I have been getting various quotes for plasma cutting jobs. I
understand that there are disposables involved with tangible costs.

It occurred to me that there has to be a figure that would price out
the cost of a plasma cut perhaps in terms of dollars/inch of
cut/thickness of a given material, thus isolating the procedural costs
from others such as workshop rent, labor etc.

Has anyone done this?

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

wrote:

I have been getting various quotes for plasma cutting jobs. I
understand that there are disposables involved with tangible costs.

It occurred to me that there has to be a figure that would price out
the cost of a plasma cut perhaps in terms of dollars/inch of
cut/thickness of a given material, thus isolating the procedural costs
from others such as workshop rent, labor etc.

Has anyone done this?

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

There might be some useful info on the Hypertherm site. There are quite
a few variables that influence the life of the consumables in plasma
cutting, ranging from the brand and model of machine to material,
thickness of material, manual or CNC, basic CNC or 5 axis, edge start,
piercing, etc.

"Pete C." wrote in message
.com...


wrote:

I have been getting various quotes for plasma cutting jobs. I
understand that there are disposables involved with tangible costs.

It occurred to me that there has to be a figure that would price out
the cost of a plasma cut perhaps in terms of dollars/inch of
cut/thickness of a given material, thus isolating the procedural costs
from others such as workshop rent, labor etc.

Has anyone done this?

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

There might be some useful info on the Hypertherm site. There are quite
a few variables that influence the life of the consumables in plasma
cutting, ranging from the brand and model of machine to material,
thickness of material, manual or CNC, basic CNC or 5 axis, edge start,
piercing, etc.


Consumables are not much. A nozzle lasts a long time, and is not expensive.
Power costs are probably the highest cost. I think part of the problem is
there are less and less that do plasma cutting. Better methods are starting
to rule. Waterjet, etc. Plasma leaves heat conditions along the cut edge,
and the waterjet makes a very fine kerf and very neat. Plus if you are
doing an automated plasma table cut, you need the correct input file. Last
is required on a waterjet also, so I guess that is a wash. (bad pun)

On 8/11/2011 6:45, wrote:
I have been getting various quotes for plasma cutting jobs. I
understand that there are disposables involved with tangible costs.

It occurred to me that there has to be a figure that would price out
the cost of a plasma cut perhaps in terms of dollars/inch of
cut/thickness of a given material, thus isolating the procedural costs
from others such as workshop rent, labor etc.

In a free market, the price of item or service is not directly
proportional to the cost of producing item or service.

A large volume customer gets much better price than one-time..
Might be 5 times (or more) more expensive for one-time customer..

If there is a tough competition, the prices are lower than if
the plasma cutting company has monopoly at the area..

You can only calculate the LOWEST possible price with no
profit. That has nothing to do with the selling price..

Kristian Ukkonen.

wrote in message
...
I have been getting various quotes for plasma cutting jobs. I
understand that there are disposables involved with tangible costs.

It occurred to me that there has to be a figure that would price out
the cost of a plasma cut perhaps in terms of dollars/inch of
cut/thickness of a given material, thus isolating the procedural costs
from others such as workshop rent, labor etc.

Has anyone done this?

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

So far for me it totals out to ~$10 per inch, not counting the cost of a
larger air compressor.

jsw

Califbill wrote:

"Pete C." wrote in message
.com...

wrote:

I have been getting various quotes for plasma cutting jobs. I
understand that there are disposables involved with tangible costs.

It occurred to me that there has to be a figure that would price out
the cost of a plasma cut perhaps in terms of dollars/inch of
cut/thickness of a given material, thus isolating the procedural costs
from others such as workshop rent, labor etc.

Has anyone done this?

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

There might be some useful info on the Hypertherm site. There are quite
a few variables that influence the life of the consumables in plasma
cutting, ranging from the brand and model of machine to material,
thickness of material, manual or CNC, basic CNC or 5 axis, edge start,
piercing, etc.

Consumables are not much. A nozzle lasts a long time, and is not expensive.
Power costs are probably the highest cost. I think part of the problem is
there are less and less that do plasma cutting. Better methods are starting
to rule. Waterjet, etc. Plasma leaves heat conditions along the cut edge,
and the waterjet makes a very fine kerf and very neat. Plus if you are
doing an automated plasma table cut, you need the correct input file. Last
is required on a waterjet also, so I guess that is a wash. (bad pun)

Plasma and CNC plasma are affordable for HSM users, waterjet not so much
at present.

