I have catalogued the contents of all the composition matcases, both the ones from Rich Hopkins and the dozen or so that I already had in various locations. The cases have also been placed in their permanent home (barring major…
Category: Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance
Composition Matrix Cases Finished and Filled
The first set of five cases I made to hold Monotype composition matcases turned out to be insufficient to hold them all. I have since made two more cases, and have placed all the matcases I received from Rich Hopkins…
Finished Composition Matrix Cases—Just One Problem
I have completed my five cases for holding Monotype composition matcases. Despite my efforts to get the grooves uniformly deep, I found after assembling the cases that some grooves were too shallow. This meant that I spent a lot of…
Cases for Monotype Composition Matrices
I returned from picking up my display matrix purchases with several matcases of composition mats as well, and so far I have no good place to keep them. The few I had have been stored in the same drawer as…
Defective Column Pusher Spring Box Fixed
A while ago I made a new spring for the operating lever latch on my Monotype caster, based on specifications passed to me by Bill Welliver. The problem was that when the line length was incorrect, the column pusher was…
Challenge Proof Press Lockup Bar Working
My previous post described my confusion as to how the lockup bar for my Challenge proof press works. As I mentioned in a comment to that post, I found my answer online in US patent number 3288062 which shows how…
Challenge Proof Press Lockup Bar
One part of my Challenge MA15 proof press that I cannot figure out is the lockup bar, used as a quick way of clamping the type in position on the bed. The bar has a locking lever which turns an…
A Trip to West Virginia
The display matrices I had purchased in the recent Anderson auction were heavy enough that it would have cost several hundred dollars to ship them. Instead I took a couple of days to drive to Terra Alta, WV, to visit…
Tagged with: Rich Hopkins
A New Pin Wrench
When I was fixing my Monotype caster to do some composition casting a few months ago, I broke the small pin wrench that I use for turning some of the adjustments on the caster. The wrench seemed to be too…
Rubber feet for the Challenge Proof Press
Proof presses are subjected to a lot of sideways forces when used, caused by the carriage hitting its stops at either end of its stroke. These can be reduced by slowing down near the end of the stroke, but there…
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