Dredging up Old Junk in My Mind

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Kevin — No Comments ↓

When working on the computer to set up Monotype casting jobs, one thing one must specify is the Normal Wedge (commonly just called “the wedge”). This is a narrow wedge-shaped accessory to the caster which determines how wide the type should be cast, depending on which row of the matrix case the mat is in.

Monotype has many wedges, depending on the exact mix of widths required for any particular font, and the wedge is specified as a combination of the desired set-width and the layout of individual widths on the wedge. The latter is specified using a number that almost invariably starts with “S”, by far the most common being the “S5” wedge. I believe the “S” stands for “stopbar”, which is the corresponding accessory for the Monotype Keyboard which provides the widths so space widths can be calculated for filled lines of text.

For some unknown-till-today reason, my fingers insist on typing “S9” instead of “S5”, and I was a bit mystified where my mind was coming up with “S9”. Today I finally realized that this dates back to early microcomputer days, before Windows, DOS, or even CP/M, where binary programs were entered as lines of text. One encoding was the so-called Motorola encoding (due to the popularity of the Motorola 6800 processor chip). These lines were each started with an “S” code, with “S9” (end-of-file) being the one that stuck in my head for so long!

Casting Disaster!

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Monotype Composition Caster — No Comments ↓

This week I’ve been trying to wrap up a type casting job on my Monotype Composition Caster, when an internal part on my 12-point Lanston mould broke.

I had been casting some 12-point low spaces, and when I got down to the em/6 size (only 2 points thick) I found that I had to run the caster very fast, around 165 RPM, to avoid nozzle freezes. The nozzle injects molten type metal into the mould, but if the caster is run too slow for the size of type and metal temperature, metal will remain solidified in the nozzle itself so no type is cast.

At this speed, however, the low-quad mechanism was not acting reliably, instead chattering in and out of operation. This mechanism recognizes special matrices in the matcase and forces the mould to keep the upper blade closed so a short space is cast. If the upper blade opens with the main blade, you get a high space, the same height as the shoulders of a piece of type. These are generally undesirable because they can work up while printing and end up printing a small black rectangle instead of the required space.

When I changed the caster to cast a font using the same mould I found that the upper mould blade was not opening properly, either causing low quads to be cast, or type with the face perched oddly on a small leg of metal.

On disassembling the mould I found that the small latch that holds the upper blade moving in unison with the main blade was broken:

Part of the latch is still attached to the pivot pin on the upper blade. For reference, those are 1″ (25cm) squares in the background. I don’t know if this was just metal fatigue at the most inopportune time (though really, is there ever a good time for a machine to break?), or caused by the chattering low-quad mechanism (probably itself due to worn parts).

Monotype moulds contain many custom-fitted parts, and I’m hoping this is not one of them, so that I can replace this with the latch from another mould to get casting again. This latch is borrowed from another 12-point mould which I own:This does not look like a custom-fitted part, and there is no reason it would be, so I hope a simple transplant will work. The latch pivot pin presses in and out easily (it is trapped by the main blade once parts are assembled) so this should be a simple job.

Even if this gets me up and running again, I’m left short one latch, so I’ll have to look at this part to see if I can make a replacement. The original part seems to be made from sheet steel 1/16″ (1.6mm) thick, probably punched and bent to shape, with a bit of grinding to form the actual latch surface (the top edge in the photo). The bending would have to be done hot to permit such a sharp bend.

To make a replacement, probably machined from a solid block, I’ll need to identify the important features so I know which surfaces need precise tolerances. I don’t think it would be practical for me to make this from flat metal because I don’t think I could get the sharp bends on such a small part, but I will look into making it from a piece of square tubing if I can find something suitable. From the photo, the part seems to be about ⅜″ wide so there might be something available. I’d also have to check if the part is hardened, which would complicate making a replacement.

Update

The borrowed part fits, so it seems this is indeed an interchangeable part. I got my casting done.

