Linotype or not?

[Surp]

Was told it's soft letterpress lead/line spacing but it looks kind of like lino just thinner.


[/COLOR]http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo344/351mustang65/s-l1600_zpsioadqfvm.jpg

http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo344/351mustang65/s-l1600%201_zpsxqvoh2ty.jpg

[kungfustyle]

Those are spacers, but still work great. Smelt them down and mix 2 to 1 coww for rifles and 3 to 1 for pistols. Should be about 15 to 17 bn with the 3 to 1, from my experience.

[6622729]

Those are spacers, but still work great. Smelt them down and mix 2 to 1 coww for rifles and 3 to 1 for pistols. Should be about 15 to 17 bn with the 3 to 1, from my experience.

Linotype spacers generally are softer lead alloy than linotype but it's all usable. I would not pay a linotype premium for spacers as they can be a mix of hard and soft, most likely soft as they are telling you. It'll work great though one way or the other.

[Tatume]

I've wondered about this often heard claim. Printers dump type into a pot and recast it. Would they really take the time to separate the spacers from the rest? I'm sure I wouldn't.

[RogerDat]

I have had several batches of spacers checked with an xrf gun. The darn things are all over the place. I have had a batch that were closer to foundry type than linotype. Literally 1.5 x lino type percentages of tin and antimony. Some that were like a weaker alloy of linotype. Some that were dead soft or having just a bit of tin.

All of it was nice lead, but using it in a recipe from the alloy calculator required getting it gunned so I would know what it was. That and making really big batches that were cross mixed equally to create a batch where the alloy was all the same. I bought 600# and like I said one batch to the next could vary a lot. So mixing the batches until it was all the same then having it checked was essential.

[6622729]

I have had several batches of spacers checked with an xrf gun. The darn things are all over the place. I have had a batch that were closer to foundry type than linotype. Literally 1.5 x lino type percentages of tin and antimony. Some that were like a weaker alloy of linotype. Some that were dead soft or having just a bit of tin.

All of it was nice lead, but using it in a recipe from the alloy calculator required getting it gunned so I would know what it was. That and making really big batches that were cross mixed equally to create a batch where the alloy was all the same. I bought 600# and like I said one batch to the next could vary a lot. So mixing the batches until it was all the same then having it checked was essential.

Yes, that's how I would do it. Blend a large batch and test hardness and fill out. You can make smaller batches and just see how it works out for your application of the moment and if it works as is, you can just enjoy shooting.

[fecmech]

I bought 600 lbs of new in the wrapper spacers from a printing outfit some years back. The owner told me it was standard linotype alloy.

[retread]

fold the spacers over and if they are lino they will break. If soft they won't.

[mdi]

fold the spacers over and if they are lino they will break. If soft they won't.
Yessir!

[Lloyd Smale]

yup ive heard this claim a lot too and it hasn't been the case for me. I notice a bit softer but more like 19-20 bhn and a lot of it is just as hard as linotype.
I've wondered about this often heard claim. Printers dump type into a pot and recast it. Would they really take the time to separate the spacers from the rest? I'm sure I wouldn't.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Back when I carried a pipewrench I had a job at a gas station (remember what those were?) after a real hard cold snap and their oil furnace quit in the night. It took me the better part of the morning and afternoon to get the frozen and broken pipes replaced and new restroom fixtures installed. In an off room in an old wooden cabinet I had to move to reach a pipe I found paper wrapped rectangles of linotype print. I asked the owner what this was from? It was the last edition of a small gazette newspaper we had in our town that closed their doors in the mid 1950`s. He said I could have the packages as he had forgotten about them and didn`t want to move that cabinet again that they were in. I never did weigh the total of the lino, I made a WAG to about 600 - 700 pounds total. There were seperators and fillers bundled in with each article. This all took place back in the late `70`s, I`m finally down to the last 50 or so pounds of that pile.Robert

[Surp]

I went ahead and got 30+ pounds of this stuff and 30+ pounds of linotype for abot 80$.

[RogerDat]

The "bend" test has been surprisingly inaccurate in my use. I sorted a pile of spacers by bend or break and the bend ones were the richer alloy. I posted results in the lead forum. It was a surprise that's for sure.

[bangerjim]

I bought 600 lbs of new in the wrapper spacers from a printing outfit some years back. The owner told me it was standard linotype alloy.


If they are NEW.....wrapped from the factory.....they "could" be pure lino alloy. I have some like that. I also have some NEW.....wrapped from the factory......that are around 10 Bhn.

