Steel fabrication is a highly diverse field, and the metalworking shops that work with steel can vary according to what they use the steel to make. Here are a few tools and equipment pieces you can expect to see at a steel fabrication shop. 

1. Gas Torches

On the most basic level of steel fabrication, you will find gas torches. These torches tend to rely on a combination of oxygen and other gases to perform cuts on pieces of steel, but they may also be used in combination with welding equipment to join two pieces of cut steel to create a tight bond. 

2. Shot-Blasting Equipment

The shot blaster is typically used in the final stages of fabricating a piece of steel or a steel piece that will soon be a finished product. These blasters utilize compressed air to literally shoot small granules of ceramic, metal, or some kind of foundry sand at a piece of finished steel. The purpose of this can be to clean the steel, to harden the surface by pushing down small surface imperfections, or even just to give the steel a specific appearance. 

3. Steel Cambering Equipment

A camber is technically an arch or bend in a straight line in geometry, but in steel fabrication, a cambering machine is most often used to bend a perfect arch into a piece of steel. If you have ever bought something like a curved piece of steel pipe, there is a chance that cambering equipment was used to create the arch in the pipe.  

4. Steel Hem Saw

A steel hem saw is kind of like a large table saw with a blade that can be adjusted to varying angles to make precise cuts through a piece of steel. For instance, if a metal fabricator is needing to make several 45-degree cuts in a piece of straight steel before those pieces are welded together, they would probably use a steel hem saw to make those cuts. 

5. Diamond-Grit Files

You may not expect to see many hand tools in a steel fabrication shop, but there are actually several hand tools that a lot of fabrication professionals use on a daily basis. One of the most common hand tools is a diamond-grit file. These handheld files have diamond-encrusted flats just like a diamond saw blade. The file can be used to quickly slough away imperfections at the edge of a piece of cut steel. 

Contact a company that offers steel fabrication services to learn more.