Moulder and Coremaker is a person who sets up machinery used in the making of sand moulds, cores or cast patterns and who makes sand cores used in moulds.

What do these workers do?
(Source: BC Work Futures)

Moulder and Coremaker falls under the broader trade category of Tool and Die Makers. In general, these workers:

Interpret blueprints and develop plans for prototypes. Tool and die makers are often the first to see designed objects in physical form. You work with machinists to create prototypes from blueprints and figure out the best way to manufacture objects. This delicate and skilled work calls for a lot of concentration.

Operate milling machinery. Tool and die makers are good machinists and can do amazing things with a few versatile tools, such as mills, lathes and grinders. Using a machine called a micrometer, a variety of cutting bits, lubricants and speeds, tool and die makers produce an amazing variety of objects from metal and hardwood. Your skill in setting up a machine to be used in different ways sets you apart from machine operators who use machines that have been designed for one purpose.

Listen and feel for machine harmonics and temperature. Tool and die makers must be constantly aware of the temperature of the stock they are cutting. Because metal expands as it gets hot, cutting precision changes as the metal heats up. These workers must constantly adjust to the expansion and contraction of the metal. This is usually accomplished by working with the metal at a high temperature, although this isn't always possible as the molecular properties of some alloys are weakened with heat. As you can see, working with machine tools requires an in-depth understanding of metal properties and interactions.

Design a manufacturing process for components. Tool and die makers design an entire production process, taking into account the availability of production space, skilled personnel and cost. As they work out a production plan, they will also have to teach production techniques to machine operators and setters.

Read and interpret production machine blueprints, charts and tables, and study parts. Tool and die makers learn how a machine functions by studying its blueprint and reading productivity charts and specification tables. They also examine machine parts to see how they operate. This knowledge lets them design safe, efficient and accurate machine parts and processes.

Compute and verify dimensions and tolerance levels. Exact measurements are mandatory in this line of work. Tool and die makers compute and verify dimensions and tolerance levels of machine parts to ensure safety standards and quality of the product.


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