I was wondering if anyone has broken down the cost analysis of what it actually costs to produce an E-max Press vs and E-max Cad crown. Like what the blue block costs, what mill is needed, bur life. Model, and scan/design are the same for both. Pressing has additional steps, sprueing, investing, pressing oven cost, ingots, devesting, desprueing. Has anyone put them side by side and actually found which one is cheaper? I know with pressing you can get several done with one ingot. How long is the milling time? Any help would be awesome! Thanks
Shane,
while i have done this cost analysis with many milling setups, i do not have any figures in front of me. but i can give you my honest assessment without raw numbers.
the cost of milling for my size lab (up to about 10ppl or so) is/was far more expensive. here is the simple "why"...
-my pressing unit it paid in FULL, and has paid for itself over and over and over and over again. to replace it when its cranking out profit like it does would be silly. even if it dies and i buy a new press vs a milling unit, it still would give me a better ROI than an entire mill setup. the cost of a milling setup just doesnt make sense even without including the burs, blocks, etc. the biggest factor i attribute to this is the cost of the mill, secondarily labor. if i were to purchase a mill....which i do want to do....not only would i need a skilled tech to do design work (which is expensive labor),but they also have to know what they are doing on a computer as well. AND they still have other work to complete too. (re-training/additional training - there IS a learning curve, as with anything).
-it makes far more sense to take unskilled labor, the shipping and receiving person, box up models and slap a shipping label on them, pay a small fee to another lab thats setup for outsourcing, and get the product i want without the hassle and overhead of the mill. (for zirconia or custom milled abutments etc)
-also, if for some reason i do not get enough EMax in for milling, i still have to make the mill payment (if financed),whereas i can send a tech home if there is not enough work to fill the day.
and before i get attacked, i WANT to get myself in milling. hence why i have run the numbers....for the Roland and other mills. it just doesnt make sense at this time.