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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…