Adventures in Matrix Copying – Part 3

20140505IMG_7070My last post on this subject showed the initial copper plating almost covering the graphite. An hour or two of further plating produced a nice bright copper layer over the entire surface of the rubber mould.

The plating was fairly smooth and seemed to be filling corners well. At that point I wanted to stop, or at least slow down, plating beyond the edges of the mat itself.

20140505IMG_7071I coated the outside area with insulating varnish. This is an acetone-based varnish normally used when winding transformer and electromagnet coils to keep the wires from shifting and also for additional insulation.

Unfortunately this varnish turned out to have small pores in it. These were perhaps caused by residual water or electrolyte crystals on the copper when the varnish was applied.

In any case, further plating resulted in the growth of copper nodules (sometimes called “flowers”). I occasionally took the mould out of the plating bath and broke off the nodules, and even at one point tried another coat of varnish.

The actual mat seemed to be growing a layer of copper, but the inside corners were not plating well and were getting close to being closed in by the nodules growing along the upper edge of the mould cavity. This would leave water-filled cavities trapped within the copper. Because of this I stopped any further plating until I could get better control of the process.

Although they are a nuisance when plating, the flowers have a very fine nodular structure.These are some of the initial flowers shown alongside a dime.

Although they are a nuisance when plating, the flowers have a very fine nodular structure.These are some of the initial flowers shown alongside a dime.

This is how the plating looks now. The excessive growth along the edges of the cavity, as evidenced by the dark shadow along its top edge, threatens to trap water in cavities in the copper.

This is how the plating looks now. The excessive growth along the edges of the cavity, as evidenced by the dark shadow along its top edge, threatens to trap water in cavities in the copper.

I have done some research on plating, and although it seems to be a somewhat black art, where every problem seems to be potentially cured by every fix, I have found four things to correct before trying to plate again:

  1. During the days taken for the plating, water has been evaporating from the plating bath. When I returned it to its bottle yesterday, I found that half its volume had been lost.
  2. I had started plating with an anode made for electroplating, but once that was gone I switched to using a piece of copper pipe, but this may contain impurities that could interfere with proper plating.
  3. The anode naturally grows a layer of black copper oxide as it is consumed. This layer is consumed as fast as it if formed and so shrinks with the copper, but once all the copper is gone, there is a thin leaf of copper oxide left which breaks off and its crumbs can become distributed through the plating bath.
  4. I had no agitation of the plating bath, so inside corners would naturally tend to contain stagnant electrolyte depleted of copper.

So my plans generally are to keep the bath covered most of the time to reduce evaporation, get some appropriately pure copper for the anode, put the anode in a cloth bag to confine the copper oxide that flakes off, and try using a small pump to spray the electrolyte directly against the face of the mat.

But for now I’m putting all that away so I can use the workshop to make some cases to contain all my new composition matcases.

 

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 unable to overcome the force of this spring and release the operating lever (to stop the caster). The line of type did not push all the way past the fence, and the return stroke of the line support often sent type flying.

It was not clear at the time whether the spring I have made was too strong, or if the column pusher spring box on my caster was too weak. While I was visiting Rich Hopkins last week, we removed the column pusher spring box from his caster and I compared how strong it was with my memory of how strong mine was. His seemed quite a bit stronger than I remember mine being.

While we were cleaning up his storage shed I found a spare column pusher spring box, and included it with the various other parts I took home.

My spring box at the top and the slightly rusty spare below. Note that the plunger (right end) on mine does not extend as far, and the adjustment (left end) is extended to compensate.

My spring box at the top and the slightly rusty spare below. Note that the plunger (right end) on mine does not extend as far, and the adjustment (left end) is extended to compensate.

The two spring boxes disassembled with parts identified, mine at the top again. Note that 8F4 is missing from mine.

The two spring boxes disassembled with parts identified, mine at the top again. Note that the washer 8F4 is missing from mine.

The missing washer 8F4 is supposed to transfer the pressure from the shoulder on the plunger 8F3 to the end of the spring 8F6. My spring box was missing this part, though, so the larger diameter part of the plunger was jammed into the first coils of the spring. During disassembly it took some effort to separate them.

Because of this my spring box was shorter not only by the thickness of the washer, but also by how far the plunger had jammed into the spring. By adjusting the other end to get the correct length, the spring was decompressed by this distance resulting in a substantial loss of force.

In retrospect, I remember having problems with keeping the spring box length adjusted properly. At times I would carefully set it, then later find that it was not pushing the column far enough and the line of type was fouling the fence. This probably occurred each time the plunger jammed into the spring a bit further.

