Shape metal workpieces with hammers or other small hand tools
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 9 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Handling and Moving Objects (4.A.3.a.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 9 occupations that perform it.
- Hammer, chip, and grind workpieces to cut, bend, and straighten metal.
- Cut, shape, and form metal parts, using lathes, power saws, snips, power brakes and shears, files, and mallets.
- Cut, shape, and trim blanks or blocks to specified lengths or shapes, using power saws, power shears, rules, and hand tools.
- Hammer out bulges or bends in metal workpieces.
- Straighten workpieces and remove dents, using straightening presses and hammers.
- Cut grooves, bevels, or miters, saw curved or irregular designs, and sever or shape metals, according to specifications or work orders.
- Cut, shape, and trim materials, such as textiles, food, glass, stone, and metal, using knives, scissors, and other hand tools, portable power tools, or bench-mounted tools.
- Soften metal to be used in designs by heating it with a gas torch and shape it, using hammers and dies.
- Shape and solder wire and metal frames or bands for dental products, using soldering irons and hand tools.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
9 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Cutters and Trimmers, Hand
- Dental Laboratory Technicians
- Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
- Model Makers, Metal and Plastic
- Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
- Tool and Die Makers
- Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Shape materials to create products”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.