A Cool-down Drool on the Monotype

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Monotype Composition Caster, Type Casting — 2 Comments ↓

I have recently taken another Monotype mould out of mothballs to use for casting a font of 6-point type. This is one of the moulds I got from Rich Hopkins’ tertiary storage, i.e. his garage. I had cleaned off the coating he had applied to prevent rust in storage, adjusted the cross-slide, and tried to cast the contents of a matcase to determine its layout. When casting type as small as 6 points, pretty much the only way to identify the matrices is to cast them, and better yet proof the cast type.

Unfortunately this mould’s cooling passages were clogged completely and with no cooling flow the type came out with fins everywhere and I gave up when I got a squirt, likely caused by a bit of fin broken off and landing between a mat and the face of the mould.

I shut down the caster and didn’t come back to it until after Christmas holidays.

Preparatory to removing the clogged mould, I cranked down the pot, now cold, and found that it would not swing out fully because a lump of type metal had solidified around the nozzle and was bumping against one of the thumbscrews that locks the galley support.

The metal had even dribbled over the edge of the pot forming a sort of metal-cicle.

This does not normally happen when the pot cools off and solidifies. I think that, with the nozzle area of the pot surrounded by the overheated caster table and mould, the metal in the pump and nozzle remained molten even as the rest of the pot solidified, forming a hard case that contracted as it further cooled. The molten metal inside would normally be sealed off and prevent this case from contracting, but in this case there was still a path for molten metal to escape, so a steady dribble of metal was coming out of the nozzle, forming this little mess.

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Monotype 14-point Display Fonts #1 and #2

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Kevin, Matrix Markings, Things we sell, Type Casting — No Comments ↓

I recently cast several fonts of type in Monotype  #329 Sans Serif Light. This included 12-point from composition matrices and 14-point from display matrices.

As with a few other Monotype faces, this one is available as display matrices in two different size designations, commonly known as 14#1 and 14#2. The latter is visibly larger than the former.

Not really understanding why these both exist, we opted to cast 14#1. On comparing the various fonts of type we observed that the 14#1 looked very much like 12 on 14, that is, 12-point type cast on a 14-point body.

Some digital photo manipulation of scans from the specimen book reveal what is going on. In all the following, samples of composition and display specimens have been superimposed, with one specimen in blue and the other in red (sorry, forgot which is which). Overlapped areas are black.

18 point large comp vs. 18 point display

So far, so good… The two 18-point variants match very closely. Note that the 18-point composition is only available if the caster is fitted for “large composition”.

14 point large comp vs. 14#2 display

Again, this is a close match, though not as close as with the 18-point, but it would appear that the 14#2 is the true 14-point version of the face.

12 point comp vs. 14#1 display

Now things go a little weird: It seems that 14#1 really is a 12-point font.

10 point comp vs. 12 point display

Just as with the (visually) 12-point fonts, there is a discrepancy in the sizing of the display font here.

One has to wonder why Monotype chose to call the last two display sizes 14- and 12-point when they are really 12- and 10-point. My suspicion is that because of the draft angle in the matrices, these faces cannot be cast on their proper body sizes because the beards of the type would project top and bottom. Such type would require hand finishing to remove the beards. To avoid this Monotype labeled them based on the body (mould) size that must be used, and used the #1 and #2 designations to differentiate the two sizes that cast on a 14-point body. The 14-point faces are not an exact match, so it could also be that the 14#1 just would not fit on a 12-point body, even with no beards, but then, why would they design a face that way?

Some day if I remember I’ll test this theory by casting some 14#1 on a display mould fitted for 12-point to see if the type itself fits but projecting beards are unavoidable. It should also be mentioned that there is, to my knowledge, no such thing as a 10-point display mould, so the 12-point mats could not practically be cast on their proper 10-point body. You could use a composition mould, but the nick would be on the wrong side of the type and getting proper alignment might be difficult.

Linotype Mystery Parts

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum, Mystery Parts — 1 Comment ↓

On the Linotype at the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum, there are a couple of parts that I can’t find in any of the parts manuals I have:

There is a lug on the slide that transfers the matrices from the first elevator to the second elevator, and a lever that, in its resting position, catches the lug and prevents this transfer. The lever is only raised to clear the lug when the first elevator is in its fully-raised position.

In particular, if the recast block is engaged, the first elevator does not rise completely (and the matrices do not all drop to the lower rail) and so the transfer is prevented. During the cycle the caster will stop when it finds the transfer has not completed and the operator will have to pull out the clutch control to bypass the stop, as which point the first elevator, still carrying the mats, will return to its idle position.

The caster already has a stop on the spaceband transfer pawl which is intended to prevent the transfer.

It would appear that the original procedure for recasting a line would be to engage the stop on the spaceband transfer pawl and also engage the recast block so the matrices would remain in the first elevator, allowing the same line to be cast again. If the operator set the recast block but not the spaceband pawl lock, I think the caster would push all the matrices out of the first elevator and dump them on the floor. Spacebands might just jam because the rail heights would not match between the first elevator and the second elevator.

