worth the trouble imo.

With my actual deductions required to run the business to the point of making $15k I could get to net tax burden = no tax due.
I used half my shop square footage, power bill welding supplies, phone bill etc. and a new truck purchase.

The new truck was a better deduction than the other shit by far, a Plasma table setup if all on one purchase would be good to.


I are not a tax expert, I buy the small business TurboTax and use input from my mom who was a CPA for 20 years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh