This is the question I get more than any other, usually before somebody has even bought a table. What does it actually make?

The honest answer is that a plasma table makes nothing. It is a tool. A table in a garage that nobody markets earns exactly zero, and I have watched plenty of people find that out the expensive way. What earns money is a repeatable thing you cut and a repeatable place you sell it.

But that is a cop-out answer on its own, so let me give you real numbers and what each one actually costs you in time.


This is the realistic first target and most people can hit it inside a few months of consistent work.

A personalised metal sign — a family name, a monogram, an address plaque — sells in the $45 to $75 range depending on size and finish. Call it $55 average. Material on a 16 gauge sign that size runs a few dollars. Consumables, a bit more. Your real cost per sign, cut and finished, lands somewhere around $8 to $12.

At $55 a sale with $10 of cost, you are keeping about $45. Twenty-two sales a month gets you to $1,000. That is five a week.

Five sales a week is not a business that will replace a job, but it is very achievable. It is one craft fair a month plus a Facebook Marketplace listing that stays up. The reason most people never hit it is not demand — it is that they cut forty different designs instead of the same five over and over, so they never get fast at anything and never build up any stock.

Doubling it is not twice the work, and this is the part people get wrong.

Going from $1,000 to $2,000 almost never comes from selling twice as many $55 signs. It comes from one of three moves:

Raise the average order. A 24-inch sign instead of a 12-inch one is barely more time on the table but sells for double. Powder coat instead of clear adds $20 to $30 and costs you a few dollars. Offering a matching smaller piece as an add-on lifts the whole ticket.

Sell the same design more than once. A design you cut once and sell fifty times is where the money actually is. That is the entire argument for personalisation — a monogram is one file and a different name every time, so nobody can price shop you.

Add a second channel. If everything comes from craft fairs, you are capped by how many weekends exist. An Etsy listing or a local business account keeps selling while you sleep.

I have made most of these myself.

Cutting what you like instead of what sells. Your taste is not the market. Cut a few things, see what people actually reach for, and then cut more of that.

Undercharging because you feel bad. People new to this price off material cost. Material is the smallest part of what you are selling. You are selling a finished, personalised object that the buyer cannot make themselves. Price it like that.

No stock. Showing up to a fair with three pieces and a photo album does not work. People buy what they can carry away. Cut ahead.

Chasing every custom request. One-off custom work eats your whole weekend for one sale. It feels like business and it is mostly not. Build a small catalogue and steer people into it.

Waiting until the shop is perfect. Nobody who buys your sign cares what your garage looks like.

Time-wise, at the $1,000 level you are looking at maybe six to ten hours a week between cutting, finishing, listing and delivering. At $2,000 it is fifteen to twenty, unless you have got smart about batching — cutting ten of the same thing in one session instead of ten different things in ten sessions.

The equipment does not need to be exotic. A hobby-level table, a decent angle grinder, a wire wheel, and something to seal the steel will do everything described here. The people making money are not the ones with the best equipment.

I have covered this in a few different ways on the channel. This one is the most watched thing I have ever made and it walks through the $1,000 a month path end to end:


[Watch: How To Make Money With A CNC Plasma Table — $1K A Month Steady](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEgPs63IW8U)

This one is the shorter version aimed at the $2,000 level and the specific moves that get you there:


[Watch: How To Make $2,000 A Month With Your CNC Plasma Table The Easy Way](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRxl3P1ROew)

And if you are earlier than that — still deciding, or you have the table and have not sold anything yet — start with the beginner walkthrough:


[Watch: Make Money With Your Plasma CNC Business — A Beginners Guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2WVPoFAk28)

If you want the pricing side in detail — how to work out your real shop rate rather than guessing — that is covered separately in [what to charge for CNC plasma work](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/what-to-charge-for-cnc-plasma-work).

If the bottleneck is customers rather than pricing, [where to sell your CNC plasma work](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/where-to-sell-your-cnc-plasma-work) goes through the channels that actually move product.

And if you have not got designs to cut yet, the free file library will get you started without spending anything:

[Get the free CNC plasma cut files](https://www.tinmanmetalworks.com/blog/free-cnc-plasma-cut-files)

$1,000 a month is about five sales a week of a $55 personalised piece. $2,000 comes from bigger tickets and a second channel, not from doubling your hours. The table is not the thing that makes money — the repeatable design and the repeatable place to sell it are.