Here's a pneumatic sand rammer rammer I built for my backyard foundry.
The idea came from a
post
in rec.crafts.metalworking. The body is a cheap pneumatic chisel.
Mine is from Harbor Freight. All you have to do is to cast a head for it.
Here's the pattern I made. There weren't any dimensions given in the post so I took a guess.
The pattern is 1/4" masonite originally about 5 3/8" square.
As mentioned below I cut it down to about 3 1/2" square.
Here's a close up of the aluminum casting. Notice how faithfully the nail heads were
reproduced! It turned out that my pattern was too big. The ram couldn't ram hard enough.
I cut the casting down to about 3 1/2" square. Now it works great.
Update: I found that after some use the casting would crack between the
two projections. I've added a boss to a new pattern as shown.
Hand Rammers
Here are a pair of hand rammers. The one on the right is wooden. The one on the left
has a cast head on either end. It's brass or bronze which makes this one heavier
than the wooden one. Both bases are about 3 1/2" in diameter.
Here is my first rammer. It doubles as a carving mallot. The end is turning orange
from the reddish colored molding sand.
