Saw a weird trick with a sand rammer at the old Jones Foundry in Scranton

I was helping a buddy move some old patterns out of the Jones Foundry building in Scranton before they tear it down. In the corner of the molding floor, there was this ancient sand rammer, the kind with the big flat foot. The handle was gone, but someone had welded a standard 3/4 inch pipe coupling right onto the top of the rammer head. My buddy said the old foreman there would just screw in a length of black iron pipe from the scrap pile to make a new handle anytime one broke. No fancy wood turning, just a five minute fix with stuff already on hand. It's such a simple, cheap idea that I'm kind of mad I never thought of it myself during all those times I've had a handle snap. Has anyone else seen a foundry rig up tools in a clever, no-nonsense way like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

thompson.xena25d ago

My grandpa welded a wrench onto a broken sledgehammer head.

the_ryan25d ago

Used to think fixing broken tools was a waste of time, like just buy a new one. But seeing your grandpa's wrench-hammer mashup actually makes a ton of sense. That's not just a repair, it's creating a whole new tool for a specific job. It shows real cleverness, using what you have to make something even more useful. Changes how I look at the broken stuff in my own garage now.

brown.susan1d ago

Ugh, I totally disagree. That's just hoarding junk with extra steps. My uncle's garage is full of these "clever" frankenstein tools and half of them don't work right. A wobbly wrench-hammer is just a safety hazard waiting to slip and smash your thumb. Sometimes a broken thing is just broken, and your time is worth more than trying to save a two dollar screwdriver.