linotype

[MacGregor]

The Linotype?? No one has touched that stuff in over a decade. The used to use it to weigh down padded tablets. We will do a midnight raid and take it out the back door.

yep, i got a line on some linotype! he says there's several hundred pounds there..

wonder how much the back of my jeep will handle.. heheh..

[Ranch Dog]

I bought linotype out of an abandoned printing press that a fellow had bought for a warehouse for his heating and air-conditioning business. I bought it for a nickel a pound and there was 1800# of it! I hauled it off in my Jeep but the drive was a 60 mile round trip so the second trip I arrived with a trailer and took it all.

My next venture found me at a old tire shop and I stopped hauling wheel weights when I got to 1800#. I had the wheel weights melted when I moved out to the ranch in 2004 and this is what the haul looked like...

http://home.awesomenet.net/~ranch-dog/Casting/Moving_Lead.jpg

[Ranch Dog]

The printing press was located on a side street of a small town (pop of 1500) that I drove through several times a week and had been unoccupied for years. When I looked thought the dusty windows I liked to had a heart attack because I could see the bars of linotype and trays of print laying on tables. I thought I would stroke out before I found the buyer because I sure didn't want it to fall in some fellows hands that was going to make fishing weights out of it.

Of course when I found the owner, that is exactly what was going to happen. He had a friend that wanted it for weights and so I offered the nickel a pound... 1800# for $90 and loaded it as quickly as I could... [smilie=1:

[Blacktail 8541]

Wish I could find a buy like that! Seem that I always have to pay top dollar.

[MacGregor]

just keep looking... i was pretty frustrated first few months of searching before i finally got my first 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights

[Blacktail 8541]

Wheel weights are not a problem as long as I am willing to pay $30.00 a five gallon bucket. That is the going rate around here. Lino type has only been available thru E-Bay so far, about 80 to 85 cents a pound shipped. I guess the e-bay market is starting to get a little slow for the sellers because the price is starting to fall slowly.

[Bucks Owin]

heh heh.....

I stumbled onto a similar "goldmine"....(leadmine?)

I met a fellow last year who had his printing business go belly up with the advent of computers and "do it yourself" printing. Has tons of it and is glad to find someone (me) who can use it!

Congrats Ranchdog!
Linotype life is good!

Dennis