Hi ,couple of questions?

[Coolusername]

Hi from NC. I own a heavy repair garage, thinking about getting a plasma table. So awhile back I bought a Move bumper for my C4500 (people think it cost 2-3 thousand) so I tell them about Move bumpers. I am probably their number 1 sales man. It has got me thinking though , I could advertising off road bumpers for sale, when I make a sell , load the machine up start the cutting, remove their bumper , then remove ,clean/grind ,bend to shape,then use a tig to mount ,tack& align bumper to their truck using their truck as the jig , remove bumper weld up with a mig then grind the welds down , if the customer can leave the vehicle, bondo&paint or rhino/raptor line it. Or I could remount his bumper and they can take the unfinished bumper for paint/powder coating.
Does this sound like a viable business idea or
will I never recover from this financially.
If someone has tried this or does this, I would love hear their suggestion. What's the average cost in materials? What equipment would you suggest? I have zero experience with Cad/cam CNC, but there are several ads for bumper files that I can use to get started, till I learn to make my own design, but cost verses time it seems like no brainier to buy the files.

[SegoMan DeSigns]

I use to do truck bumpers / grill guards a while back, now that I own a plasma table / press brake / ect. I would like to build some custom units for my trucks. I doubt I will market them thou.

To do this efficiently and make some $$ in the process you need to do everything in house, were talking:
Plasma table
press brake
sand blasting /powder coating and or other coatings
Several fixture tables with the fixtures for each style of bumper.
Highly skilled staff for each operation.

The initial start up is going to be expensive yet it "could" payout over time. The big companies started out with nothing like the rest of us. I'd say get a table and work into it from there.

[SegoMan DeSigns]

This is what goes into building the ranch hand bumpers:

[Coolusername]

Thanks for the reply! Ranch hands are super nice for sure, I am think more inline with move bumpers ( https://www.movebumpers.com )$515.00 for my c4500. I use mine for work, I've pulled fully loaded tractor trailers out of ditches, used it to push start tractor trailers, used the winch to pull my service truck(20000 lbs) up mountains to cell tower sites, took me aournd 4 hours to remove the old bumper and weld the new bumper and another 1 1/2 to rino line it.It all depending material cost, file cost, paint cost, if would be worth trying to make money as side hustle.

[SegoMan DeSigns]

My neighbor had a moving experience and built one of those for his truck, I see a lot of time consuming welding on the various sections of the bumper. Plaz cut and press brake the sections then weld them at the seams would be a quicker method.

This is the bed I did for my work truck, (B P Before Plasma) I relied on the metal suppliers shear and brake:

P7270086.JPG

P7270081.JPG

[Coolusername]

Nice work !

[adbuch]

Hi from NC. I own a heavy repair garage, thinking about getting a plasma table. So awhile back I bought a Move bumper for my C4500 (people think it cost 2-3 thousand) so I tell them about Move bumpers. I am probably their number 1 sales man. It has got me thinking though , I could advertising off road bumpers for sale, when I make a sell , load the machine up start the cutting, remove their bumper , then remove ,clean/grind ,bend to shape,then use a tig to mount ,tack& align bumper to their truck using their truck as the jig , remove bumper weld up with a mig then grind the welds down , if the customer can leave the vehicle, bondo&paint or rhino/raptor line it. Or I could remount his bumper and they can take the unfinished bumper for paint/powder coating.
Does this sound like a viable business idea or
will I never recover from this financially.
If someone has tried this or does this, I would love hear their suggestion. What's the average cost in materials? What equipment would you suggest? I have zero experience with Cad/cam CNC, but there are several ads for bumper files that I can use to get started, till I learn to make my own design, but cost verses time it seems like no brainier to buy the files.

Coolusername - this sounds like a great idea! You could measure the one you purchased to figure out how many square inches (or square feet) of material it would take to make one. Or buy one of the sets of dxf plans and lay the parts out with your cad software to see how they would nest together for the most efficient use of your material. Then if you know the material thickness you can price out the materials. I think most any of the better plasma tables will work fine for your venture. I personally use a Plasmacam, but there are many brands out there both new and used. If you are starting a business, you could buy new (finance it) and write it off as a business expense - assuming you start selling these bumpers and all of the other things you customers will want -once they know you have the capability.

David