Type

[Drm50]

How do you tell the difference between Lino- Mono ect. And are the spacers made of
same alloy. I've got 2 -5gal buckets of type. Supposed to have been for a small press
that made hand bills, ect, not from main newspaper press. I'm going to pour it in
igots to store. My wife is complaining about buckets of metal in garage, got to do a
big pour.

[triggerhappy243]

`complain to her that her car is taking up valueable space in the garage.

[Cowboy_Dan]

Linotype = lines-o-type

Mono and foundry have different notches, but notches are not exactly conclusive. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_metal

Spacers can be anything, dead soft to same alloy. I just melt those as a batch and have a scrapyard gun an ingot to see what the average came to.

[baogongmeo]

Two buckets are a problem? If you melt it down you're still going to have at least one bucket of ingots and if you ever want to sell it then in the type format will be more desirable to most buyers.

[Drm50]

Ingots are easier to store neatly. Was thinking of melting it down with added lead to have bullet
alloy ingots on hand. All my metal is poured into ingots as is and stamped what it is. I usually
have so much to melt that I don't have time to mix alloys. Besides been about 2 yrs since OL
could park in garage.

[John Boy]

How do you tell the difference between Lino- Mono ect.

Buy a hardness tester:
Lino = Bhn 22
Mono = Bhn 28

[bangerjim]

What everybody said above!!!!!!!!!!

This subject has been elaborated on an infinite number of times on here. Do a search.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Mono is on the whole individual letters both small and large size. Linotype as has been pointed out is just that lines-of -type as in a sentence of group of words or figures. People are leery of ingots being sold as either mono or lino if not still in original form, a few too many imposters have soured this practice for everybody that is honest. About the time you alloy either of these with lead for an alloy you use now, what will you do with it if you want to go with it in a different alloy? Leave them as they are and find a place to store the pails under a bench.Robert

[bangerjim]

I agree with ^^^^^^^^^^.

DO NOT ingotize any of it! EVER.

1. It proves exactly what it is in the future.
2. Easy to add small amounts to your mix.
3. Easy to store in buckets, coffee cans, or whatever in small easy-to-handle amounts

I keep all my sweetening alloys in their native form. Ingots can be anything. If you ever want to sell it, no one will believer you if in ingots.

If you cannot find a place to store it, I can......sent it all to me. I will pay the shipping.

banger

[lightman]

I agree with the others, leave it in original form. You probably have a mix of Foundry, Mono, Lino and some spacers. Thats a lot of sorting!

[John Boy]

DO NOT ingotize any of it! EVER.

Sometimes not advisable: A friend said to me, " Get rid of this lead for me"
* 250 lbs of foundry bars each with 3 ingots. Tested it for hardness - Bhn 28 = Monotype!
Bought my friend a bottle of scotch

[gsdelong]

As always I read these and disagree on the Monotype - Foundry Type issue. I believe Mono type to be rather rare as it was a specialty machine used mostly for items that needed special characters including math and scientific symbols. Foundry type was far more common as individual pieces because you could buy all kinds of type faces in "fonts". This is what was stored in the California Job Case or the type drawers you see everyone hanging on the wall to display small items. If you had a monotype machine you simply dumped the type back in the melting pot when you were done as it was easier to run it back through the machine then it was to sort the type. But here is a little hint from the original user printing side to help with the guessing.

Here's a tip on how to tell if type is hard foundry metal or not. Scrape off a bit of the metal with a pen knife. If it comes off in a curl, it's Linotype; fair-sized chunks, it is Monotype; if tiny pieces, then it's hard foundry material. —Guy Botterill, Baltimore.