I reassembled my spring box using the washer from the spare, reinstalled it on my caster and adjusted its length. The column pusher no longer had trouble tripping the operating lever latch when the line length was wrong, even after I removed my makeshift paper-clip spring lengthener on the latch spring.

Using my lathe and a scrap of 3/16″ steel, I made another 8B4 washer. I think I may have one in my spares, but these are currently a little hard to reach and making a new one seemed just as easy as digging through the spares. Not only that, but unlike searching the spares, making my own was certain to bear fruit.

I cleaned and de-rusted all the remaining parts, used some gun blue to restore the finish (removed by the rust remover) on the casing of the spring box, and reassembled the spare with plenty of grease inside. Too much in fact as I found that there was hydraulic lock preventing the spring box from compressing. I had to compress it in a vise and clean up the grease that came out of the adjusting holes on the adjustable end.

The spare spring box now looks prettier than the one installed in the caster.

The spare spring box now looks prettier than the one installed in the caster.

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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 the parts are assembled and how they work.

After straightening out the extra bend in the locking lever, I reassembled the lockup bar as shown in the diagrams attached to the patent, and adjusted its length so that when the lever was in the released position, the bar could just be swung in and out of position without jamming against the rails.

With this adjustment done, it worked just as described in the patent. Once the length of the bar has expanded to be tight between the rails, further movement of the locking lever causes the pressure bar to bulge out, effectively tightening up the lockup.

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The bar with the locking lever in the open position. It is adjusted just short enough that it can be swung into position without binding between the rails.

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The bar fully locked. The pressure bar can clearly be seen bulging out at the center of the lockup bar.

There is one other lockup-related thing to do with this press, which is to make sure the posts placed in the bed when using the dead bar for lockup can be easily removed without having to yank them out with Vice-grips!

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 parts of the lockup bar. Note that the main body is reversed relative to the other parts, so the eccentric near upper right actually fits into the left-hand end of the body. The insert bar goes in bevels up and two small roll pins retain it loosely.

The parts of the lockup bar. Note that the main body is reversed relative to the other parts, so the eccentric near upper right actually fits into the left-hand end of the body. The insert bar goes in bevels up and two small roll pins (top center) retain it loosely.

The bar has a locking lever which turns an eccentric which in turn pushes on a plunger. This in turn pushes a long bar set into the side of the lockup bar, which pushes a plunger at the other end of the bar. As this last plunger is pushed out the end of the bar, the bar becomes clamped between the rails of the press, locking it in place. An adjusting screw is used to vary the effective length of this last plunger so the clamping takes place within the limited range of the eccentric.

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It seems to me that the long bar should also push out of the side of the lockup bar to further tighten up the type, but I don’t see how that can happen. The beveled ends of the side bar are positioned to allow the retaining roll pins to do their job so there is no wedge action trying to push the side bar out. Although one of the plungers has a tapered end, the flat end of the taper is too large, and the other plunger has no taper at all. For this to work the way I expect, both plungers would need tapered ends and/or the side bar would need bevels on its back as well as its front.

The parts diagram for the press does not include this lockup bar. The only thing I can tell that is obviously wrong is that the locking handle has some extra bends that should not be there…

Any ideas on how this is supposed to work would be appreciated!

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 Rich Hopkins and pick up the mats.

Rich and I cleaned up his storage shed a bit. We both scavenged caster parts that seemed worth keeping, but many of the parts that were considered unlikely to be needed as spares were junked. The general criteria were whether they were parts that wear out, get misplaced, or break easily. Parts in new condition were more likely to be kept, as were parts known to be needed by someone. Rich generously let me take  many cases of composition mats that were duplicates of ones he already had, along with some seized but likely repairable Monotype moulds. Once the remaining stuff was sorted and stacked we had reclaimed two skids of floor space.

The day I was there, Rich was trying to get some 16-point composition casting done. This uses double-height mats throughout the matcase. We brainstormed a bit to determine what would improve the cast type. Tearing down the mould and cleaning it helped with some of the problems (a lot of flash, and high quads that should have been low quads). The nozzle was also incorrect for the mould, as its tip was sticking up through the mould’s oversize nozzle hole and being struck by the crossblock as the eject cycle started.

Front Buffer Rod RetainerI also brought with me a part for one of his casters. When I was there for Monotype U, I had noticed a makeshift metal strap was being used to retain the end of the spring rod on the front buffer. I had already made a proper retainer for my caster a few years ago, so I made one for his machine as well.

