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Side Hustle - Plasma Table

CarterKraft said:
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.
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Ok, so if I'm understanding things right making a little bit of money is part of it, but the real benefit is to essentially not have to pay income tax to the govt and instead buy tools with it. That makes more sense. I didn't realize you could combine a business income into your personal income taxes.
 
Buy once, cry once.

I would buy a smaller than you'd like Hypertherm before an off-brand plasma.

How are you planning to dry the air for the plasma?
 
Ghetto Fab. said:
Ok, so if I'm understanding things right making a little bit of money is part of it, but the real benefit is to essentially not have to pay income tax to the govt and instead buy tools with it. That makes more sense. I didn't realize you could combine a business income into your personal income taxes.
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Ideally your income is "not reported", no tax benefit but also no tax.
 
Ghetto Fab. said:
Ok, so if I'm understanding things right making a little bit of money is part of it, but the real benefit is to essentially not have to pay income tax to the govt and instead buy tools with it. That makes more sense. I didn't realize you could combine a business income into your personal income taxes.
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Yes and no. Anything that's "written off" is just a deduction of your taxable income for that amount. Say you make $100k in taxable income and you're taxed at 20%, so you'd look like:
$100k taxable income
-$20k income taxes
$80k take home

Now lets say you spend $10k buying various tools (all individually valued under $2500). That $10k would be deductible from your taxable income so no you're at
$100k income
--$10k deduction
$90k taxable income
-$18k income tax (20% of 90k)
$72k take home


So effectively those $10k worth tools only cost you $8k.


It almost never makes sense to spend money just for the sake of spending money, but what does make sense is leveraging your business to buy stuff that you would probably buy any way and being able to use the cost to decrease your taxable income.



It gets more complicated when you have big ticket items over $2,500 because you then have to depreciate them and can't take the deduction all at once....in most cases.
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
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.
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Yup. I can frequently SendCutSend shit cheaper than I could have bought the material for.

I was thinking about buying myself a 2x2 plasma table for tabs and shit but it's just not worth it with all the free files out there and the premade shit you can buy.
 
Knowing how these go.... Go download Fusion 360 or your favorite cad software. Make a few projects. Have send cut send or some random plasma joe down the road cut it and and you find you are using this a lot, buy a plasma table.



So many people buy a plasma table, get frustrated with the CAD side of things then sell it for half of what they paid for it.
 
I've got the same ambition, and have had trouble bringing it to reality. I've got a crossfire pro, hypertherm powermax45xp, HF refrigerated cooler, etc, that I've had for a couple of years now.

Figuring out the product is way, way, way harder than cutting. I've got two that I was all set to go full prod on then steel more than doubled cost in my area, so that fucked my pricing all up. It might still work, going to explore it later this year.

Air quality and leaks are what's holding me back now. The stupid fuckin split table design leaks like a sive and I can't get it to stop. I'm at the point of figuring out if I can convert to air instead of water in the table and exhaust outside, because it drives me fuckin nuts. No smoke when the water is full in the table, but the table leaks down so fast it floods my shop and I get smoke anyway.

Point is, before you dunk a ton of money into the equipment, have a solid plan of what you're going to make with it.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
I've got the same ambition, and have had trouble bringing it to reality. I've got a crossfire pro, hypertherm powermax45xp, HF refrigerated cooler, etc, that I've had for a couple of years now.

Figuring out the product is way, way, way harder than cutting. I've got two that I was all set to go full prod on then steel more than doubled cost in my area, so that fucked my pricing all up. It might still work, going to explore it later this year.

Air quality and leaks are what's holding me back now. The stupid fuckin split table design leaks like a sive and I can't get it to stop. I'm at the point of figuring out if I can convert to air instead of water in the table and exhaust outside, because it drives me fuckin nuts. No smoke when the water is full in the table, but the table leaks down so fast it floods my shop and I get smoke anyway.

Point is, before you dunk a ton of money into the equipment, have a solid plan of what you're going to make with it.
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That table seems to cause people hell.

Watching people deal with I thought I'd use 3M 5200 to seal the flanges, correct primer sand paper texture etc.
 
CarterKraft said:
That table seems to cause people hell.

Watching people deal with I thought I'd use 3M 5200 to seal the flanges, correct primer sand paper texture etc.
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I mean give it a shot. I used the little bolts and sealant they provided, with their procedure, and it worked at first, but the reality of it is that the bolts are too far apart and the flanges too thin to effectively hold them together.

The best option I've come up with is having a local shop bend up a pan with no stupid ass seam in the middle. I will probably do that soon. Other than that, 11/10 experience with the control software, THC, everything else.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
I mean give it a shot. I used the little bolts and sealant they provided, with their procedure, and it worked at first, but the reality of it is that the bolts are too far apart and the flanges too thin to effectively hold them together.

The best option I've come up with is having a local shop bend up a pan with no stupid ass seam in the middle. I will probably do that soon. Other than that, 11/10 experience with the control software, THC, everything else.
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When I redesign my table to fit 4' material 3x5 I'm gonna have to have a pan made if I can't find a HVAC drop pan that will work.

