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Side Hustle - Plasma Table

PAToyota said:
I actually commented on the Eastwood video, questioning their math. Their reply:


I asked if their table was up to 24/7 production work and didn't receive a reply.

Honestly, I suppose that if you had the work together enough to run it 24/7, you could probably make a business case on those numbers to get yourself up and running with the intent of upgrading down the road. However, at that point the difference between buying a $3500 4'x4' Eastwood table and a $12K 4'x8' Langmuir table would be moot.
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Those numbers are like firewood processors claiming shit like 5 cords an hour.

They run 4-5 logs through in 10 mins and figure that can be sustainable production. "50 cords a day"
I mean if you don't stop for anything, have perfect logs, couple guys helping, everything goes perfect all day... maybe.

Sorta like when the foreman that's been in the nice heated office all day walks by, grabs the shovel and goes balls out for 5 mins to show the laborer how he needs to be working. "SEE, THAT AIN'T HARD" while laborer is doing it 12hrs x 7 days a week in the cold miserable rain.
Never mind that foreman is going back in the office to recover and ice down his arms 🤣
 
I almost pulled the trigger on the small Langmire table, but decided it was very much a want vs need and ~$2500 is a bunch of money for something I may not use that much.

Cutting plate in squares I can do fairly easy with a Milwaukee dry cut saw, but curves, circles, etc means chiseling away with grinder or hand cutting with plasma and lot of time cleaning it up.

Not terrible bad on thin stuff, like 1/8", but thick stuff is alot of time.

This cylinder end out of 5/8" plate I have probably 4 hrs into between design, pulling tools out, finding steel, cutting it, sorting out how to "fixture" it, welding, and putting stuff away.
Probably could do it in half that to copy though.

Don't know if a plasma table could do the pin holes accurately enough, I used a mag drill and rota-broach then cut the pieces after.

The thing with sending stuff out is lead time, shipping as well as lot of times I'm not exactly sure how it's going to end up and I'm designing as I build it.

Like that cylinder end, I first planned to just weld 2 tabs to the cylinder, but later realized there'd be barely any weld area.

20240817_105403.jpg
20240817_105409.jpg
20240817_105415.jpg
 
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AKnate said:
I almost pulled the trigger on the small Langmire table, but decided it was very much a want vs need and ~$2500 is a bunch of money for something I may not use that much.

Cutting plate in squares I can do fairly easy with a Milwaukee dry cut saw, but curves, circles, etc means chiseling away with grinder or hand cutting with plasma and lot of time cleaning it up.

Not terrible bad on thin stuff, like 1/8", but thick stuff is alot of time.

This cylinder end out of 5/8" plate I have probably 4 hrs into between design, pulling tools out, finding steel, cutting it, sorting out how to "fixture" it, welding, and putting stuff away.
Probably could do it in half that to copy though.

Don't know if a plasma table could do the pin holes accurately enough, I used a mag drill and rota-broach then cut the pieces after.

The thing with sending stuff out is lead time, shipping as well as lot of times I'm not exactly sure how it's going to end up and I'm designing as I build it.

Like that cylinder end, I first planned to just weld 2 tabs to the cylinder, but later realized there'd be barely any weld area.

20240817_105403.jpg
20240817_105409.jpg
20240817_105415.jpg
Click to expand...

Those are a pretty perfect use of a plasma table, but if your CAD skills suck they might not save you any time


I figured out the center punch function on my table and that made my my shit way nicer.
Pop the centers and drill them on the mag drill, press, mill etc.
 
AKnate said:
The thing with sending stuff out is lead time, shipping as well as lot of times I'm not exactly sure how it's going to end up and I'm designing as I build it.
Click to expand...

That is exactly the reason for a small table in-house - not production work. Be able to do the prototyping or the one-offs that you need and then when you have it all figured out you can send the files out and have hundreds or thousands of them made and delivered.
 
CarterKraft said:
Those are a pretty perfect use of a plasma table, but if your CAD skills suck they might not save you any time


I figured out the center punch function on my table and that made my my shit way nicer.
Pop the centers and drill them on the mag drill, press, mill etc.
Click to expand...
I don't know CAD at all
 
AKnate said:
I don't know CAD at all
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Not to say you don't need to know how but you could get by using a "conversational" program like in linuxcnc. Not sure if the other controllers have conversational or not.
 
