Quote:
Originally Posted by lnex1357
What are the costs beyond the purchase of the machine and tooling you have expereinced, i.e. installation & setup cost (electric drop/water line for water table), gas rental, etc?
What have users experienced in terms of operational cost i.e. gas usage, tool & tip replacement, power consumption etc?
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I'm going to assume that you have a computer to run this with...
Consumables are not too noticeable, as there aren't a lot of consumables. Gas is simply compressed air, so cost there is just getting a compressor. We have a refrigerant dryer as well to keep our plasma cutter free of moisture. Tips are the most commonly changed parts we have, with our machine operating for 1-2 hours per week we change tips every three to four months. Tip cost will depend which machine you will have, we use a Hypertherm 1600 and replace all parts but the outer shield when we open it up. On average it costs us $15-25 depending on what kind of tips we use. Power consumption isn't an issue for us as we are in a public school so power is free to us. You could figure it out by using the wattage on your plasma cutter and determining run time to get a rough estimate.
Without knowing where you are and what the general rates are for contractors in you area, the question of costs for drops for water and power are going to be unknowns for me. Ours was around $300 to get hooked up including a ground stake drilled through 12" of concrete. However we had ample 220VAC supplied right next to our machine already.
Our machine is a PlasmaCAM and people will tell you all day long that plasma is no go for this and no good for that, but it all depends on what you expect out of the machine. Plasma cutting materials for us has been fantastically successful because we use it for precision on our shapes and for layout on our holes and cutouts. We built our shooter using it this year for 1/8 inch aluminum and had no issue whatsoever. We had to drill out a few holes to be 1/4 inch but that was just because they were so small. Anything 3/8" and up the plasma does a fine job. Plus for our thicker sheet metal parts we use it to perforate the material so it is easier to bend and that has been hugely successful as well. We also used it for the seat pan on our electric car using 3/16 aluminum with perforations and that was a one cut and perfect fit operation.