You can craft early alloys such as steel, electrum, and adamant by hand, but it is expensive and wasteful.

Hand crafting is acceptable for the very first machines. As soon as possible, though, move alloy production into a Pulverizer plus Foundry setup.
That shift is one of the biggest efficiency upgrades in early Oritech progression, and it also sets you up for later alloys like biosteel, energite, and duratium.