Advice on new CNC plasma system for welding shop

Hello, we're a small welding shop looking into buying a CNC plasma system. This would be used for making custom artwork for gates, wall art, etc.

We need a set up that is good quality, reasonably affordable, and user friendly... hopefully a very simple computer interface that would still allow nesting.

We are brand new to this kind of equipment.

Any advice on good brands to look into (or avoid)? User friendly software?

Thanks!

Maybe suggest a budget you can work with to produce the most accurate result. Plasmacam comes to mind - I bought one of the first units twenty years ago - maybe they are no longer the best option. I doubt you will find anything that will do decent nesting because that is a whole can of worms unto itself with very high prices for good software. After Plasmacam comes a jump in prices to more sophisticated machines like Dynatorch, etc.

I have had a couple of friends who have midsize fab shops buy ArcLight, made in Bend Oregon. They really liked them. These are much bigger, tougher, and production oriented thatn a Plasmacam- I cant imagine loading a 4x8 sheet with a forklift on a plasmacam, something I have done hundreds and hundreds of times on my ancient C&G machine.

CNC Plasma Tables | Plasma Cutting Tables - Arclight Dynamics

2nd posting...
If you have a flexible budget please consider a Fablight Pulsed Laser. It plugs into a 115VAC outlet @15amps and the 4.5KW machine will cut 1/4" stainless albeit slowly. I cut 3/16" ss on my machine all day. It is accurate within .005" and the kerf is the same dimension. Because it is pulsed fiber, it never needs anything replaced except for a small lens about every 200 hours. The software is now near perfect and was not two years ago when I got my machine. I have about six hundred hours on it now and still cuts like the day I bought it. Paid for itself seven times over at least. I weld up long 12' pieces by indexing them and you cannot tell where the weld was. It also will cut tubes and squares. Nitrogen is a good thing to use for stainless.

I should also mention it has a footprint of 72" x about 40" deep, 5 feet high-ish.
Below is an image of about two days of cutting both 12g 304 and .036" 304. About a thousand parts. I surface the parts when they are still on the sheet and remove all dross and then break them off. Aside from it being a;most impossible on a plasma machine the dross clean up on a thousand parts might take a week of extreme drudgery. Been there, done that, never again....



Good luck!
P.S. I have a 5 x 10 Dynatorch table with a 100AMP High Def Hypertherm plasma and I will jump through many a hoop on the laser before considering taking it to the plasma. The prices on fiber laser machines are going to get lower in the near future because the laser itself is now being made in more places than just Massachusetts.

Controlled automation or hornet on the upper end.