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mto7464
04-26-2008, 10:48 PM
Picked up the 550lbs of Linotype today from a buddy. It all came in strips about
1" wide and two feet long in varying thickness. Is this Virgin Linotype? Along with 330lbs of WW that was alot of metal to move.

HeavyMetal
04-26-2008, 11:10 PM
Lino type was usually recast into new type each time a paper was printed. don't know about anyother type of printing.

My parents worked in a small news paper in the 60's and I remember going in on a Saturday and seeing a Vat filled with molten lead! I had no clue what it was at the time although I did ask what it was for, hence my knowledge of it being cast into new type.

Must have been two tons of the stuff! Anyway most lino, if it has print on it, is not "virgin" If your lino is in bars with a small hoop on the end yes it most likely is!

Good score no matter which type lino it is! Here's a tip it might not be lino!

Printers had several different types of lead alloy they used for different types of printing. You could have Lino, mono or foundry type. I list these in order of hardness.

Lino is good straight and can be blended with WW for pistol allys. The other two need to be blended because the tin and antimony content are very high.

As far as being able to tell them apart? Not with the naked eye! A hardness tester will give you a clue based on a BHN number or you can cast a small lot in a mold designed for WW alloy and weigh these aginst some cast of WW metal. The difference in weight can lead you pretty quick to which type metal you might have.

mto7464
04-26-2008, 11:55 PM
I cast some from a GB mold for the thirty carbine. The WW come out to 115 and the "Lino" 107. I know it is lighter does this sound about right?
These aren't the strips with any letters on them. Some are very thin and cane be bent in half with your fingers and they break. others are thicker and more difficult to bend.

A friend has a Saeco tester I will try to borrow.

Lloyd Smale
04-27-2008, 07:35 AM
you probably have spacer strips. there cast out of the same alloy as the print is made from. Im sure its not virgin in that form but its good stuff non the less. Your weight variation is right on for good lineotype.

Bent Ramrod
04-27-2008, 05:45 PM
I think Lloyd is right. My memories from eighth grade Print Shop are pretty vague any more, but we used to bundle the type up with little oblongs and squares of wood on the ends of the lines and thin strips of lead or lead alloy on top and bottom of the type letters. These spaced the lines of type and were trimmed to fit the length of the line of print. You'd then clamp the whole assembly in the printing press and start printing.

Sticks in my mind that these strips were called "Em Quads" or "En Quads" or something. I know the wood was called "Furniture."

All the virgin Linotype I've ever seen has come in long ingots, maybe 3" x 3-1/2" by 24" with tabs or flanges on the ends. Must have weighed 25 pounds each.

fecmech
04-27-2008, 07:01 PM
I bought 300lbs of those strips about 30 years ago, it was new material in factory boxes.

hammerhead357
04-27-2008, 08:37 PM
MTO the strips are lino and are/were called Elrod strips from the machine name that made them. I think there were other strip casting machines but I never saw one. If the strips are wrapped in a brown paper and in boxes they may be virgin lino. However a lot of the old hottype shops had their own Elrod machines and pulled their own strips. Yes the machine really pulled the strips out of an orfice. If they were pulled by the shop it is possible that you have used lino or enriched lino. just sort of a crap shoot really.....Wes

mto7464
04-27-2008, 10:44 PM
I think Lloyd is right. My memories from eighth grade Print Shop are pretty vague any more, but we used to bundle the type up with little oblongs and squares of wood on the ends of the lines and thin strips of lead or lead alloy on top and bottom of the type letters. These spaced the lines of type and were trimmed to fit the length of the line of print. You'd then clamp the whole assembly in the printing press and start printing.

Sticks in my mind that these strips were called "Em Quads" or "En Quads" or something. I know the wood was called "Furniture."

All the virgin Linotype I've ever seen has come in long ingots, maybe 3" x 3-1/2" by 24" with tabs or flanges on the ends. Must have weighed 25 pounds each.

The guy I got it from said he had several ingots that looked like large window weights. He had to have them cut up so he could melt them down into ingots. Maybe those were the virgins. I have the igots he made too.

Alchemist
04-28-2008, 01:07 PM
I've recently purchased several ingots of linotype like Bent Ramrod described from a local printer. These ingots are used linotype (at least in my case), as I saw the ingot mould in the back shop where the lead was stacked. The fellow I dealt with said they put a "flux" in it to bring the tin level back up. Not too sure about that as he didn't seem all that knowledgeable about linotype.

Anyway, these ingots are about three feet long, triangular in shape viewed from the end, and have tabs on the end that I was told the ingots are hung from to lower them into the type machine pot. They weigh 24-26 pounds. I was going to post a pic, but can't seems to crop the photo enough to make it under 100kb.

I have one small ingot (about 8 lbs) of what I think is virgin linotype, 'cause it is shaped like a brick, and has "Federated" and "Linotype" cast into the ingot.

If I could just figure out how to get those pics posted!!! Anybody got a suggestion? I'm new to trying to post attachments. I have read Buckshot's instructions, but can't get the pic under 100kb.

ETA
Thanks to AZ-Stew...I have pics of my two ingots.
Alchemist