PLAN No. 920. MOLDERS
Variety of Employments.
Foundry employments generally will not be found to be suitable for men who have suffered serious physical injuries, or for men whose physical strength has been seriously impaired by exposure or illness, and they are not generally employments for which any extended course of training is required. These employments are, however, more varied in character than they are commonly supposed to be, and some lines of molding and casting may very well be undertaken by men who have been disabled, especially in cases where previous experience and training in foundry work will prove helpful.
Practically all floor molding is heavy work. Shovels and various hand tools are used in building molds around patterns or templates which determine shape and size of castings. Bench molding and machine molding, on the other hand, may involve no considerable physical strains, and many operations in machine molding can be done with one hand. Some lines of bench molding may be done sitting at the bench and do not require the molder to move about in the foundry.
Promotion.
In welding as in other trades, advancement comes to specialists, and to those who acquire such technical knowledge as is practically useful in the various lines. Some training in metallurgy, for example, will have value where alloys of vanadium, chromium, tungsten, nickel, and manganese are used, and the expert molder who can calculate quickly and accurately, and can handle men may expect promotion to foremanship.
Hours and Wages.
Working hours in foundries vary from 8 to 9 a day, and wages of molders in private concerns range from 50 to 75 cents an hour, the Government rate in railroad shops being 88 cents. Pieceworkers in stove foundries and in other shops where machines are used earn highest wages.
Core Making.
Core making is lighter work than molding, since cores are generally smaller and lighter than molds or castings. The core maker often works at a bench, with a mixture of core sand and binder, which he rams tightly into molds. Comparatively little training is required and such disabilities as partial loss of sight or hearing, loss of fingers or thumbs, stiffness of knee, ankle or hip joint, and weakness of heart or lungs, need not be serious handicaps.