The pattern makers, the infill plane and the foundry workers

[toolsntat]

I was pleasantly surprised to spot an infill plane being used on some old film posted by John Kent Joiner the other day.
I gave him a shout to ask where he found the footage and this is it, quite an insight into a foundry and its workers.

Cheers, Andy

 

[AndyT]

Thanks for that Andy, I've not seen that one before.

It's fascinating to compare and contrast working techniques from then (1930s?) with either the many YT videos of current work in Pakistan (much less equipment, even worse working conditions) or S Korea (automated, robotic, clean).

 

[Steve Maskery]

My granddad was a pattern maker. I had a 2ft rule of his. It had four different 2' scales on it, a true 24" then three others all slightly bigger. I can't remember, but I'm guessing for cast iron, brass and either bronze of aluminium. So he would make the pattern using whichever scale was suitable for the material, then, when the casting had been made, and it had cooled and shrunk, it would end up being the right size.
Unfortunately it was one of the things stolen when my kit went into storage. I'm convinced that it was sold on ebay, because I found an expired listing, which matched its description perfectly, but by then the photograph was no longer part of the listing.
It was very difficult to read any of the markings, but it was an interesting artefact, as well as being my granddad's.

 

[Eric the Viking]

I "liked" your post, Steve but that's only because there's no "I sympathise" button.

Things like that ruler spark memories, and it's horrible to lose them that way. As you know, my wife lost her engagement ring when her handbag was pinched in a house burglary here. It was special at many levels.

On a lighter note, i have my grandfather's boxed set of 12" engineering drawing rulers. The little, short ones are long gone, but i have the rest of them - I should look to see if there's a similar scaled ruler...

 

[AndyT]

The tool chest that belonged to Ernest Warrington gives a snapshot of the toolkit of toolmakers in the late 19th/early twentieth century.
At the back of this drawer, you can see a couple of steel rules.



They are a standard 24" steel rule (Chesterman no 378D) and alongside it the dangerously similar Chesterman 612D. Looking at these two led me to this relatively late (1949) Chesterman Catalogue:

James Chesterman & Co. Ltd. : Catalogue No. 101 : Sections 4 and 5 : James Chesterman & Co. Ltd. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

84 p., illus., 19.4 cm, trade catalog

archive.org

It has six pages of "contraction or shrink rules" and helpfully explains what the different scales were for:



Here's the 612D:



The references to "double metal" or "double steel" were for the times when a wooden pattern was to be made, from which a small number of steel or iron patterns would be cast, with those metal patterns then being used for repeated production of many castings, where wooden patterns would have been worn out.

Before steel rules became the norm, contraction rules (like most other rules) were made in boxwood. They are harder to find - here's one with a broken brass hinge at a past David Stanley auction.