Use when moving from wood to metal: metal in the shop and the common alloys, what changes when you work metal including speeds, feeds, heat and workholding, marking out, cutting metal by saw, abrasive and shear, drilling and tapping without breaking taps, and manual machining on the lathe and mill.
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---
name: shop-metalwork-cutting-drilling-and-machining
description: "Use when moving from wood to metal: metal in the shop and the common alloys, what changes when you work metal including speeds, feeds, heat and workholding, marking out, cutting metal by saw, abrasive and shear, drilling and tapping without breaking taps, and manual machining on the lathe and mill."
---
# Wood and Metal Shop Craft: Metal in the Shop, What Changes When You Work Metal, Marking Out, Cutting Metal, Drilling and Tapping, and Manual Machining
> **Part 3 of 5** of the *Working with Wood and Metal* reference (plugin `working-with-wood-and-metal`), covering §13–§18. Sibling skills: `shop-materials-safety-reading-wood-and-stock` (§0–§4), `shop-woodworking-tools-sharpening-joinery-and-finishing` (§5–§12), `shop-welding-forging-heat-treatment-and-shop-setup` (§19–§26), `shop-reference` (§27–§32). Section numbers are shared across the set; a reference written as §N → `skill` points into that sibling skill.
>
> **Currency:** The craft is centuries old. Two areas moved. See §27 → `shop-reference` for US table saw safety regulation, and welding fume exposure control.
> **⚠️ Two materials that punish opposite mistakes.** ⚠️ **Wood MOVES forever and forgives
> imprecision; metal is dimensionally stable and forgives nothing.** **⚠️ Wood is worked
> with the grain and cut fast; metal is worked against resistance and cut slowly.**
> **The habits that make you good at one will actively hurt you at the other.**
>
> **Complements a manufacturing reference (industrial process and tolerancing), a
> materials/furniture reference (wood movement and finishing at the design level), and a
> thermodynamics reference (heat treatment physics).**
>
> **⚠️ SAFETY IS §2 → `shop-materials-safety-reading-wood-and-stock` AND IT IS FIRST FOR A REASON.** ⚠️ **This document describes techniques;
> it does not substitute for supervised instruction on machinery. The table saw, angle
> grinder and welding arc each injure large numbers of people every year, and the
> mechanisms are specific and learnable.**
>
> **⚠️ GOTCHA** boxes mark the habits that cause injuries and the received wisdom that's
> wrong.
>
> **The three ideas that organize this document:**
> 1. **⚠️ SHARP IS SAFE** (§7 → `shop-woodworking-tools-sharpening-joinery-and-finishing`). **A dull tool requires force, force removes control, and
> loss of control is how people get hurt. Sharpening is not a side skill — it's the
> gateway to everything else.**
> 2. **⚠️ The material is not neutral** (§3 → `shop-materials-safety-reading-wood-and-stock`, §14). **Wood grain direction, and metal's
> heat and work-hardening behaviour, determine technique. Fighting the material is
> the definition of doing it wrong.**
> 3. **⚠️ The invisible hazards are the ones that get you** (§2 → `shop-materials-safety-reading-wood-and-stock`, §26 → `shop-welding-forging-heat-treatment-and-shop-setup`, §27.2 → `shop-reference`). **Wood dust
> and welding fume are classified carcinogens with no warning symptoms — and they're
> the risks hobbyists systematically ignore in favour of the dramatic ones.**
---
## §13. Metal in the Shop
```
⚠️ MILD STEEL ⚠️ the default: cheap, weldable, machinable, rusts.
Learn on it
⚠️ STAINLESS ⚠️ WORK-HARDENS AGGRESSIVELY — dwell without cutting
and it becomes harder than your tool. ⚠️ Positive feed, sharp
tools, and ⚠️ welding it produces hexavalent chromium (§27.2)
⚠️ ALUMINIUM soft, gummy, ⚠️ clogs files and blades ("loading");
⚠️ use lubricant, coarse teeth, and specific alloys machine
far better than others (6061 good, 1100 gummy)
⚠️ CAST IRON ⚠️ machines beautifully, welds badly (⚠️ cracks from
thermal stress); brittle
BRASS and COPPER ⚠️ brass wants NEUTRAL or negative rake or it
grabs; copper is gummy and an excellent heat sink
⚠️ TOOL STEEL hardenable (§22)
⚠️ GALVANIZED ⚠️ DO NOT weld or cut without extraction — zinc fume (§2)
```
**⚠️ Identifying unknown stock**: ⚠️ **spark testing on a grinder (carbon steel throws
bursting sparks, stainless throws fewer and duller, cast iron short and red), a magnet
(⚠️ most stainless grades are weakly magnetic or non-magnetic), weight, and colour.**
---
## §14. What Changes When You Work Metal
**⚠️ Three behaviours have no woodworking equivalent and they govern technique:**
```
⚠️ 1. HEAT ⚠️ cutting generates it, and it destroys tool edges,
distorts work, and changes material properties (§22).
