Arlington High School - Students Starting Their Own Fabrication Business Building Dune Buggies With Torchmate Plasma Tables! Here's How They Learned Their Fabrication Skills!

Hundreds of Schools Choose Torchmate - Discover How Arlington High School Helped Their Students

Arlington High School, home of the Honkers, is a small school located in Arlington, Oregon. AHS’s academic programs offer hands-on training that can be immediately applied in the workplace. Less than one year ago, AHS purchased an all new 2024 Torchmate® 4400 equipped with a FlexCut® 80. The school had been using a Torchmate 2’x4’ Torchmate 2 table that it purchased 11 years ago, but had the means to upgrade to the newest Torchmate 4000 Series line.

The Metal Shop class can now cut larger sheets of material and for longer periods of time. “Students are able to start cutting their first project within 2 to 3 hours after first being introduced to the Torchmate. The machine is plug and play and easy to use,” said Alan Cunningham. Alan is a metal fabrication and welding instructor at Arlington High and was generous enough to talk with us about the school and how it utilizes the Torchmate table. AHS is a small school with class sizes that range from 4 to 15 students. This allows students ample time to be hands-on with the Torchmate and creates a strong learning environment. AHS is one of hundreds of schools around the world that uses a Torchmate table as a means for educating students.

Torchmate Helps Shape Future Fabricators

Alan Cunningham teaches Metal level 1, 2 and 3 at Arlington High School. The class practices a project based curriculum. “If it takes students 6 months or 2 years to finish a project, so be it. There are skill projects that help students progress. Each project has 10 to 15 shop skills to complete. Some skills include mig, stick and tig welding along with operating the Torchmate table. Half of the class is metal fabrication and half is digital fabrication, such as CNC vinyl and 3D printing.

Students use the Torchmate table to create personal projects such as signs, or group projects like entire dune buggies. These type of projects bring kids to school and keeps the kids at school. It is fulfilling when students who graduated show me photos of what they have created in the workplace. Many students have gotten jobs in the automotive or electrical industries. I have had students that graduated and started their own fabrication business at only 19 years old. Another alum went to work in Alaska, he said the work is hard and fulfilling and thanked the class for holding him accountable,” Alan said.

The Torchmate plasma cutting table plays a vital role in teaching students CAD and CNC machine skills that are needed to find careers in the industry.

The Metal class at Arlington High School has become self-sustaining because of the quality of projects the students are creating. With guidance from Alan, some students join forces to build massive metal fabrication projects. For many years, students have built dune buggies from the ground up. They start from scratch to further develop their welding and fabrication skills.

They use the Torchmate table, welders and other equipment to create high quality dune buggies. After the dune buggies are complete, the school sells them to individuals and invests the money earned back into the Metal class. Students from AHS Metal class have sold more than $100,000 worth of dune buggies and projects. Those projects would not have been possible if the school did not own a Torchmate table. AHS knew they could trust Torchmate and Lincoln Electric to provide their school with a quality piece of machinery. “Our school looked at a few different CNC plasma table options, but we chose Torchmate for many reasons. The learning curve is quick and the machine is easy to use. 

Torchmate is Helping to Achieve Life Goals

The onboard shapes library is a hit for students. Torchmate technical support has been great. You will not do any better for customer service than with Torchmate. In the past, I have talked to Torchmate support for an hour and they never asked for a dime. Also, our [Torchmate 2] never had any issues other than wear and tear so the school felt confident purchasing another Torchmate table,” Alan said. Lincoln Electric® has partnered with many schools across the globe. Educating students for generations to come is something we hold true to heart. High school and college students are the future workforce of the world. Lincoln Electric works hard to get our equipment into as many schools as possible.

Check out Arlington High School’s fab shop web page. They display a wide variety of student’s metal fabrication projects. Visitors can browse through their portfolio and even contact the school directly if they are interested in a custom dune buggy. Additionally, visitors will find behind the scenes photos and videos about how the students complete small and large projects. To view their content or for more information about the school, please visit their website here!

Check out Torchmate CNC Plasma Tables here and see how you can start growing your business!

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