Marshville Heritage Festival, Aug 30th-Sept 1st 2025

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum, Past Events — No Comments ↓

The Marshville Heritage Society will be holding their annual Marshville Heritage Festival over Labour Day weekend, Saturday August 30th-Monday, September 1st, 2025. The fair runs from 10am-5pm each day and is located on the fairgrounds next to the Wainfleet Arena at 31942 Park Street in Wainfleet, Ontario.

The Mackenzie Print Group, who own and maintain much of the collection on display at the Mackenzie Printery & Newspaper Museum in Queenston, has a printing shop at the fair where we will be demonstrating printing technology from the early to mid 20th Century. We will be operating a Whitlock newspaper press and casting single lines of type for visitors on a Ludlow Typograph. Visitors will also be able to print their own bookmark on our Adana press as a keepsake of the fair. In addition to the Ludlow casts, we will also have cuts (printing blocks), year-at-a-glance calendars, typecases, and other printing-related items available in trade for donations to our organization to support the museum collection.

The fair also has plenty of other attractions, including over 20 heritage buildings relocated to the grounds, a display of old farm equipment and machinery (some in operation), a classic car show (changing every day), demonstrations of various crafts, musical entertainment, activities for the kids, a miniature train ride around the grounds, and plenty of food.

Fair admission is $8 for adults, free for children, and there is plenty of free parking available.

New Monotype Control PCB Test

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Caster Computer Control, Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin — 1 Comment ↓

I’ve populated my new PCB with components and after a bit of fiddling, I’ve run a test on it and everything appears to work.

The board has a few problems that had to be patched over, including:

  • A missing trace (jumper added)
  • Switches damaged during soldering (replaced)
  • Pins bridged by solder (cleaned up)
  • Poor soldering of one IC socket which shifted while soldering (resoldered)
  • Incorrect footprint for MOSFET (installed rotated with extra solder to make connections)
  • Incorrect footprint size for several resistors (removed solder mask to extend pad)
  • K and L signals don’t work because of special pins on processor (solution TBD)

Given all that, the board operated properly. The cycle sensor works, none of the channels are crossed or swapped, and it communicates properly through the USB to my laptop.

My next job is to solder on the connectors for the pneumatic valves and install the board on the valve bodies. It will need a new flag for the optical cycle sensor because its orientation has changed. This will point out any other errors, in particular swapped channels where, for instance, the laptop wants the N channel on, and the N channel LED lights, but some other air passage actually gets the air. I hope I don’t have any such mistakes because laying out the PCB traces for this part was really tedious.

For the problem with the K and L signals, it turns out that the pins I had selected for these signals can only be operated in open-drain mode. Most of the output pins can either force to ground (“0” output) or to the logic “1” voltage (about 3 volts in this case). However, an open-drain output has the choice of forcing to ground for a 0, or letting the pin float to whatever voltage the rest of the circuit tries to put it to. For this to actually generate a 1-level voltage requires a resistor connecting the pin to the +3.3V supply so when the processor pin stops forcing it to ground, it will go to a voltage that indicated a logic 1.

I have three ways to work around this:

  • See if the processor’s internal “weak pull-up” is strong enough to do the job
  • Use two other pins on the processor for these signals
  • Add pull-up resistors to these two signals

The first solution is only a software change, so would be preferable if it works. The other two solutions ultimately require PCB design changes, though they can also be patched on the existing board for testing. Changing the pins is a more elegant fix, but requires more extensive PCB changes.

There are also other changes I want to do:

  • Change the resistor value on the LED’s as they are too bright
  • Switch from mini-usb to either micro or original type-A connector
  • Give the firmware on the board a way to read a hardware revision number
  • Add product identification graphics to the board

None of these are critical to operation of the board, however.

Our New Type-and-rule Caster in Motion

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Monotype Type and Rule Caster — 1 Comment ↓

I’ve cobbled a motor mount and installed a new drive belt, and our new type-and-rule caster now runs:

It still needs work, though. For one thing, the belt either needs tension adjustment or some belt dressing so it doesn’t slip when in the higher geared speeds.

