The real need here is simple: the fab shop and race shop have to cut brackets, hangers, mounts, and other one-off parts quickly, without tying up the production laser. That is exactly where the Lincoln Torchmate 4510 fits. Its 5-by-10-foot water table handles steel, stainless steel, and aluminum plate, and the control lets a fabricator create simple shapes right at the machine instead of waiting on the CAD group. What makes the table practical in a working shop is how it deals with real fabrication problems. The laser alignment system maps the true position of a heavy sheet and adjusts the cut program to match, so you do not have to fight a big plate into perfect square. The FlexCut 80 was chosen for the cut thicknesses we expect to run, with fast cutting and minimal dross, which means less cleanup and less wasted time after the cut. Add the pneumatic plate marker for accurate drill locations and permanent part marking, and the table becomes a fast way to make usable parts, not just cut shapes.
Gale Banks introduces a new Lincoln Torchmate 4510 CNC plasma table for the race shop and fabrication area. The machine is a 5-foot by 10-foot table intended to give the shop fast, accurate cutting capability without tying up the company's production laser. Banks explains that the need is practical: fabricators working on projects such as the chassis and support systems for dyno cell number two regularly need brackets, hangers, mounts, and other parts cut from steel, stainless steel, and aluminum plate. Those parts often need to be made quickly and on demand, so a dedicated plasma table makes more sense than waiting for laser time in the main production workflow.
The Torchmate 4510 had only recently entered the market, and Banks notes that this unit is one of the first available. The unboxing is framed as more than just opening a large machine crate; it is the arrival of a new in-house fabrication tool that will support rapid prototyping and shop-built hardware. As the wrapping comes off, the scale of the machine becomes clear, including the gantry, the integrated controls, and the associated cutting equipment packaged beneath the table.
Before getting into the machine itself, Banks explains why the shop chose Lincoln Electric and Torchmate. He traces the company back to founder John C. Lincoln, an electrical engineer from Painesville, Ohio, who founded Lincoln Electric in 1895. Banks emphasizes Lincoln's role as an inventor, noting that he patented an electric brake for streetcars at age 25 and ultimately filed 55 more patents.
Lincoln's early work extended beyond welding. The company sold chargers for electric automobiles, and John Lincoln also patented the variable-speed electric motor in 1916. Banks highlights that achievement as especially significant, then points to a 1911 invention that changed fabrication permanently: the world's first portable welding machine. He references an early Lincoln 400-amp double-operator Stable Arc welder powered by a Buddha six-cylinder gas engine for field welding. Lincoln also patented flux and later secured a patent covering the method and means for electric arc welding, applied for in 1918 and granted in 1929.
Banks places Lincoln Electric in a broader industrial context by mentioning its importance during World War II, including use in welding Liberty ships built by Henry J. Kaiser. He then fast-forwards to 2011, when Lincoln Electric expanded its cutting solutions by acquiring Reno-based Torchmate, a company specializing in CNC plasma and oxy-fuel cutting tables and systems. That acquisition is the direct link to the Torchmate 4510 now entering the Banks fabrication shop.
Once uncovered, the Torchmate 4510's core specifications define the kind of work it is meant to handle. The table accepts a full 5-foot by 10-foot workpiece and is rated for 40.8 pounds per square foot. Banks points out that this corresponds to the weight per square foot of 1-inch mild steel plate. In practical terms, the table can support 50 square feet of 1-inch mild steel, or roughly a full 5-by-10 sheet, without issue.
The 4510 is part of Torchmate's 4000 series and uses a water table design. It is filled with 140 gallons of water, bringing the water level essentially up to the top of the slats. To prevent corrosion in the water system and on the table, the shop uses Plate Guard mixed at a 10-to-1 ratio. Banks describes it as a proprietary biodegradable formula intended to stop rust. This setup reflects the machine's role as a serious fabrication asset rather than a light-duty cutting table.
One of the features Banks singles out is the integrated laser alignment system. He explains why it matters with a realistic shop scenario: a forklift places a heavy sheet of plate on the table, but the sheet is not perfectly square to the bed. With a large workpiece weighing thousands of pounds, manually shoving it into alignment is not practical.
Instead of forcing the plate against a fixed corner reference, the laser can locate the sheet corners, feed those positions into the software, and let the control system adjust the cutting program to the actual orientation of the material. Banks contrasts this with simpler tables that rely on a square in one corner and require the operator to physically jam the plate into position. On heavy stock, that approach is inefficient and difficult. The laser-based alignment solves the problem in software, allowing accurate cutting even when the sheet is not perfectly placed.
