EXPOSED
Building wooden foundry patterns and core boxes — laying out shrinkage and draft allowances, cutting, gluing, sanding, and fitting parts until the pattern pulls clean from sand — is hands-on bench work that language models cannot touch. The real pressure is not chatbots but CAD/CAM, CNC routing, and 3D-printed sand molds, which have already absorbed the layout math and much of the shaping, and have shrunk the occupation to roughly 220 US workers. No license protects the work, and the customer buys a pattern, not a relationship.
Mixed — a routine tier and a judgment tier. At 12 the layout arithmetic — shrink rule scaling, draft angles, parting-line placement, core print sizing — is already solved by CAD and cut by a 3-axis router, but hand-fitting loose pieces, filleting with wax or leather, sealing and finishing until the pattern draws clean from green sand, and repairing worn production patterns still keep a body at the bench, which is why this sits mixed rather than down at 5.
Hands-on in uncontrolled environments. 16 reflects a shop floor: table saw, band saw, lathe, shaper and belt sander, wood dust and lacquer fumes, clamping up glue joints on stock that moves with humidity, then carrying the pattern to the foundry to trial-pull it in sand and shim where it drags — none of it done sitting down.
No licence, no signature requirement. 1 is right because nothing but a shop hire stands between you and the work: no state license, no journeyman card required, no stamp on the pattern, and if a casting comes out undersized the foundry eats the scrap and reorders the pattern.
Some relationship component. 6 recognises that a foundry that has used you for twenty years knows you understand its sand, its ram density and its shrink habits and will call you rather than send the print to a CNC shop, but the purchase order is still for a pattern to a drawing, and a cheaper accurate pattern wins the next job.
Meaningful discretion. 9 covers the calls that are genuinely yours — where to split the pattern, how much draft a deep pocket needs, whether a feature comes as a loose piece or a core, how much extra machining stock to leave on a critical face — decided from foundry practice rather than a spec sheet, with the ceiling being that the pattern is proved or rejected at the first pour, not years later on someone's safety.
Sheet Metal Workers SAFE
Pile Driver Operators EXPOSED
Has AI actually changed your work?