They do, as Feynman said. If you have two copper pieces perfectly polished and you put them in contact, they will weld automatically (the copper atoms won’t know what piece they belonged to).

But in real life, oils, oxides and other impurities don’t allow this process.

Found it! Read Feynman’s own words (where μ = coefficient of friction):

If we try to get absolutely pure copper, if we clean and polish the surfaces, outgas the materials in a vacuum, and take every conceivable precaution, we still do not get μ. For if we tilt the apparatus even to a vertical position, the slider will not fall off—the two pieces of copper stick together! The coefficient μ, which is ordinarily less than unity for reasonably hard surfaces, becomes several times unity! The reason for this unexpected behavior is that when the atoms in contact are all of the same kind, there is no way for the atoms to “know” that they are in different pieces of copper. When there are other atoms, in the oxides and greases and more complicated thin surface layers of contaminants in between, the atoms “know” when they are not on the same part. When we consider that it is forces between atoms that hold the copper together as a solid, it should become clear that it is impossible to get the right coefficient of friction for pure metals.

The same phenomenon can be observed in a simple home-made experiment with a flat glass plate and a glass tumbler. If the tumbler is placed on the plate and pulled along with a loop of string, it slides fairly well and one can feel the coefficient of friction; it is a little irregular, but it is a coefficient. If we now wet the glass plate and the bottom of the tumbler and pull again, we find that it binds, and if we look closely we shall find scratches, because the water is able to lift the grease and the other contaminants off the surface, and then we really have a glass-to-glass contact; this contact is so good that it holds tight and resists separation so much that the glass is torn apart; that is, it makes scratches.

Source: http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_12.html

Answer by jinawee

In some cases, they do bond. On Earth, in our humid, oxygen-rich atmosphere, metals are almost always coated with oxides, hydroxides, carbonates, or in the case of noble metals, adsorbed water and other gases, and possibly various organic compounds. These surface coatings are enough to prevent metals from bonding. In outer space, it is possible for clean metal surface to become bonded, and this can be a problem for spacecraft. The phenomenon is known as cold welding.

Metals will bond on contact, and it works pretty much as you’ve described it. However, this only happens in a vacuum.

It’s called cold welding, and it’s something that needs to be designed around when building satellites.

Metals in the atmosphere will form an oxide layer, or contain other contaminants on the surface, preventing cold welding.