this game was built with the idea of people working together, yes, it WOULD be easier if the explorer classes were able to build components, but the original developers in their wisdom (and that's not being sarcastic) decided that trader classes, and ONLY trader classes, would build components. T-bot, just think of all the trade xp you can potentially get for trading all your ores and refined ores to a trader!
Also, while I've got trade xp on the brain... trade your raw ores to a player you trust (or second account), trade them back, refine, and trade again for more xp. You get more xp for trading to a player than to a vendor.