I can see where you want to use your plasma cutter for a business, but I can have a $250K laser cut my designs for a buck a minute of burn time and the results don't have any post-cut prep needed. I wouldn't buy a kit that came with drossy edges that needed grinding to weld. Use your plasma for prototyping, then farm out the cutting to someone with real equipment. You'll save money in the long run, I guarantee it.
As Evertything Attachments has done, you too would need to have someone not related to the organization/design team build your kit before you attempted marketing it to make sure that your instructions and whatnot were viable in the field. You also need to do some real world testing on your design prior to fielding the beta testers units. CAD is a wonderful thing, but every engineer makes mistakes now and again, or maybe something just doesn't work as well as you thought it would when you conjured one up into the real world. So it sounds like you're a bit ahead of yourself talking about selling these when you don't have proof that yours works as intended.
Don't misconstrue my words - I'm self employed, manufacturing and distributing something I invented, so I wish you the absolute best of luck. I just want you to go down a path set up for success, which is why I'm being critical of your plan. It's a long hard road and the beginning, especially, is slow and painful. The end isn't all ice cream and lollipops either. I spent a good part of the last two days trying to figure out how to overcome a quality issue from my salt bath nitriding vendor - this is the 6th lot I've had them do, and it's the 4th that's been reworked once already. I've been doing these for a little over 2 years now, and the kinks keep on coming.
You'll have logistics issues, and without volume you'll have pricing problems with distribution and materials (another reason to have a bigger shop make your stuff for you - they buy steel cheaper than you can). EA found out their kit wasn't viable, or maybe they didn't think it fit with their business model. Kits are going to be extremely low volume and high labor. If that's all you're doing, maybe it can work. I don't think they wanted to tie up their CS department with the hours of babysitting that might be needed as people put kits together. They control costs with manufactured products; you know how fast your guys can weld them, you know how much it costs to paint the unit, you know what it costs to ship it - so when you set the price you know how much of that stays in your pocket (and remember that Uncle Sam is going to take 1/3 of it). When you offer a kit, you'll have a lot more questions, and post-sale follow up, both of which are unknowns. I'd imagine the lawyers also didn't like that Johnny homeowner might be using a $80 fluxcore machine to weld up their kit and the liability might come back to haunt them.
I started my company out of desperation. I had no ability to hold a job, and still don't, due to mechanical problems with my nerve function in both hands combined with chronic neck pain. There's a lot of days I'd love to just work for someone else and collect a paycheck. Don't quit your day job! I didn't have that option. I was fired because I couldn't perform. Working for myself I can do things as I'm able, but my income isn't what it would be if I was still on someone else's payroll, at least not yet.