⚠️ Cutting fluid is for COOLING and lubrication, not ceremony
⚠️ 2. WORK HARDENING ⚠️ deforming metal makes it harder and more
brittle. ⚠️ Rubbing without cutting hardens the surface, and then
nothing will cut it. This is why "let the tool cut" matters
⚠️ 3. RESIDUAL STRESS ⚠️ material releases stress as you remove it,
and the part MOVES. Rough machine, let it rest, then finish
```
**⚠️ Speeds and feeds are a real calculation, not a guess**: ⚠️ **surface speed depends on
the material and the tool; harder material means slower.** **⚠️ Too slow rubs (hardening),
too fast burns the tool. Chip colour and sound tell you.**
---
## §15. Marking Out
**⚠️ Layout fluid (engineer's blue), scriber, ⚠️ CENTRE PUNCH (a drill bit wanders without
one — this is not optional), dividers, height gauge, surface plate, and combination set.**
**⚠️ Datum discipline** (see a manufacturing reference on GD&T): ⚠️ **work from a single
reference face and edge, exactly as in §5 → `shop-woodworking-tools-sharpening-joinery-and-finishing`.** **Cumulative error is the same enemy.**
**⚠️ Metal tolerances are an order of magnitude tighter than wood** — ⚠️ **a scribed line is
~0.05 mm wide and you're expected to split it.**
---
## §16. Cutting Metal
```
⚠️ HACKSAW ⚠️ cut on the PUSH; ⚠️ blade TPI must give at least
three teeth in the cut or the teeth straddle and strip
BANDSAW (metal) ⚠️ far slower blade speed than a wood bandsaw;
⚠️ never cut metal on a wood bandsaw
⚠️ ANGLE GRINDER ⚠️ fast, crude, dangerous (§2). ⚠️ Cutting discs
are for cutting ONLY — side loading shatters them. Check the
disc rating exceeds the tool's RPM
CHOP SAW / abrasive · ⚠️ COLD SAW (clean, accurate, slow)
⚠️ SHEARS and NIBBLERS for sheet — no heat, no distortion
⚠️ PLASMA CUTTER ⚠️ fast, needs a good earth, ⚠️ produces fume and
intense UV — same PPE as welding (§19)
OXY-FUEL ⚠️ carbon steel only (it burns the iron); large heat-affected zone
⚠️ WATERJET / LASER no heat distortion (waterjet), precise, outsourced
```
**⚠️ Deburr everything**: ⚠️ **a cut edge on sheet metal is genuinely sharp and cuts deeply
and unexpectedly.** **File, deburring tool, or a light pass with a countersink.**
---
## §17. Drilling and Tapping
**⚠️ Drilling**: ⚠️ **centre punch first; pilot hole for large diameters; correct speed
(⚠️ larger diameter means SLOWER); cutting fluid; ⚠️ peck to clear chips in deep holes;
and ⚠️ CLAMP THE WORK — especially sheet, where a bit grabbing turns the part into a
spinning blade.**
**⚠️ Breakthrough is where it grabs** — ⚠️ **ease off as the bit exits.**
**⚠️ Tapping**: ⚠️ **tap drill size determines thread engagement (roughly 75% is standard —
more engagement is NOT better, because it dramatically increases the risk of snapping the
tap for very little strength gain).**
**⚠️ Taper, plug, bottoming taps in sequence; cutting fluid; ⚠️ back off every half turn to
break the chip; and ⚠️ keep the tap SQUARE, which is what a tapping guide or a drill press
(unpowered, by hand) is for.**
**⚠️ A snapped tap in a nearly-finished part is one of the most demoralizing failures
available** — ⚠️ **hardened tap steel resists drilling, and removal usually means EDM or
scrapping the part.**
---
## §18. Manual Machining
```
⚠️ LATHE ⚠️ the workpiece rotates. Facing, turning, boring, parting,
threading, knurling
⚠️ NO GLOVES, no loose clothing (§2). ⚠️ Remove the chuck key
EVERY time — a chuck key left in becomes a projectile
⚠️ Tool height at CENTRE HEIGHT — wrong height changes the
effective rake and ruins the cut
⚠️ PARTING OFF is where beginners crash: rigidity, centre height,
and steady feed
⚠️ MILL ⚠️ the TOOL rotates. Face milling, slotting, drilling
⚠️ CLIMB vs CONVENTIONAL milling — ⚠️ climb gives a better finish
and requires a machine without backlash; on a manual mill with
leadscrew backlash it can snatch the work
⚠️ WORKHOLDING is most of the job — vice, clamps, fixtures
⚠️ UNIVERSAL RULES
⚠️ Rigidity above everything — chatter is a rigidity problem
⚠️ Take the depth of cut the machine can hold; light scratching
cuts rub and work-harden (§14)
⚠️ Measure often; you cannot put it back
```
**⚠️ Tooling**: **HSS (⚠️ tough, grindable, forgiving — best for learning) vs carbide
(⚠️ harder, faster, brittle, needs rigidity and speed).**
