Stephen Sword, a friend from the Book Arts Guild of Richmond Hill, has a platen press at home fitted with a safety curtain. A metal frame rises above the edge of the platen as the press closes to push the…
Category: Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance
Monotype Pneumatics: Tubing repair
A previous owner of my Monotype composition caster had done a bit of a butcher job repairing a broken tube under the table. There were two soldered joints (using fittings not designed for solder joints) and two tees with capped…
Monotype Pneumatics: Quadding and Centering actuators
The Quadding and Centering system on the Monotype composition caster is controlled by two actuators on the paper tower. The one for Quadding is a simple piston inside the tower housing which causes the motion of the paper tower cam…
Monotype Pneumatics: Unit Shift Valve completed
The last task left for Unit Shift was to install (what I call) the buffer valve. I use this term because its purpose is to store the Unit Shift selection (on or off) from the end of the ribbon read…
Monotype Pneumatics: Unit Shift valve reinstallation
In my next task of getting the paper tower operational on my Monotype composition caster, I have started cleaning and lubricating the various pneumatic control valves. The first one I did is a combination of the Unit Shift control valve…
Monotype Pneumatics Identification
I’ve started tracing all the pneumatic plumbing on my Monotype caster, and at least now I’ve identified all the various control valves hanging off the table apron. This may be old news to any Monotype pros who may be out…
Putting the air tower back onto my Monotype caster
Inspired by my recent attendance at Monotype U 8, and given that I kept the ribbon I had punched on the keyboard there, I have decided to reinstall the paper tower which I had removed from my Monotype caster when…
The Monotype pump, all assembled and working!
This is the culmination of a long three-pronged refitting of the pump on my Monotype composition caster. The three parts were disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling the pump head mechanism, refitting a pump latch mechanism scavenged from another caster, and making…
Monotype piston rod finished
The extended-stroke piston rod I was making for my Monotype caster is now finished. Now that it is off the mill, cleaned up, and has its handle put on it looks so much like it could have been a factory-made…
Monotype piston rod—Mounted on mill, ready for cutting
After finishing one side of the extended-stroke piston rod for my Monotype, I took apart all the work holders and gave the mill a bit of a cleaning. The rod has now been clamped down to the milling table with…
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