The snow plow that I use to clear the driveway here stopped working. The winch which raises the blade stopped running, and since it seemed to be related to the cold weather (and heating the unit appeared to fix it…
Month: January 2014
More Monotype Mould Measurements
After doing some R&R on one of my Monotype composition moulds I found that when installed on the caster, the type carrier could not reach into the mould without rubbing on the face of the left type block. One of…
A New (to us) Press
Last Friday we picked up our newest press, a Challenge MA15 Proof Press S/N 5338. This model was a copy of the popular Vandercook SP15 press, which Challenge eventually had to stop selling because of issues of patent infringement. We…
Monotype Mould Final Reassembly
With the crossblock and blade reassembled, the rest of the mould goes together quickly. All of the remaining parts are built onto the base plate. The first parts to go on are the cam which operates the jet ejector as…
Monotype Mould Reassembly: The Crossblock
The next major part of the 10-point mould to reassemble is the crossblock. This block forms one side of the casting cavity as well as the bottom of the type and the jet. After casting it slides sideways, cutting off…
Monotype Mould reassembly: The Mould Blade
The first parts of my 10-point mould to be cleaned and reassembled are those that form the mould blade. The flat end of this blade forms one side of the cast type, and the caster adjusts the width of the…
Refurbishing a Monotype mould
I think this is the last thing to do before trying to cast the ribbon on my Monotype: Cleaning the old 10 point composition mould so it works at top performance. This particular mould is a 10 point serial number…
Another minor setback on the horizon
I was planning on casting the Monotype ribbon I brought home from Monotype University 8 last August, but I just noticed today that the ribbon is punched for 9½-set and I don’t have an S5 wedge for this size. All…
Monotype mould cooling valve replacement
After deciding to replace some of the valves that control the cooling water flow on my caster, I made a visit to a few hardware stores. I came home with a ball valve and a needle valve but as they…
Monotype mould cooling system
The next thing to check on my caster was that the cooling system could deliver sufficient water to cool the mould for composition casting. I have a closed-loop system which uses a small fountain pump to force the water up…
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