Even more important, this machine still needs its pot, pump, and cutter/stacker refitted before it can actually produce anything! This work includes changing the pot to top-crank and making a new temperature controller since the original one has been converted into a museum display.

A PCB for the Monotype Computer Interface

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Caster Computer Control, Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin — No Comments ↓

I’ve been slowly plugging away (apparently, for at least 9 years!) at an interface to control my Monotype Composition Caster using a computer. The caster was originally designed to be controlled by a 31-channel punched paper ribbon, which is read by compressed air. The holes in the ribbon allow the compressed air to enter specific circuits in the caster, which select which matrix to cast, when to start a new line, and other control functions.

Blank ribbon is now very hard to come by, and perforating it with an appropriate program requires a whole separate set of equipment: At least one Monotype Keyboard, a collection of keybars and stopbars corresponding to the various fonts one wishes to use, and other accessories. These are all large, heavy, and rust-prone unless stored in a climate-controlled location, so many Monotype owners prefer to avoid physical keyboards altogether.

In addition to avoiding all that extra hardware, the computer system is capable of making the caster do things that, though possible using a physical keyboard, would require prohibitively complex calculations on the part of the keyboard operator.

There have been several computer interfaces designed through the years, gradually becoming easier to use and to install as designs improved. I’m fussy and find even the latest units somewhat clumsy, having a separate box and a bundle of tubing going to the caster’s reader head, so I’m adding to the fray with my own design.

My design uses compact pneumatic valves which allow the entire unit to hang directly on the reader head, requiring no tools to install. It detects the caster cycle using the motion of the same part of the caster that applies the compressed air when reading a physical ribbon.

So far, though, my unit is still a prototype, and the electronics are built on a prototyping board, with several bundles of wire connecting it to the unit on the reader head.

The interface sitting in a crate on my way to the 2023 ATF conference in Maine

I’m finally addressing this. I’ve actually had some PCBs made, and have all the parts (in theory) required to assemble this so all the electronics (except the power supply) are part of the read head unit.

Five PCB’s and a metal stencil for applying solder paste

So far, I’ve found one mistake in the board: I used the wrong “footprint” for the resistors: The parts I bought—and thought I was designing for—have what is called a 0603 form, 0.6×0.3mm, but the pads on the board for the resistors were incorrectly made for 0402 form, 0.4×0.2mm. It looks like I’ll still be able to install the 0603 resistors, and though they’ll have less-than-perfect solder connections I’ll still be able to test the board for other mistakes. I could buy new resistors in the 0402 size, as they are not that expensive, but I already feel that I’m working with dust motes handling the 0603 ones!

I’m not entirely sure why I went with such small parts in the first place as there is plenty of room on the PCB for larger ones. I suspect that I confused metric and inch-sized designations, and thought I was specifying 0603 in inch sizes, equivalent to metric 1608 (1.6×0.8mm), which is 2.54 times larger in each dimension.

Even though I had 5 boards made, they will likely not be the final design, but will be useful for testing mechanical fitment and for practicing soldering such devices (not to mention finding errors in the circuit). Normally for quantities I’m dealing with such boards are soldered using what is called a reflow oven, where one applies a solder/flux mix in paste form to the solder pads, places the components, and heats the entire board until the solder melts. I may have access to such an oven but I don’t know if it is large enough for my boards, so I may end up with some makeshift method using a heated metal plate or two.

Two workshops in August

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Our own courses and workshops, Past Events, Us — No Comments ↓

We’ve scheduled two workshops for Saturdays in August:

Both workshops will take place at our shop in New Dundee, and run from 9am to 4pm with a 1-hour lunch break.

Course fees are $80 + HST for a total of $90.40, including materials.

For more details, please follow the links above, and if you want to book a spot, you can e-mail us or call us at 519-884-7123.

