So now that you can mine your first metal, We should go through how to smelt metal, cast metal, and incorperate the metal into your tool.

To smelt metal you will need to make a multi-block structure called a smeltry. To start you will need to make grout. 

The recipe for anything can be found in NEI by searching for the item you want and pressing "R" while hovering over the item.

Here is a list of Items you will need for a 3x3 smeltry:

-18 Seared Bricks
-1  Seared Faucet
-1  Seared Tank
-1  Smeltry Controller
-1  Smeltry Drain
-1  Casting Table

first start by building a 3x3 of seared bricks

{"image":"base.png", "scale":-1}

go 1 block up, and put the rest of the bricks down as shown below

be aware that you do NOT need to fill the corners with seared bricks

{"image":"back.png", "scale":-1}

now put the tank, controller, and drain as shown below. please note it doesn't matter the orientation of the drain. the controller should fire up as soon as you complete the structure

{"image":"front.png", "scale":-1}

once the smeltry is on, put the faucet on the drain and put the casting table below the faucet like shown below. 

{"image":"castingTable.png", "scale":-1}

and there you go, you have created the smeltry. you are able to replace any block on the smeltry with drains, seared glass, seared tanks, or seared windows. 

If you try to put copper ore in the smeltry now, it won't cook. This is because there is no fuel for the smeltry. To fuel the smeltry, you will need to get a bucket of lava. 

You are not able to make a normal bucket yet, so, you will have to settle with a Clay bucket. Clay buckets will disappear after emptying the bucket when the bucket has a hot fluid like lava. Just remember you have to smelt the clay bucket before trying to grab lava with it.

Once you have the clay bucket of lava, plut the lava into the seared tank. Now, if you put copper into the smeltry a bar next to the ore will go up.

{"image":"coppersmelt.png", "scale":-1}

Before you can cast you will need to make an alloy called "Aluminum Brass" This alloy requires a 3:1 aluminum to copper ratio in the smeltry to make.

{"image":"interface.png", "scale":-1}

Now that you have aluminum brass you need to make a cast with the aluminum brass. We are going to start by making a pickaxe head cast. Go back to the part builder and make a pickaxe head out of cobblestone. once you have the stone pickaxe head, place it in the casting table and right click the faucet. You sould see the aluminum brass pour out of the smeltry.

{"image":"pouring.png", "scale":-1}

Now that you have the pickaxe head cast, you can cast a copper pickaxe head. The smeltry will pour out the lowest fluid it has. To change what the lowest fluid is, simply click on the one that you want on bottom in the Smeltry's Interface. The smeltry will then move the desired liquid to the bottom. 

Be aware that when you normally add a metal it will go to the top, and when you make an alloy it will by default go to the bottom of the smeltry.

once you have copper on the bottom of the smeltry and have a cast on a casting table below a faucet, simply click on the faucet with the cast under it. give the metal harden and left-click the casting table once the head has hardened(the game will do nothing if it hasn't hardened yet) will give you the copper pickaxe head.

Now that you have the copper pickaxe head, make sure to repair the pickaxe you already had to full durability. Then simply place the pickaxe and new pickaxe head in the tool station as shown below

{"image":"headswap.png", "scale":-1}

A few things to note about the smeltry:

-do not break the controller or else you will lose alll the contents of the smeltry
-you are able to break ANY other block in the multi-block structure and replace it with something else with no consequence 
-you can build the smeltry as tall as you wish
-the base of the smeltry does not need to 3x3, it can be anywhere from 1x1 up to 9x9, it just has to be a square.
-the controller needs to be on the first layer like it is. 
-the smeltry also needs the tank that supplies lava on the first level aswell
-you can make an ingot cast
-you can replace the casting table with a casting basin, casts don't work, but lets you cast blocks of metal