Banks describes the machine's on-screen setup as the brains of the system. The control interface allows an operator to draw parts directly at the machine rather than relying entirely on a separate CAD workstation. Built-in shapes are already stored in memory, so a fabricator can select a geometry such as a square or circle, enter dimensions, and generate a part quickly.
That capability changes the workflow in the fab shop. Instead of being tethered to the CAD group for every simple bracket or plate, a fabricator can create parts independently at the machine. For a race shop or prototype environment where one-off pieces are common, that autonomy is a major advantage. Banks presents this as one of the reasons the Torchmate fits the needs of the shop: it supports fast, accurate, on-the-fly fabrication without interrupting production resources.
The cutting power source paired with the table is the Lincoln FlexCut 80, which Banks describes as the brawn of the system. For the material thicknesses the shop expects to cut, this 80-amp unit offers the right balance of speed and capability. He notes that cut speed is extremely high and emphasizes that the machine is designed to reduce dross and secondary cleanup. Faster cutting combined with less post-cut cleanup means less total machine time and less labor spent finishing parts.
Banks also highlights the FlexCut 80's electrical flexibility. Shops may have different incoming voltages and may be wired for either single-phase or three-phase power. The FlexCut 80 automatically senses both the supply voltage and the phase configuration and adjusts itself accordingly. The input cable is supplied without a plug so the user can install the appropriate single-phase or three-phase connector for the facility.
The unit uses an inverter-based design and delivers 80 amps at an 80 percent duty cycle. Banks ties that design to the practical result: rapid cutting with minimal cleanup compared with other systems they considered. He also outlines the machine's thickness capability. With this 80-amp setup, it can pierce mild steel up to 3/4 inch and edge-start mild steel up to 1-1/4 inches. For aluminum, it can pierce 5/8 inch and edge-start 1 inch. Although the shop expects to cut thinner material most of the time, those limits provide substantial headroom for heavier work.
The unboxed accessories include a consumable starter kit containing the components that form and control the plasma arc, including nozzles, swirl rings, and electrodes. Banks says Lincoln's patent-pending consumable technology is intended to make these parts last three times longer. He specifically points to the hafnium core in the center of the electrode as a contributor to electrode life. In his telling, the consumables reflect Lincoln's long history of patent-driven development rather than being generic wear items.
Another accessory is the air-powered plate marker, which mounts on the gantry. Banks is particularly enthusiastic about this tool because it extends the machine beyond cutting. Driven from the CAD program, the marker can center-punch hole locations to within 0.004 inch of true position. That makes it useful for accurately locating drilled holes after cutting. It can also mark logos, part numbers, designs, or instructions directly onto the workpiece, creating permanent identification or fabrication guidance without a separate operation.
The final major item in the package is a Lincoln Electric 3350 series welding helmet. Banks notes that the helmet is available in multiple styles and comes with a storage bag, but his focus is on the lens and controls rather than appearance. The helmet includes multiple fit adjustments for all-day comfort and a grind button that changes the screen darkness so the user can switch from welding to grinding without changing equipment.
The viewing area is large at 12.5 square inches, and Banks walks through the four standard optical performance categories used to rate auto-darkening lenses, where a score of 1 is best. He states that this helmet earns a 1 in optical accuracy, meaning minimal image distortion through the lens. It also scores a 1 in light diffusion, indicating low blurriness due to minimized impurities in the lens. Shade uniformity also receives a 1, meaning the lens darkens consistently across its surface, and angle consistency receives a 1 as well, meaning the shade remains uniform whether the user is looking straight ahead, upward, or downward.
Inside the helmet are three controls for sensitivity, shade, and delay time. Banks says the lens can switch from shade to clear in 1/25,000 of a second, and that timing is adjustable if the user wants a slower transition. He also points out the helmet's indoor-outdoor capability, explaining that it can distinguish between sunlight and the welding arc to maintain a consistent experience in different environments. He presents the helmet as a sophisticated optical and electronic tool, far removed from older welding helmets that required the user to flip the shield manually.
Banks closes by looking ahead to installation. The plan is to move the Torchmate table into position in the fab shop, behind the camera area, and have the necessary 480 three-phase power dropped to the machine so it can be energized. He makes it clear that this unboxing is only the beginning and that the table will appear in future videos performing actual cutting work.
He also points out the machine's emergency stop button, a practical safeguard in case the wrong program is loaded for the material on the table. That final detail reinforces the overall theme of the recap: the Torchmate 4510 is being added as a serious, production-capable fabrication tool, with the capacity, controls, power source, consumables, and accessories needed to support fast and accurate in-house metal cutting.