Just realized my old way of ramming up a small flask was costing me an hour a day

Noah Sullivan · 2026-03-21T16:05:05.492332+00:00

I used to pack the sand by hand in sections, but after watching a guy at the old Milwaukee foundry use a pneumatic rammer on a pattern this size, I switched six months ago and now a job that took 90 minutes is done in 30, so what's one small change that saved you a ton of time?

nora106mo ago

My uncle spent twenty years hand-mixing concrete before he saw a power mixer. The look on his face was like he'd been cheated his whole life. Guess we all have that one job we did the hard way for way too long.

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ryan_hayes26mo ago

That "pneumatic rammer" switch sounds huge, what other old-school tasks could use that kind of modern tool?

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ben4365mo ago

That "pneumatic rammer" thing is cool and all but I gotta push back a little. Not every old-school method needs upgrading, sometimes the hand-packing gave you better feel for what the sand was doing (you know, knowing exactly where it was loose).

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