Opinions wanted: starting a business

[vince996]

Hi everyones, I've been looking at starting my own shop for a while and never tought about having a plasma table before finding this site! I am sure that there is a good potential here for a cnc plasma cutting service.The material that i intend to cut is thin gage sheet to 1" thick . I plan to offer the cutting service to bigger shop in my region and also to anybody that want some metal cut! So im looking for a reliable,sturdy machine that will have no problem running 6-7 hours a day and with easy to work on softwares.I know that there is a learning curve but im ready to work hard on this. I am looking primarily at Dynatorch and Torchmate because i have the option to make the table(Im a welder) and they seem to have good customer service.
So im listening for owners opinions, experiences with theses machines...anything that can make my decision easier.Im also looking for running cost number for my business plan like electricity cost per month,consummables/tips cost ....anything that can help is greatly appreciated.Thanks!
and sorry for my english....im a french canadian

[DISCONNECTED]

One thing to think about is,there is more money in custom work and less wear and tear on your machine than making quantity repetitive cuts.How thin a gauge of metal you want to cut?18 gauge is tough.Remember conventional plasma is not a precise process.

[Mike@Torchmate]

We have several customers in Canada, perhaps we have a demo point close enough to you that you could go take a look at one of our tables. As far as opinions go, I would check out the Torchmate users group on Yahoo groups for opinions on our table.

-Mike

[vince996]

The main use would be custom work and some artwork but i want to be able to do some sub-contracts for the industries around here.So that's why reliability and solidity of all the components are important to me...am looking for the best bang for the bucks.The plasma unit a want to use is a hypertherm powermax 1000...so sheetmetal to 1/2" plate should not be a problem.

[xjdubber]

if you want to be versatile, look into getting a table with a plasma and a oxy fuel torch. That way you can start cutting out some really thick stuff. There is a lot of people making heavy duty equipment that farm that kind of work out.