Although I had found the correct screw in my spares to use on my caster, I couldn’t find another for Rich’s machine so I made one. The thread size is almost #8NF36 but the diameter is about a hundredth of an inch less so I had to cut the thread on my lathe.

The retainer on the left is the one on my caster, the one on the right and the screw below it are the parts I made for Rich.

The retainer (circled) as installed on the front buffer of my caster.

The retainer (circled) as installed on the front buffer of my caster.

I will also be making for him several of the pin that guides the rear end of the galley fence. This pin apparently breaks quite easily because he has 4 spare fences with broken pins, and the two fences installed on his casters have makeshift pins that flop around a lot. We broke one at Monotype U last summer, due to the mat case not being properly hooked onto the slide behind the bridge. When the caster called for column A on the matcase, it came forward too far and hit the end of the fence, snapping off the pin. I hope to have these ready for the ATF conference in Salem NH this August.

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Adventures in Matrix Copying – Part 2

My first attempt at making a rubber mould of a Lanston display matrix ended up with a fatal flaw due to an air bubble.

I made a second attempt, hoping to avoid repeating this flaw.

The instructions for the casting resin recommend applying a vacuum to the mould after filling it with resin in order to expand any bubbles, causing them to either pop or float up through their own enhanced buoyancy. I do not have a vacuum pump readily available so I will have to try pouring the resin very carefully and using a fine probe to poke around in all the nooks and crannies of the mat.

Having used the resin once, I decided that it was not necessary to seal the sides of the casting cavity since any resin leakage would be minimal. Sealing would probably still be needed if I were to use a vacuum to remove bubbles.

I also had a better estimate of the amount of resin required to fill the cavity, so I mixed less this time than last.

I poured the resin into the cavity of the matrix very carefully, allowing it to flow on its own along the contours of the type so as to minimize the chances of trapping an air bubble. I also used the tip of a fine copper wire to probe the perimeter of the cavity of the matrix.

20140504IMG_7067The resulting cast was a success, with no bubbles around the letterform. As well, most of the dirt had been stripped off the mat in the first casting, so this one was much cleaner.

The colour balance of this photo is incorrect. This casting has the same pink colour as the previous one.

 

20140504IMG_7068For the electrical connection for electroforming, I stripped the insulating varnish off some #32 magnet wire, threaded it through the edge of the rubber mould and along its surface, and poked the free end back into the rubber. This held the bare wire more or less in continuous contact with the surface of the mould.

Then I put some of the graphite powder we sell as a papermaking pigment into the cavity of the mould and overlapping onto the wires. I shook off the excess and used a small paint brush to brush off more of the graphite. The graphite is conductive enough to cause the copper to plate over the entire surface, and also acts as a release agent (although I’m not sure if that is necessary with this rubber).

The plating bath and copper anode I used also came from Lacy & Co. but the directions are pretty vague: use between 3 and 9 volts. I settled for adjusting the voltage to produce 200mA of current (this took about 2 or 3 volts).

20140505IMG_7069After a few hours of plating, the copper had spread almost completely across the face of the matrix. A bit of the graphite is still visible in the middle. Another hour or two and that was copper-covered as well. The freshly-plated copper has a rather striking reddish colour, quite distinct from the copper colour one normally sees.

Once the surface was covered, the task remained to continue plating until the matrix was thick enough. Because of the plating characteristics of the copper, this is turning out to be harder than expected.

More on this in another post…

It’s Not Dead Yet!

This post was written on January 31st, but for some reason I forgot to actually publish it!

This year’s mulberry branch harvest has been sitting in a bucket of water to keep it fresh, but it has also been sitting at room temperature.

Buds sprouting

Clearly it doesn’t want to be made into paper! I will take the top parts of a few of the strongest-growing branches and put them in pots to try to get them to root, so I can increase the number of plants I have and hopefully get larger harvests in future years.

The rest of the branches will be set outside to stop any further growth. If I ever want to get this (and previous years’ crops) processed, I think I’ll just have to pick a date in advance and stick to it. If I do that I can also invite everyone to drop in if they want to see the process.

Adventures in Matrix Copying

One thing I have wanted to try for a while was the duplication of a Lanston Monotype display matrix. It it probably not worth the trouble to copy an entire font of mats, but it would be useful for replacing the odd missing mat, assuming you can borrow the mat to be copied.

The idea is to use some sort of mould-making compound to take a cast of the original mat, then to electroform copper onto that cast.

The first step it to make this cast.

