Cutting wooden letters and shapes - purchase help for a newbie please!

[kemo_2002]

Work area - is it big enough for what you need? a machine with a 600 x 1200

Rigidity - cutting MDF is easy... but what else might you want to cut?

So a machine capable of 1000mm/min cutting speed will take around 5 minutes or so to cut that out depending on the number of passes (e.g. 5 passes @ 2mm depth). That may be fast enough, but add some decoration to the surface and some twiddly font bits and suddenly you could be looking at 20min to cut it. Is that fast enough?

Thankyou for all your replies, in order to answer a few point, i would definately want the bigger work space doing one letter a time would take a long time i fear.

i will mainly be cutting MDF wood but possibly up to 18" for free stading letters, obviosusly if i have a machine capable of other woods i would look to use them, bt this is not a top priority on things i would like.

then it comes to cutting speed, up to 20 mins per letter is quite long, i would obviously like something quicker if i can, the picture than was put for an item on ebay looks like it would do a good job for me, only the working area is very small, this may have to be my compromise to stop having to pay silly money.

with all that taken into account, roughly how much am i looking at needing to save up, my business turnover is around 5k net profit per year (it would certainly be more if i wasnt restrictied im sure) i could fork out 3-4 grand at hthe end of hte tax year if i had to, to get something i want but then i have to look at how long it would take for me to recoup that money...a long time i would think

Thanks again all :)

[irving2008]

my business turnover is around 5k net profit per year (it would certainly be more if i wasnt restrictied im sure)

Couple of thoughts..

1. you're looking at this from the wrong angle... 5k net profit means you are paying ~£1.25k pa in tax? Any capital expenditure you make in the tax year is deductable against taxable income (see here for more info, it differ depending on whether you are a sole trader, partnership or a limited company) so at least some if not all of the cost of the equipment can be offset against tax. If you are careful you can do it across two tax years as well...

2. Investing 25% of your income into extending the business isnt unreasonable, so putting £1k+ a year back into the business to increase its turnover and profitability is sound planning

On that basis (and you need to do the numbers more appropriately for your actual situation - or get your accountant to) a £4k+ spend seems perfectly reasonable.... and the ROI is probably better than you think...