What Metal Workers Produce.
Everything in metal from a minute screw to a locomotive engine—from a tin can to a great gun casting. They produce machines to produce machines, and with tools and machines which they themselves produce, they produce every sort of metal product or metal part of a product, including machinery and equipment for the farm, the factory, and the home.
Nearly every article of common use, whether made of metal or of other material, is more or less a machine product, and practically the whole machinery for producing nonmetal as well as metal products is originally the product of the metal trades.
Specifically the product of a machine shop may be a complete machine, a rebuilt or repaired machine or machine part sold to other firms. For such a product raw material of cast iron, sheet iron, steel of varying degrees of hardness, wrought iron, brass, or bronze, comes from the foundry or from a stock department in which are kept sheets, steel bars, castings and forgings. Much of the labor in some shops must be employed in producing shop equipment, including formed cutters, reamers, drills, and various metal working tools made in the shop.