20140501IMG_7042I purchased this molding rubber from a jeweler’s supply store (Lacy & Co.) in Toronto a couple of years ago for this purpose, then the project was shelved for lack of time. On review, the instructions turn out to be almost paranoid about avoiding the introduction of any moisture into the liquid resin, including directions not to use wooden stirring tools because of the moisture they could contain. They also seemed to imply that I had stored the compound beyond its shelf life (again, due to moisture leaking into the containers). Despite this I found that the product was still fine for use and produced good casts. It probably helped that this was stored in my basement, which has a very stable temperature and is reasonably dry.

20140501IMG_7041As a container for making the cast, I built a small form out of rigid HDPE (polyethylene). The base is ¾″ thick (scraps from making our moulds and deckles) and the sides are strips of ⅜″ thick plastic (scraps from making the ribs for our ribbed moulds). The cavity is 1¼×1⅝″ which will give a ¼″ margin all around the matrix.

The form is held together with countersunk #10-32 machine screws leaving a flat top surface. I assembled the pieces with silicone cement in all the joints so there would be no leakage. I had never used this molding compound before and was unsure as to how runny it would be. The photo was taken before the excess silicone cement was cleaned off.

A smear of the silicone cement was also used to hold the mat in position, face-up, in the center of the cavity.

The instructions insist on measuring out the two components by weight, so using the measurements of the cavity and the information on the sheet I calculated that I should start with about 27g of part B (the large jar) and one tenth of that amount of part A. Part B had settled a bit and needed stirring. I measured out the correct amounts, mixed them, and filled the cavity. The mixed resin started out about as thick as pancake syrup but gradually thickened, and was pink like calamine lotion.

20140503IMG_7047I used another piece of ¾″ HDPE to slide onto the top of the cavity and a weight to hold it down so my finished cast would have a flat back.

I allowed the resin to set for 24 hours (it can be set in as little as 90 minutes by warming it up).

When I removed the top plate this is what I found. A thin layer of resin had worked its way between the top plate and the sides leaving a flap that could easily be torn off. The excess resin at the bottom had to be cut off. I had positioned the top plate not completely cover the cavity so the excess could run back in if there was any shrinkage. After this first test I don’t think this precaution is required as there is no evidence of shrinkage.

After removing the cavity sides, the casting peeled off fairly easily and came cleanly off the mat (pulling a lot of dirt off it in the process).

20140503IMG_7051This is the casting with most of the edges cleaned up. A bit of resin had leaked under the mat leaving that thin flap visible along the top edge.

The mould was rubbery and fairly soft, softer that a pencil eraser. By having a flat back, though, I could arrange that the mould was not distorted during the electroforming step.

The mould unfortunately contained a flaw caused by an air bubble. The two bubble cavities on the edge of the mat are a minor nuisance as the metal formed there could be filed off the mat. The real problem was the bubble at the lower end of the first ‘f’:

20140503IMG_7050 Mould Flaw

This flaw would be pretty much impossible to repair. In my next post I will show the results of a second attempt at making the mould.

Another Wayzgoose is History

Last Saturday the 36th annual Wayzgoose was held at the Grimsby Public Library and Art Gallery in Grimsby, Ontario. We were fortunate to have our sale table right next to the front door so we didn’t miss any visitors. Lily also made a new friend when the daughter of the folks at the next table showed up. Although our sales were only average this year, we had a great time seeing many of our friends in the book arts field, both those also selling at the fair and also those just visiting.

As promised earlier, here is a readable image of our submission for the Anthology:

Finished

It was also my birthday, and Audrey arranged to have a cake there waiting for the after-fair dinner:

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Yes, as appropriate for a printers’ fair, the writing on the cake board is wrong-reading. I am impressed that the bakery understood the directions properly, since they were only given over the phone!

A Quiet Month

I haven’t posted much this month as I’ve been too busy to spare the time for book arts work. Between preparing income tax returns (due in a week or so here and not yet completed), the Easter long weekend, spring garden cleanup, and getting ready for Wayzgoose this weekend, there has been just no time to work on anything in the shop.

Also, having reached my goal of a successful run of the composition caster, leaving me in a bit of a lull for things to do that are worth mentioning on the blog. I have several projects in mind, including trying to engrave a display mat using my mill and trying some setups for electroforming mats.

I have purchased a large lot of Monotype display matrices in the recent auction of the collection of the late Mike Anderson. Shipping them is pretty expensive because of the weight so I plan on picking them up in person, but I haven’t had time to do that yet. I will also have to purchase more boxes to store them in.

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