Pin Marks on Type at the Mackenzie Printery

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum — No Comments ↓

I was recently asked about a marking a friend had seen on some type, wondering if it could be from the Montreal Type Foundry, or even if such a place ever existed.

First, a bit of type-casting technology: Since the technology developed by Gutenberg, type was originally cast using a hand mould, which as its name suggests is a mould that the user holds in their hand while casting. It generally has two main pieces, and also holds a matrix that has the actual glyph to be cast, and the user fills it with molten type metal using a small ladle. After a few seconds the metal has solidified and the users takes the two halves apart and removes the new piece of type. In this way one could cast perhaps 4 pieces of type per minute. The resulting type still required finishing work before it could be used, including breaking off the jet where the metal was poured in and cleaning off any bumps that would prevent the type from standing or locking up properly.

In the late 1830’s, a machine called a pivotal caster was developed which essentially went through the same motions, but mechanized at the turn of a crank. In order to assure proper ejection of the type, one side of the mould was equipped with a small pin which protrudes a bit into the mould cavity. This is sometimes called an “ejector pin” but that is a somewhat misleading name because that makes it sound like the pin actually pops up to eject the type. In fact, these pins were fixed, and only acted as a sort of snag to ensure that when the mould opened the type reliably stayed attached on one specific half of the mould.

The pivotal caster allowed a faster production rate and made more consistent type. This was in part due to the consistent injection of molten metal because this caster also included a pump mechanism for the metal. This machine was the primary means of casting type for perhaps 50 years, but by the late 1880’s, other machines, notably the Barth caster, were developed. These machines ran faster and produced type that required little or no finishing steps. These newer casters had no need for an ejector pin, so the marks left by the pins were no longer found on type. The pivotal casters remained in limited use in smaller foundries or for smaller production runs.

Foundries using pivotal casters realized that they could engrave the head of the pins to leave a distinctive mark on each piece of type as a trade mark to identify where it was cast.

Now that old fonts of type have their own historical interest such pin marks can be an important tool in identifying the history of a font of type.

I recently did a quick survey of pin marks that I could find on type at the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum where I volunteer, and here are some of the more legible ones I found:

The mysterious “M.T.” pin mark on an en space which probably started this whole adventure

A pin mark from the Baltimore Type Foundry, a.k.a. BaltoType

A European entry from Lettergieterij Amsterdam (the ‘T’ stands for “Tetterode”, the foundry owner’s name)

I found several pin marks from the Chicago Type Foundry. I’m not sure of the significance of the “28”.

As for the Montreal Type Foundry, this did exist between about 1830 and 1887. It was succeeded in Montreal by the Dominion Type Foundry and around that time the Toronto Type Foundry was also established. I have, however, no definitive proof that this “M.T.” pin mark is from the Montreal Type Foundry, and so far I’ve only found two instances of it at the Museum, both on spaces rather than type.

I should note that although casters no longer have ejector pins, it is still possible for the mould to be marked to trademark the type, but this is trickier to do with newer moulds because of tighter tolerances and the way the mould parts must slide past each other. Another practice was for a foundry to mark the counter of the type by modifying the matrix; this was usually only done for a few sorts, notably uppercase H or M.

Swing Frame Removal, Part 2

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Monotype Type and Rule Caster — No Comments ↓

On our new Type and Rule Caster I want to replace the swing frame assembly with one where the crank to raise and lower the pot is above the pot rather than below it, to avoid needing to have my face up close & personal with a lake of molten type metal.

So far I’ve removed everything except the Swing Frame Post, which is the fixed half of the hinge that the pot rotates on.

The three bolts from the Swing Frame Post along with a linkage pin from the pump operating bell crank

This is attached to the main caster frame by three fasteners: a bolt with a 1″ hex head, also about 1″ long (the head, not the bolt), and two large slot-head screws. One of these has a head diameter of about ⅝″ and the other about ⅞″.