NEVER EVER assume spacers are pure lino. Don't get suckered into that transaction. There was no need for them to be hard. They were only space fillers between the HARD "lines-o-type" and mono/foundry hand-set that banged against the paper many thousands of times and needed to be hard.

[bangerjim]

The ONLY "linotype" you can be confident of a relative guaranteed hardness is the strips of actual type...or "lines-o-type". The spacers can be anything and many shops made their own for scrap and depleated lino they had around.

Linotype alloy depleted over time due to oxidiation and can also vary. But all strips of words I have ever found were pretty darned close to pure lino alloy hardness. Strips can be just about anything.

Only buy REAL lino in strips of words and NOT ingots. Avoid evilbay! And keep them that way......in the original strips.....and do not ever re-melt them down into ingots. Ingots can be anything. Lino word strips will be provable real lino.

[gwpercle]

I was given a big box of spacers from a print shop years ago. Even to this day they are very shiny and appear to be high in tin . Not dull grey like soft lead . They are soft and can be folded easily and are different thicknesses.
I melt 5 lbs. of wheel weights + 5 lbs. of soft scrap lead + 1 lb. of the spacers . This makes for a decent alloy in handguns. I have no idea as to its BHN but it works for me. It makes a tough boolit that doesn't fracture , hollow points will mushroom nicely.
Gary

[RogerDat]

Looking at those pictures a little closer I noticed at least a couple of those looked like they had the ridges running up the side and were thicker, that is linotype from a linotype machine. Essentially printing spaces. Look at the top picture, center bottom edge. Bottom picture upper right corner and one right of center just up from bottom edge, sort of down in a hole.

Honestly if you are getting spacers and linotype for about $1.33 a pound that is pretty good. On the forum members usually ask around $2 for linotype and $1 for just about any plain lead or WW lead. There is a good chance those spacers are better than WW lead.

Oh and melting in one big batch only applies to the smooth spacers not the actual linotype with letters, as Banger mentioned keep linotype, mono type, or foundry type in its original form, with the letters and shape intact. Just like one knows how much silver is in a Silver Dollar by the year one knows how much tin and antimony is in the identifiable forms of printers lead. Spacers since they can be all sorts of alloy might as well melt them into a big batch and make 1# ingots from them so you can figure out what you have for alloy in those ingots.

[fredj338]

Agree, spacers can vary a lot, but they will always be harder than pure lead ime.

[Surp]

Looking at those pictures a little closer I noticed at least a couple of those looked like they had the ridges running up the side and were thicker, that is linotype from a linotype machine. Essentially printing spaces. Look at the top picture, center bottom edge. Bottom picture upper right corner and one right of center just up from bottom edge, sort of down in a hole.

Honestly if you are getting spacers and linotype for about $1.33 a pound that is pretty good. On the forum members usually ask around $2 for linotype and $1 for just about any plain lead or WW lead. There is a good chance those spacers are better than WW lead.

Oh and melting in one big batch only applies to the smooth spacers not the actual linotype with letters, as Banger mentioned keep linotype, mono type, or foundry type in its original form, with the letters and shape intact. Just like one knows how much silver is in a Silver Dollar by the year one knows how much tin and antimony is in the identifiable forms of printers lead. Spacers since they can be all sorts of alloy might as well melt them into a big batch and make 1# ingots from them so you can figure out what you have for alloy in those ingots.


The two pictures I posted before are supposed to be just soft lead spacers but as you said some looked a little lino like to me but I'm no expert so who knows.

Here is the actual lino I got.
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo344/351mustang65/s-l1600%202_zpsh7mexef3.jpg

After everything was said and done I payed about $1 an LB for the spacers and about $2 for the Lino so while I didn't feel I was getting a smoking deal or anything I felt it was a fair price to my door step.

As far as melting it down into ingots I would never do that. Not only for the obvious reasons already listed above but also because I am more of a melt and use as needed kind of guy as I don't have the time or want to melt this stuff down more times then I have to at this point.

[fecmech]

I have some like that. I also have some NEW.....wrapped from the factory......that are around 10 Bhn.
I'm pretty sure these are lino. I can't fold them, they snap. My lyman 358429 that casts at 173 grs with WW's + a little tin casts 163 grs from these strips.

[Surp]

Well I ran out most of my old 50/50 mix so I decided to just toss in a bunch of the "soft" lead spacers and keep pouring since that and linotype is all I have at the moment and I have to say those spacers are definitely not soft lead. Probably actually to hard but I guess I'll find out. Hopefully the buck and slugs I casted from this won't hurt my barrel.