Category: Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance

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

A new Winding Spool for the Monotype

I made myself a Winding Spool for my Monotype caster, to take up the ribbon as the machine reads it. The internal mechanism is similar but not identical to the standard part. The main difference is that the part know

Monotype Ribbon Repair Details

The one ribbon I have to test out composition casting on my Monotype was in rather sad shape. It had several kill lines which cause casting problems by allowing the mould to chill too much, and it had also been

Monotype Air Tower Adjustment: Another Method

Having found that my patched-up ribbon would not run through my caster’s air tower because of the low clearance under the raised air bar, I tried a different adjustment procedure to maximize the clearance available for ribbons in poor condition.

Monotype Ribbon Repair

I only have one punched ribbon to test out the composition casting on my Monotype, and this ribbon is wanting in more than one way. For one, it was my first (and I hope only) attempt at punching a ribbon

Monotype Ribbon Feed Mechanism Animation

Well, I managed to fool WordPress into accepting an animated GIF so here’s the one I made of the ribbon feed mechanism being operated manually. It’s a little rough because the original pictures were taken with the tower lying on

Monotype Paper Tower Adjustments, Part 2

Once the operating rod for the paper tower is adjusted, there are four adjustments left, all affecting the Air Bar 2G, Pressure Bar 3G, and air feed. Two of the adjustments are on the Connecting Bar 4G that links the

Monotype Paper Tower adjustments

The book Casting Machine Adjustments provides procedures for adjusting the Paper Tower, but I find that these adjustments are given in the wrong order (later adjustments can affect earlier ones) and some of the adjustments are rote settings which may

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