Are you aware of how metal work is done? If you are curious about how an artist can pull metal working off, it is much better if you will learn about its basics. For instance, you should know what the effect of metal working is on different metals like steel and copper. There are surely tools involved in the process too, which only make it even more interesting. If you want to start learning, the basics about metal work are the best way for you to do so.

Basics of Metal Work
Metals are available in many types but only some of them can actually be used in metal work. This is not really a general application for all the metals in the world. For one, mercury is a metal but it turns liquid at room temperature. This characteristic alone disqualifies it from being a part of the metal working family. However, you can turn metals like steel, copper, aluminium, brass, bronze and tin into sheet metals. These are the common metals that are used for sheet metal working. Metals like gold and silver are also common in jewellery making.

Metals in Metal Work
Steel sheets are necessary in many industries but more so in manufacturing, from making car bodies to car parts and even enclosures. Brass, which looks a bit like gold upon polishing it, is usually used in making signs and plaques. Copper sheet is usually used in decorative and roofing purposes. Aluminium is popular for being stiff but it still proves useful when used in extruded profiles. Aluminium sheets though are used in aircraft bodies, roof, cars, and many others.

Metal Working Tasks
Another thing that you have to be truly aware about is the different forms of metal working tasks. As the artist, you surely know that you are made up of the metals that you have known so much about. Here are the tasks that you should start learning and their relations to the metals used in the process:

– Welding. Steel is good for wielding while aluminium is a bit harder to deal with. Experienced hands though can easily do aluminium welding as long as the right equipment is used. There are metals though that cannot be welded, only soldered, such as copper, bronze, brass and tin.

– Cutting. All the metals used for sheet metal working can be cut. There are several methods of cutting though that need to be used. Steel is usually cut with the use of an angle grinder. The other metals are usually sheared or band-sawn because they are softer, something that might easily clog up the grinding disc. Angle grinders are not used on other metals too in the fear that the machine might backlash at the user.

– Finishing. Steel easily gets rusty though not as fast as cast iron. The other metals also get rusty but not as fast as steel. Bronze art objects from even the earliest civilisations are proof that this metal does not easily corrode, which gives ancestral artists to communicate to the modern world. Copper oxidises too but it accepts it gracefully by having a nice green patina from the process of rusting. Iron art works are available for only a few decades but they already show some rusting.

– Casting. Aluminium and steel have high melting points among all metals used in metal working, which make them ideal for proper industrial application. Other metals like brass, bronze, tin and copper are more appropriate for hobby and small scale casting.

– Shaping. The softer the metal is, the better it is for shaping. Steel is too brittle and hard, which makes it impractical for any hobbyist to use.

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