I got a big lot of what appeared to be justification wedges for a Monotype composition caster from Don Black last week, many of them brand new, still in the protective plastic dip from the factory. It turns out, however,…
Category: Kevin
Cleaning up unearths a treasure—a month late
I did a round of cleaning up in the shop, partly to search for my missing mat holder, and partly because I picked up more parts from Don Black. While cleaning up, I found the box of stuff I picked…
Measuring air valve spring strength
In addition to poor flow when open, the other shortcoming of my stock of surplus Matrix pneumatic valves is poor sealing (leakage) when operated in NC mode, where the shutter spring is the only force holding back the flow of…
Measuring air valve shutters
Looking deeper into the poor airflow observed on my stock of surplus Matrix pneumatic valves, I did a subjective measurement of the airflow on each port, on a scale from 0 to 5, using a 20PSI supply. At zero, the…
Pneumatic valves for Monotype computer control
The most expensive and bulky aspect of making a system for computer control of the Monotype composition caster is the pneumatic solenoid valves. You need 31 valves, and they typically cost $30-$50 each. They are generally large enough that they…
Cleaning and refilling the Monotype pot
For the casting job I have coming up I want to use Monotype medium alloy (74/10/16% Pb/Sn/Sb) rather than the softer Linotype alloy (84/4/12%) currently in the pot, which I was using to cast spacing. To do this, I got…
More store rearranging
This week we had to get a fresh bale of bleached abaca pulp down from the upper tier of the racking in our store. This meant clearing a path for the forklift, which in turn meant moving almost everything. We…
Oh, Carp!
Our property backs onto Alder Creek, which drains some of the area southwest of Kitchener and empties into the Nith River at Ayr. A bit upstream of us, an earth dam forms Alder Lake. There is a spot near us…
Will the real Swing Bold please step forward
I’m getting ready to cast some 18-point Swing Bold (Monotype #217) for someone and I’ve found that my test casts don’t match the samples I received for alignment matching. Each group of 3 letters shows the alignment sample between two…
Lily’s contribution to the collection at THEMUSEUM
Yesterday evening Lily and I were at the monthly Maker Club meeting at THEMUSEUM in Kitchener. This month’s project was to make air-powered rockets using foam pipe insulation for the fuselage and boxboard for the rest. They had two launchers…
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