Smooth metal surfaces or edges
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 | 15 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 15 occupations that perform it.
- Remove rough spots and smooth surfaces to fit, trim, or clean parts, using hand tools or power tools.
- Smooth workpiece edges and fix taps, tubes, and valves.
- Grind out burrs or sharp edges, using portable grinders, speed lathes, or polishing jacks.
- Grind, file, and sand parts to finished dimensions.
- Clean and finish patterns or templates, using emery cloths, files, scrapers, and power grinders.
- Clean and smooth molds, cores, and core boxes, and repair surface imperfections.
- Smooth and clean inner surfaces of molds, using brushes, scrapers, air hoses, or grinding wheels, and fill imperfections with refractory material.
- Remove burrs, sharp edges, rust, or scale from workpieces, using files, hand grinders, wire brushes, or power tools.
- File, grind, shim, and adjust different parts to properly fit them together.
- File or finish surfaces of workpieces, using prescribed hand tools.
- Grind, sand, clean, or polish objects or parts to correct defects or to prepare surfaces for further finishing, using hand tools and power tools.
- Remove defects, such as chips, burrs, or lap corroded or pitted surfaces.
- Smooth soldered joints and rough spots, using hand files and emery paper, and polish smoothed areas with polishing wheels or buffing wire.
- Fill small dents or scratches with body fillers and smooth surfaces to prepare for painting.
- Smooth surfaces of molds, using scraping tools or sandpaper.
- Remove high spots and cut bevels, using hand files, portable grinders, and cutting torches.
- Smooth and polish flat and contoured surfaces of parts or tools, using scrapers, abrasive stones, files, emery cloths, or power grinders.
- Cut and file pieces of jewelry such as rings, brooches, bracelets, and lockets.
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
15 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Engine and Other Machine Assemblers
- Foundry Mold and Coremakers
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
- Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
- Model Makers, Metal and Plastic
- Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
- Tool and Die Makers
- Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Smooth surfaces of objects or equipment”. 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.