We have a 5x10 plasma table at work. It's a constant battle to keep it usable. It's a constant battle to even get it to cut reliably. Anymore, I have enough projects going on that I just order laser an use the lead time to work on other projects. Even with personal stuff, I'd rather pay someone else to deal with the material handling aspect of cutting out parts and get nicer cuts with holes that are actually round and correctly sized.

I think the material handling of plate steel is often overlooked by most people. Lifting sheets onto the table without some sort of help is a complete pain in the back, let alone just moving and storing them in a shop.
 
Ghetto Fab. said:
We have a 5x10 plasma table at work. It's a constant battle to keep it usable. It's a constant battle to even get it to cut reliably. Anymore, I have enough projects going on that I just order laser an use the lead time to work on other projects. Even with personal stuff, I'd rather pay someone else to deal with the material handling aspect of cutting out parts and get nicer cuts with holes that are actually round and correctly sized.

I think the material handling of plate steel is often overlooked by most people. Lifting sheets onto the table without some sort of help is a complete pain in the back, let alone just moving and storing them in a shop.
Click to expand...


My 5x10 table I find very little motivation to use as it’s tinker project every time. And like you said, without being able to fit a forklift into the shop handling plates it’s a big job. I need to just get rid of it.
 
AKnate said:
I almost pulled the trigger on the small Langmire table, but decided it was very much a want vs need and ~$2500 is a bunch of money for something I may not use that much.

Austin would have to make you a whole sub forum from just your threads on cutting tables alone :laughing:
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Bacho said:
My 5x10 table I find very little motivation to use as it’s tinker project every time. And like you said, without being able to fit a forklift into the shop handling plates it’s a big job. I need to just get rid of it.
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Little engine hoist is all you need

GuidoLyons gave me his years ago and it has moved thousands of pounds of steel and aluminum
 
srf said:
Anyone that thinks operating a plasma is a license to print money is out to lunch. It's a great tool to support your business, but the business is the money maker, not the table.
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I can echo this statement
and
bigger the table, bigger the set of tools you will need to support it
 
I started with a 4x4 about 10yr ago. It made it's money back many times over. Cutting standard sheets to fit sucks if you want to be productive. Bought a 5x10 and paid itself off with one job.

I do industrial/commercial fab work, and being able to have no lead time is critical. It cuts all my regular steel, i don't farm any of that out. I try and farm out as much stainless as possible because its cheaper than the 2nd ops with cleaning/finishing after plasma. I've got a great laser/machine shop with pricing well under what the online laser guys are.

Material handling by overhead crane is the best option.

Run a Hypertherm. Cut quality is way better than even other good name brands. Forgot productivity and good parts running a ling dong cut50.

Shortly after I got a table I found i needed a brake, then another, and another and...they are complementary machines. Your not using the table to it's max capability if it's not reducing downstream work in other ways.

Fuck plasma art. I hate it and usually hate the people who want it. There is less than 0 money here. I'm good at cleaning up and getting stuff cut ready but it still sucks and people bitch over a $200 sign that should have cost $400.

So pretty much they can make $ but you need the business and other machines to work with it.
 
Dethmachinefab said:
I started with a 4x4 about 10yr ago. It made it's money back many times over. Cutting standard sheets to fit sucks if you want to be productive. Bought a 5x10 and paid itself off with one job.

I do industrial/commercial fab work, and being able to have no lead time is critical. It cuts all my regular steel, i don't farm any of that out. I try and farm out as much stainless as possible because its cheaper than the 2nd ops with cleaning/finishing after plasma. I've got a great laser/machine shop with pricing well under what the online laser guys are.

Material handling by overhead crane is the best option.

Run a Hypertherm. Cut quality is way better than even other good name brands. Forgot productivity and good parts running a ling dong cut50.

Shortly after I got a table I found i needed a brake, then another, and another and...they are complementary machines. Your not using the table to it's max capability if it's not reducing downstream work in other ways.

Fuck plasma art. I hate it and usually hate the people who want it. There is less than 0 money here. I'm good at cleaning up and getting stuff cut ready but it still sucks and people bitch over a $200 sign that should have cost $400.

So pretty much they can make $ but you need the business and other machines to work with it.
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The term you're looking for is "vertical integration". :flipoff2:
 
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