New Guy Looking at Dabbling in Plasma Cutting

[Brig]

Salutations!

As the title says, I'm looking at getting into plasma cutting. I recently bought my first house and have been working on turning the barn into a small workshop, and want to start teaching myself some new skills. This is completely new to me, looking forward to learning.

[Joe Jones]

Hi. Decide first, what you want to make with your plasma cutter. Brackets and widgets, or metal art. Decide what thickness of material you will -mostly cut.

Figure out how the whole shop is going to work. Where to store the large sheets of material. How to move them around. What to do with the drops and the skeletons. Can you make noise, and smoke, and fumes in your shop without angering your neighbors?

Will you produce raw metal, or are you planning to paint or powder coats your products? If you are going to do metal art, are you going to sell it out of your home via Etsy and eBay, etc.? Or are you going to set up a vendor booth somewhere to display and sell your items?

Most importantly, are you going to draw your own artwork or are you going to rely on the large libraries of vector art that are already out there?

Are you going to do this alone or will you have a helper? How old are you, and how much energy do you have? Will you be relying on this for your income or is this just a side gig?

Joe

[acourtjester]

Now take a deep breath after reading that list, there are some good points in it. But you need to crawl before you run, there is lots of help that can be had on this site. Take a learn as you go so you don't overload yourself, "Roma was not built in a day" The internet and Google are your friend so do some research before you jump.

[Brig]

It's just going to be a side capability. Material under 1/2" thick, mostly. In my 30s and own enough land the neighbors won't have anything to say. If I generate any revenue at all it's a bonus, this is more for hobby purposes.

My garage is large enough to store an entire rig with trailer, so no lack of space. Putting in wood working materials in the rear, metal working in the center, and automotive near the front.

[robertspark]

I would suggest reading this well written document on plasma

https://linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/pl ... rimer.html

you will then be able to put together what your requirements and expectations are

[acourtjester]

If you are doing wood working also do not over look using the table with a router. Basically the software is the same, main difference is the plasma if surface up and routing is surface down actions. On my table I have 4 bolts that hold on the router or Plasma mount, simple to convert.