The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-10-16
Foundry Sparks
By "a Sand Artist
Foundry you bet!

Foundry? you bet!
Halo M, how is M. E.1
Hot did you say, Uncle Johnf Well yes,
some, but not near as hot as your future
home will be.
The boys in the shop take to moulding
like duck to water, they are doing sur
pIisingly well, when you take into consid-
Grafton that seven months ago not half of
them had ever seen the inside of a foundry
Our genial foreman took run down to
| Chicago Friday evening on personal bust
ness, and during his absence o. Johnson,
our jobbing floor man, is the whole thing,
and take it from CHUCK as sssand rat
he has few equals and no superiors.
Now word before L drop the ssbot-
tom" The foundry boys deserve praise
for the way they have taken hold; for the
genial disposition they have shown in try
ing circumstances, for let me tell you the
easiest work in foundry is hard graft,
when the temperature plays around ITO,
/ want to tell you it is hot, yes, hot.
BY rights, Telegram should write
foundry sparks, for it was his first love.
he remarked to us the other day when the
sparks were flying in all directions, that it
put him in mind of his younger days.
Gee! what 'tspark'' he must have been
in his prime, but of course that was before
he had that skating rink for the flies on the
top of his bean.
In the foundry proper, there are twenty
three men working, of that number FIVE are
citizen moulders, of the other eighteen
four of them had some previous knowledge
from working in outside shops, the other
fourteen were new to the business, barring
one, who had worked as a helper outside.
Moulding is one of the most interesting
trades on the calendar, but to be good
moulder, you must stay on the "water
wagon, for it requires steady nerve and
true eye; and those essentials are not
passed over bar at ten cents glass.
The average daily cast at present is
seven and one-half tons, or fifteen thous-
and pounds a day. About half of that
metal is taken from the cupola when
melted, in hand laddles, by eleven men in
about forty-fve minutes. They are NOV
ing some, and sweating more, as each hand
laddle holds fifty pounds of moulten
metal.
This shop compares favorably with most
of the outside shops, as to good workman
ship; as we'll as to the amount of good
castings made each heat. Once in awhile
some of the boys fall down, in starting a
new job but not often.
Moulding is divided into four distinct de-
partments Agricultural, Machinery, Stove
Plate and Holloware moulding. Practi-
cally they are all on the same principle,
but use different methods. As general
rule stove plate moulder is not worth his
salt at machinery moulding, and visa
versa.
Of course you all know, or mostly all,
that the binder and mower are composed
of two kinds of forms, or rather three,
when you consider wrought iron, but re-
fer to moulten metal. The two are
'.gray" and "malleable, but as this shop
has nothing to do with malleable castings,
will not refer to it now, otherwise than to
state that the moulding is just the same,
but the iron itself goes through far diff
erent process in the melting. Gray iron is
melted in 'scupola, malleable in fur
mace.
There is a "core ROOM run in connect
ion with the foundry, in which are employed
six in "kahki,' one citizen, and the boss
core maker, whom most of you know as
"Square Deal Bloom, and take it from
me, when it comes to making A No. ]
cores, he is the real candy. Later l will
] give you some idea how to make cores,
and how to put up mold.