So these mystery parts might have been introduced to make suppression of the transfer automatic when the recast block was in use.

But I still can’t find them in any parts book, nor in any catalog I could find for Star Parts (an aftermarket provider of Linotype parts and accessories).

So, can anyone comment on whether my analysis of the purpose of these parts is correct, or provide any reference for parts numbers or suppliers?

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BOUND Book Arts Fair, Sunday December 11th, in Toronto

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in BOUND Book Arts Fair, Other people, Past Events, Us — No Comments ↓

After a couple years of COVID hiatus, the BOUND Book Arts Fair is back!

This year’s Fair will be held from 10:30am to 4:30pm at the Arts & Letters Club located at 14 Elm Street, near Yonge & Dundas in downtown Toronto.

We are lucky enough to have a table at this fair, this time upstairs in the Studio, where we will be selling some of our paper, marbling, bookbinding supplies, and assorted books related to the book arts. The Studio is on the third floor, but has lots of windows for plenty of natural light, and there is an elevator available if you can’t handle the stairs.

In addition to all the vendors there, this year will feature an Artist’s Talk by master printer Richard York at 2pm. Richard comes to us all the way from Salt Spring Island, BC.

Progress on the Mackenzie Printery’s Linotype (Second Elevator Transfer, part 3)

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum — No Comments ↓

Well, this was a real easy diagnosis! Previously I noted that, on the Linotype at the Mackenzie Printery, the safety interlock that stops the machine if the transfer from the first to the second elevator did not appear to be working properly. A look at the interlock itself quickly identified the problem: Read more ›

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Progress on the Mackenzie Printery’s Linotype (Distributor Jams)

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum — No Comments ↓

As previously mentioned, I’m trying to get the Linotype at the Mackenzie Printery & Newspaper Museum up and running again. I’ve had to fix several problems, and here are the details on one of the problems:

Read more ›

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Progress on the Mackenzie Printery’s Linotype (Second Elevator Transfer, part 2)

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum — No Comments ↓

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Linotype at the Mackenzie Printery & Newspaper Museum is having problems with the horizontal transfer from the first elevator to the second elevator.

On Saturday I adjusted the alignment between the first elevator and the toothed bar on the second elevator. This is largely a visual adjustment, where you see how much light shines through the gaps between the toothed bar and the teeth of a pi matrix (which has all its coding teeth) and adjust for equal sized gaps all ’round.

I seemed to have things transferring OK, but later when I was gleaning matrices from what had been picked up off the floor over the past few years I had three matrices to load into the magazine (though one was actually a pi matrix, maybe the small-caps ‘Z’). I loaded them into the assembly elevator where the machine normally collects the mats as you type at the keyboard, and cycled the machine to send them up for distribution. Instead of rising smoothly, the second elevator lurched up and shook the whole machine.

I think what happened was that the three mats did not transfer fully to the second elevator, but the interlock (clearly out of adjustment) thought the transfer was complete and allowed the cycle to proceed. A mat was spanning the gap between the first and second elevator, causing the latter to temporarily hang before lurching up. This is particularly worrisome because the elevator is being raised by a cam, not a spring, so something has to give (read: break) if the transfer is incomplete but the interlock doesn’t stop the clutch. In this case the matrix shifted enough to release the elevator once the force built up a bit.

So clearly I have to check the alignment again to ensure a smooth transfer, and I also have to check the adjustment of the interlock so the cycle will stop if the transfer is not fully completed.

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Progress on the Mackenzie Printery’s Linotype (Second Elevator Transfer)

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum — No Comments ↓

As previously mentioned, I’m trying to get the Linotype at the Mackenzie Printery & Newspaper Museum up and running again. I’ve had to fix several problems, and here are the details on one of the problems:

Read more ›

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Progress on the Mackenzie Printery’s Linotype (Stuck Keyboard Cams)

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum — No Comments ↓

As previously mentioned, I’m trying to get the Linotype at the Mackenzie Printery & Newspaper Museum up and running again. I’ve had to fix several problems, and here are the details on one of the problems:

The keyboard cams, which provide the push to release a matrix from the magazine, were seized up pretty much solid. The caster had not been used for a couple years previously, mainly due to COVID restrictions, and the lighter parts of the lubricant had evaporated leaving a gummy residue which effectively glued the cams into their idle position.

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Progress on the Mackenzie Printery’s Linotype (Rough Delivery Slide)

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum — 1 Comment ↓

As previously mentioned, I’m trying to get the Linotype at the Mackenzie Printery & Newspaper Museum up and running again. I’ve had to fix several problems, and here are the details on one of the problems:

The transfer of the line of matrices from the intermediate channel to the first elevator was very rough, often jamming completely. Manually jiggling the first elevator up and down a bit often, but not always, helped.

Read more ›

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