Switched from manual ramming to pneumatic for my green sand molds last year

I spent 15 years doing everything by hand with a jolt squeeze machine from the 70s. Brought in a new pneumatic rammer on a Tuesday afternoon and the difference was immediate. First mold came out cleaner in half the time, and my shoulders finally stopped aching after every shift. The old timer on nights still swears by the manual method, says the pneumatics take the 'feel' out of it. But I remember pulling 12 hour shifts in July with that old jolt machine and wondering why nobody tried something different. Has anyone else made the jump and actually stuck with it?

3 comments

3 Comments

river32026d ago

Might be overthinking this a bit... it's just a machine, not a whole lifestyle change.

lucasjackson26d ago

Hear you on the old timer thing... I got a guy on my crew who still sets the vents by hand instead of using the new pattern markers we bought. Makes me wonder how much of it is about comfort versus actually getting the job done. @river320 you ever watch someone run a pneumatic after years on a jolt? That first week I kept looking for the vibration in my palms after every shift, took a while to trust it.

theac6326d ago

Stuck my hand out for the vibration the first week on a pneumatic too, felt like my arm forgot how to work without it. Guess old habits die hard even when they're just annoying.