To remove these I needed a large slot screwdriver. Search the web for “large”, “giant”, or any such other adjective you can imagine, “screwdriver”, and the largest real screwdriver you find has a ⅜″ blade, hardly sufficient. One exception is that Hand Tool Rescue has one with a 1″ wide blade, but that is too large because these screws are in counterbored holes. I had a vague memory of actually owning a sufficiently large screwdriver, and eventually found it:

Screwdriver, about 67cm/26″ long, with caster centering pin arm for scale

By holding this screwdriver in the screw head with my body, holding a wrench on the shaft with one hand, and hammering on the wrench with the other, I got the screws loose.

There was also the linkage that operates the pump keeping the Post captive on the machine, so this had to be disconnected. The pin between the pull rod in the caster is not very accessible in its idle position:
It is apparently also hard to focus on. Turning on the pump and cycling the caster to the correct position moves this pin to a much more accessible location:

By removing either of the cotter pins the post can easily be removed, allowing the Swing Frame Post to be entirely removed.The next step is to collect the parts to install the newer Swing Frame Post and Swing Frame. The replacement Post I have is fitted with lubrication pipes to allow this bell crank to be easily lubricated, but the pipes are damaged and must be replaced before I install it.

What’s Inside a Paper Pulley

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin — No Comments ↓

The motor that came with our recently-acquired Monotype Type and Rule Caster was fitted with 2″ a pulley suitable for a flat drive belt to run the caster. Such pulleys are shaped with a bit of a crown, that is, the pulley is a bit larger in diameter near the center of its length and tapers off a bit towards each end. This crown keeps the drive belt properly centered with no need for additional guides.

This particular pulley was, however, quite worn and the belt would not run on it properly, so it would need replacement. It was of an old style not seem much any more (not that flat belts themselves are used much in modern machinery either): a “paper pulley”. The main body of the pulley was just a tight stack of paper, more like boxboard (think of the stuff cereal boxes are made of), packed onto a hub and ends made of a single piece of metal. The metal is likely zinc or a zinc alloy, and was cast as one piece around the stacked cardboard.

One end of the pulley actually bears the markings “Browning Paper Pulleys” and “Maysville KY”, so “paper pulley” is indeed the correct name for these. The Browning company still exists in Maysville, but apparently they stopped making paper pulleys around 1977.

I pulled out most of the paper to see what else was inside. Because the pulley was cast onto the paper, it is actually difficult to remove all the paper cleanly, and much of it is left bonded to the metal in the hub:

One of the flanges has two holes in it, about ¼″ diameter, 45 degrees either side of the setscrew, and these holes continued into the stack of paper. The holes appear to have been drilled after the hub was cast around the paper. In the bottom of the holes there were two filler slugs that appeared to be the same metal as the hub, positioned about halfway lengthwise, and the rest of the holes were filled with cork. I’m not sure what purpose these serve, maybe this is how the pulley was balanced.

I’m not entirely sure how this would have been made. The layers of the paper core would probably be die-cut with a hole in the center to form the hub and a boss for the setscrew, but I don’t understand how they could be held tightly stacked while the hub was cast. There is no evidence of any sort of glue holding them together. It is possible, even likely, that the paper layers started off larger than the final diameter of the pulley, so the stack could have been held and lightly compressed by its edges. This would not, however, allow for much compression because the hub area of the stack would still bulge. Another possibility is that the paper was pressed hard in advance, and before it had a chance to rebound completely, the casting was done, followed by exposure to perhaps steam to soften the paper and allow it to puff up again to get everything tight.

Such pulleys now seem to be pretty much unobtanium, so I’m thinking of making myself a replacement. I’d make the hub and one flange as a single piece, the other flange as another piece, and use four bolts to pull the flanges together and compress the paper. The bolts will also transfer the torque from the flanges to the paper, and ideally the loose flange will be somehow keyed to the hub. Perhaps I can just weld it once the stack is tight.

Actually, McMaster-Carr appears to have a suitable replacement pulley for about $100, so I may just order that rather than taking on yet another side quest.

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