I don't know what kind of plasma tips you use but the copper isn't hard at all. I have cut hundreds of these and the cut quality reamains good enough to compensate for paying $5 or $6 to put another one in. I can use one tip more than once. As a small business I have no need to cut in the 4 decimal places. If I needed that close tolerance I wouldn't use normal plasma, I would look at HD plasma or other type of cutting altogether.
If I can take off .01 to .015 off the tip to clean up the end of the damaged hole and get a second life out of a tip it was worth it. Since I have done this for 3 years I would say I have better results from reconditioned tips than I do original tips. The results are that I get more production out of the referb tips.
I never planned on reselling any tips. I figure there are people out there with a similar machine and I would provde them with money that would be more than they would get more than scrap price for their copper. Besides if I can referb more than 3 per minute for one hour that makes it a good deal for me.
You keep tossing out your consumables and wondering how you can make things more profitable for your company.
If your labor time is free and you dont mind reduced cut quality, you may succede.
The machining on the nozzle hole size, roundness of the hole, and straightness of the walls is 4 decemal places.
You will have to sell rebuilt nozzles fopr 2-3 times the price of new ones to break even.
It isnt as easy as it looks. The type of copper used is hard (difficult) to machine.
You would have a better chance of making a fortune by inventing Warp Drive or cheap Hydrogen!  |