A downdraft would be fine but not for a table inside my shop, that will really fuck up air conditioning/heating etc. exhausting air out of the shop continually. If I get a container to put the table in that decision won't matter as much.
 
I hadn't thought of a condensate pan, good call. I feel like 26ga is pretty light, as you tend to rake the material over the edge of the water table while loading and unloading with this design, but I like where your head is at. Time to look around the agri-supply and tractor supply catalogs.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
I hadn't thought of a condensate pan, good call. I feel like 26ga is pretty light, as you tend to rake the material over the edge of the water table while loading and unloading with this design, but I like where your head is at. Time to look around the agri-supply and tractor supply catalogs.
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It is light and maybe not as a good idea I thought but I think to use it you just build a inner box that sits in the pan. That's what I'm doing now the pan is just holding water. The slat holders rest on angles under the pan the pan only holds the water, no load from the materials.

It is cheap and easy to get 😀
 
Eric if you're truly in the market for a table I know where a large one is for a decent if not great price.

Jimbo
 
Talon2006 said:
Knowing how these go.... Go download Fusion 360 or your favorite cad software. Make a few projects. Have send cut send or some random plasma joe down the road cut it and and you find you are using this a lot, buy a plasma table.



So many people buy a plasma table, get frustrated with the CAD side of things then sell it for half of what they paid for it.
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:laughing:
I started with that approach, and I like to support the little guy
every one of these guys didn't want to cut, or acted burdened that I wanted to give them money
and the ones that will would hand you garbage in return because they don't know how to run their machine
because they pay, download, and slide some thin gage shit under there where you cant see that you have a effed 45* taper on your cut
now you just paid them to give you your next project that you are going to have to fix

I just got my own tools, and now I am on the other side of the problem
I hate dealing with people that miss their cut 3x because they cant measure but somehow it is your fault and you are an asshole for telling them that they cant just slide the hole over in real life to where it belongs like you can in CAD
so I quit and I only do my own parts :grinpimp:
 
SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
:laughing:
I started with that approach, and I like to support the little guy
every one of these guys didn't want to cut, or acted burdened that I wanted to give them money
and the ones that will would hand you garbage in return because they don't know how to run their machine
because they pay, download, and slide some thin gage shit under there where you cant see that you have a effed 45* taper on your cut
now you just paid them to give you your next project that you are going to have to fix

I just got my own tools, and now I am on the other side of the problem
I hate dealing with people that miss their cut 3x because they cant measure but somehow it is your fault and you are an asshole for telling them that they cant just slide the hole over in real life to where it belongs like you can in CAD
so I quit and I only do my own parts :grinpimp:
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This :lmao: I have learned it’s cheaper to cut a test piece out of thin crap first when re engineering a part.
 
To sum this thread up if you want a cnc plasma buy one with the notion it’s for fun or a hobby not something your gonna make money at. Only exception is if your an artist or someone that has a product to make or in the case of project twin use it to help provide parts to build out other projects.

Cutting out parts for others sucks balls:lmao::flipoff2:
 
I had some parts cut one time from some 1/4", they are "decoration" but they sucked, terrible cut quality etc.
That guy tried to sell me the table later on and after watching him on some more stuff I realized it was he was over his head on a table that size/cost.
 
This is what one is for. Making parts for your own shit:lmao:

A hardox 450 cutting edge for a hiniker snow plow.
IMG_9274.jpeg



Made a pattern to make sure our drawing was right before we sent it to the steel shop to be burnt out of 1.5” thick t1 plate.

IMG_9273.jpeg
 
Talon2006 said:
This…. Quit listening to all of us grumpy ass Debbie downers and just buy it!


I suggest building your own!
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that is a great way to keep your cost down

and I dont think anyone is saying don't do it
it is the 'write off' part that everyone is throwing a red flag for

I will always be a cheerleader for a guy with a side hustle:grinpimp:
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
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.
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This.

Our "old" accountant did a horrible job at many thinks but one was i ended up with about 100k in profit that I had to add to my income one year. That hurt.... alot.... the new account is better lol
 
Talon2006 said:
Knowing how these go.... Go download Fusion 360 or your favorite cad software. Make a few projects. Have send cut send or some random plasma joe down the road cut it and and you find you are using this a lot, buy a plasma table.



So many people buy a plasma table, get frustrated with the CAD side of things then sell it for half of what they paid for it.
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Where? I’m already kinda good at CAD and have had a tab opened to Langmuir for months. I’ve built 2 different CNC setups, but kinda want this to be turn key. I have a friend with a water jet, but I’d like a small table for little things on Friday afternoon, when he is closed.
 
cervelorod said:
Where? I’m already kinda good at CAD and have had a tab opened to Langmuir for months. I’ve built 2 different CNC setups, but kinda want this to be turn key. I have a friend with a water jet, but I’d like a small table for little things on Friday afternoon, when he is closed.
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you are aware small tables take small pieces of metal, that is going to up your cost at the Wholesale side of things
 
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