94101 – Foundry workers

Lead statement

Mouldmakers and coremakers make foundry cores by hand and machines to make foundry moulds and cores.

Main duties

• Make and repair sand moulds using patterns, moulding boxes, sand and hand tools following bench, floor or pit moulding methods
• Operate ovens to dry moulds
• Make cores for use inside moulds to form holes or void spaces in castings using core boxes, sand, hammer and wire or other reinforcing material
• Coat cores with protective materials and bake cores in oven
• Set up, adjust and operate various mouldmaking and coremaking machines to make sand and ceramics moulds and cores
• May pour molten metal into moulds to produce metal castings.
• Set up and operate various casting machines to cast ferrous and non-ferrous metal products; hand ladle and pour molten metal into moulds to produce castings.
• Foundry furnace operators
• Operate furnaces used to melt metals for moulding and casting.

Employment requirements

• Completion of secondary school is required.
• Several weeks of on-the-job training are required.

Example job titles

bench coremaker - foundry · bench moulder - foundry · ceramic mouldmaker - foundry · core machine operator - foundry · coremaking machine operator - foundry · pattern moulder - foundry · foundry mouldmaker · pattern gater · sand moulder · metal caster - foundry · casting machine operator - foundry · mould caster - foundry · white-metal caster - foundry · foundry furnace operator · furnace operator - foundry · melter - foundry · foundry pourer

Wages (per hour)

Source: Job Bank wages, 2025 release (ESDC). Low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles.