Ooh, I love this week’s challenge topic!  Right up my alley, as I work in a factory which manufactures aircraft parts out of metals including stainless steel, aluminum, and titanium.  My readers will already know that I love to photograph raw materials and metal shavings from the various machines and suppliers around the factory.

So, let’s start at the beginning.  In the Receiving Department, we often see big wooden crates which hold raw metals, most often in bars or flat rounds.

These flat rounds make all sorts of different parts.  Even before they are worked, they show the patterns made by the cutting tool which sliced them off a bigger piece of metal.

This is some round bar-stock, some of which have been painted yellow on one end, why, I have no idea.  But they do look rather festive in their box.

These round bars will be machined into shafts.

The lathes and milling machines which create the final parts generate tons of shavings, as they gradually mill the shafts down to their final dimensions.  From the first week I started, I admired the piles of metal shavings, thinking they looked a lot like abstract art.  This is scrap! [which is collected and recycled]

Outside the factory, metal objects surround us, testifying to the ingenuity and craftsmanship of the people.

This high-tension utility pole is much more durable than the wood poles you still see, and the metal wires carry the electricity that runs our world.

These metal-hulled boats are workers on the water.

I spotted this display of old sewing machines at our local outlet mall.  They are made of more than one kind of metal, and are displayed on special metal racks.  I remember my best childhood friend had an old sewing machine much like these in her attic.

And these metal sculptures of famous people are found on the grounds of Hillsdale College.

Here’s the Link to Cee’s Original Post.