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Appreciation post: the old timer who showed me how to pack a sand mold with a broken trowel
I was struggling with a stubborn corner on a complex gear pattern in Toledo last month, and this guy named Frank from the next bay over just grabbed his cracked wooden-handled trowel, showed me a specific wrist flick, and said, 'Kid, the tool ain't the thing, it's how you move it,' and the whole piece came out clean on the first pour.
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linda_mason821mo ago
That wrist flick Frank taught you is everything. I learned a similar lesson about packing the flask corners from an old foundry hand in Youngstown. He used the back of a bent spoon. Those little tricks stay with you for years.
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cameron7701mo ago
The bent spoon trick is solid, but that's for ramming up, not packing flask corners. You use a bench rammer for corners.
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