The equipment budget
Two scales. A serious 1,500 × 3,000 plasma table costs €8,000 to €15,000 bare; with the machine-torch cutter, the computer, the CAM software, the water tray or extraction and the training, the complete station exceeds €15,000 in most workshops. A benchtop robot like the ArcDroid costs €2,690 incl. VAT with its controller and stylus; it connects to the cutter you already own, or to a €900 to €2,000 pilot-arc 45 A unit. Compressor, goggles, gloves: most workshops have them. A complete station, cutter included, stays under €5,000.
What no quote shows: floor space. A table locks up 4 to 6 m² of workshop for good, plus the sheet handling around it. At €80 to €100 per square metre per year, that is a €500 yearly rent for the machine alone.
What an hour of arc costs
Consumables first. An electrode and a nozzle are replaced together; count €15 to €30 a pair depending on brand and origin, for one to three hours of actual arc time. The figure varies mostly with the number of pierces: each cut start wears the nozzle more than several tens of centimetres of cutting. A shield and a swirl ring last much longer.
Electricity next. A 45 A cutter at full power draws about 6 kW, the compressor 1.5 to 2 kW while running: around 8 kW during the cut, about €2 per hour of arc at current rates. Air costs nothing more, except the filter-dryer cartridge, changed twice a year. In total, an hour of arc comes to €10 to €20 — and an hour of arc is a lot of parts.
A base plate, in numbers
Take the most common part: a 200 × 200 base plate in 8 mm steel, four 14 mm holes. About one metre of cutting, five pierces. In 8 mm with a 45 A cutter, a little over a minute of arc: €0.30 of consumables, a few cents of electricity. The sheet weighs 2.5 kg, €4 to €5 at plate prices. Add five minutes of labour to trace, cut and deburr. The plate comes to €5 of material and consumables, plus the operator's time.
The same plate from a laser subcontractor is billed €10 to €25 each depending on quantity, plus fixed order fees and transport — and it arrives in five to ten days. For a one-off or a small batch, plasma in the workshop wins on price; above all it wins on lead time, because the part exists an hour after the customer's call.
The break-even point
The simple calculation: €2,690 divided by the average saving per part. At €10 to €15 saved on each base plate, the ArcDroid is paid back between 180 and 270 parts. A metalworker who cuts five a week gets there in a year; a carpenter or gate maker who cuts twenty, in three months. Add the brackets, gussets, shims, farm repair plates and everything that was never subcontracted because it was not worth it — and that was cut by hand, badly, in three times the time.
For a table, the same reasoning needs five to six times the volume, plus a trained person to run it. That is why you see idle tables in workshops that would have plenty to feed them.
The costs people forget
Training: two to five days for a table and its drawing → CAM → G-code chain, one hour for a tracing robot. Licences: CAM software costs from zero to €2,000 a year depending on the package; the robot needs none. Deburring: identical in both cases, a minute per part with a grinder or a scraper. The compressor: if it is too small it overheats, the air arrives wet, and the consumables pay for it — a €60 filter-dryer is the most profitable investment of the whole setup.
What to remember
The cost of a plasma cut comes down to three lines: the material, a few tens of cents of consumables and electricity, and the operator's time. The rest — machine, space, software, training — depends entirely on the family of machine you choose.
- Hour of arc: €10 to €20 all in (consumables + electricity)
- 200 × 200 × 8 base plate: about €5 of material and consumables, five minutes of work
- Benchtop robot paid back between 180 and 270 base plates; a table from 1,000 parts and a trained person
- The first gain is not the price, it is the lead time: the part is made today