On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:04:45 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
I have been getting various quotes for plasma cutting jobs. I
understand that there are disposables involved with tangible costs.

It occurred to me that there has to be a figure that would price out
the cost of a plasma cut perhaps in terms of dollars/inch of
cut/thickness of a given material, thus isolating the procedural costs
from others such as workshop rent, labor etc.

Has anyone done this?

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

So far for me it totals out to ~$10 per inch, not counting the cost of a
larger air compressor.

Doublecheck that figure, Jim. That works out to nearly $190 to cut
out a simple 6" circle of material. You'd go broke waiting for the
first customer at that price! Did you transpose the decimal one place
over?

--
Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.
-- Marie Ebner von Eschenbach

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:04:45 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:
...
So far for me it totals out to ~$10 per inch, not counting the cost of a
larger air compressor.

Doublecheck that figure, Jim. That works out to nearly $190 to cut
out a simple 6" circle of material. You'd go broke waiting for the
first customer at that price! Did you transpose the decimal one place
over?

It reflects how much I paid and how little I've used it, because the
compressor I had was inadequate.

jsw

"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message
...

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:04:45 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:
...
So far for me it totals out to ~$10 per inch, not counting the cost of a
larger air compressor.

Doublecheck that figure, Jim. That works out to nearly $190 to cut
out a simple 6" circle of material. You'd go broke waiting for the
first customer at that price! Did you transpose the decimal one place
over?

It reflects how much I paid and how little I've used it, because the
compressor I had was inadequate.

jsw

Then it's about the same cost as my TIG welder... per inch of weld.
:-(

On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:12:05 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:


"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:04:45 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:
...
So far for me it totals out to ~$10 per inch, not counting the cost of a
larger air compressor.

Doublecheck that figure, Jim. That works out to nearly $190 to cut
out a simple 6" circle of material. You'd go broke waiting for the
first customer at that price! Did you transpose the decimal one place
over?

It reflects how much I paid and how little I've used it, because the
compressor I had was inadequate.

Ah, yes, the compressor skew. That's a biggie!

--
Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.
-- Marie Ebner von Eschenbach

On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:04:45 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
I have been getting various quotes for plasma cutting jobs. I
understand that there are disposables involved with tangible costs.

It occurred to me that there has to be a figure that would price out
the cost of a plasma cut perhaps in terms of dollars/inch of
cut/thickness of a given material, thus isolating the procedural costs
from others such as workshop rent, labor etc.

Has anyone done this?

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

So far for me it totals out to ~$10 per inch, not counting the cost of a
larger air compressor.


Yes, I have few tools like that, too :-) Don't some of the plasma
cutters have an in-built compressor?
However, I was thinking more along the cost in terms of consumables.

BTW I was quoted double for the same job cutting by water jet as
opposed to plasma.

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:37:26 -0700, wrote:

BTW I was quoted double for the same job cutting by water jet as
opposed to plasma.

But the water leaves a finished edge, right?

--
Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.
-- Marie Ebner von Eschenbach

wrote ...
On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:04:45 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:
...
Michael Koblic,

These wheels are hot rolled steel cut on a CNC plasma cutter.
https://picasaweb.google.com/KB1DAL/...44352319116898
They are the scrap so I had to fill in the starting slits and turn down the
resulting lump of weld..

The outer crust is so hard a carbide insert only polishes them.

jsw

The most cost effective method that I found for removing the hard thick
scale from HRS, was a diluted muriatic acid solution.

I generally use coathanger wire to hang parts suspended in the acid, and
when the scale is gone, I rinse with bicarbonate/baking soda solution
followed by clean fresh water, and finally force dried the parts.
If the parts weren't going to be finished for a while, I'd thinly coat them
with some 30W oil.

As has been mentioned many times before.. this acid descaling/stripping
method should be performed outdoors, and the solution safely stored away
from precision equipment, children, pets etc.

--
WB
..........


"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message
...

These wheels are hot rolled steel cut on a CNC plasma cutter.
https://picasaweb.google.com/KB1DAL/...44352319116898
They are the scrap so I had to fill in the starting slits and turn down
the resulting lump of weld..

The outer crust is so hard a carbide insert only polishes them.

jsw