Linotype Photo

[ozarkeod]

Had to share this photo of my good luck, this is a lifetime supply at my age!

[lightman]

Thats a nice Linotype score! What is the total weight, about 375#or so? The Garand clip is a nice touch!

[redhawk0]

Very nice...I got 350 lbs when a printer went out of business.....I asked how much he wanted for it....he said 10 cents a pound. It was 1000 miles away but I made the time to get it. I feel like you...its a lifetime supply and its a wonderful alloy to mix with.

Congrats....

redhawk

[ozarkeod]

Very accurate guess! 391 lbs total, the melted type ingots varied between 23 to 27 lbs with some of the ears being broken off and missing. The Garand clip was included when I emailed this photo to a friend who gages every thing that gets shot by the Garand scale.

[stubshaft]

Great score!

[bangerjim]

Keep as much of it as possible in that original foundry stamped ingot form. That pretty much proves what you have if you ever sell any. If you melt all of it down into a bunch of our favorite teeny 1-2# ingots, there is no way of proving to anyone what you actually have! Other that paying for an x-ray shoot.

Melt down ONLY what you need for now...........and keep it in it's native form!

banger

[RogerDat]

Keep as much of it as possible in that original foundry stamped ingot form. That pretty much proves what you have if you ever sell any. If you melt all of it down into a bunch of our favorite teeny 1-2# ingots, there is no way of proving to anyone what you actually have! Other that paying for an x-ray shoot.

Melt down ONLY what you need for now...........and keep it in it's native form!

banger

Ditto. Melt a bar into small casting pot size as needed. One bar at a time. Stuff is hard enough you can even break a bar into pieces pretty easily and possibly save the effort of even casting into small ingots.

[ozarkeod]

That's very good advice, thanks bangerjim and RogerDat! I've got 3 with the foundry stamp and all the others were melted down in print shops. Some were poured in a mold with "linotype" in raised letters in the bottom of the mold to imprint the ingot, others poured in same type mold with no imprint. Two ingots with linotype imprint are going to be Christmas presents for a couple of old Vets this year!

[mdi]

Cool. I haven't seen any Linotype ingots for many years. In college I operated a Linotype machine in the school print shop and hung may of those ingots. But that was about 35 years before I started casting bullets...

[skeettx]

Well done.
Thank you for sharing
Mike

[metricmonkeywrench]

Ok, I’m having a learning moment, in some “unknown” lead I received a 6in long block of lead with the 2 tang ears around a hole like those blocks above. There’s no foundry markings on my portion.

So there’s a fairly good chance it’s Linotype and not just lead?

[skeettx]

YUP. well done, well done

[bangerjim]

Ok, I’m having a learning moment, in some “unknown” lead I received a 6in long block of lead with the 2 tang ears around a hole like those blocks above. There’s no foundry markings on my portion.

So there’s a fairly good chance it’s Linotype and not just lead?

Sorry my crystal ball is foggy today.

Only you will REALLY know is to have it analyzed with a x-ray gun shoot. Most big scrap yards have them....just take a piece in and say you are interested in selling a bunch of it! There are guys on here that will do it for a price/trade.

Without foundry markings, you could have anything in there. Shops used to recycle their lino and cast their own pigs. Lino depletes after many usages and ends up being NOT what we want for hardening.

Get is analyzed and eliminate all the "what if" guesswork.

bangerjim

[RogerDat]

Ok, I’m having a learning moment, in some “unknown” lead I received a 6in long block of lead with the 2 tang ears around a hole like those blocks above. There’s no foundry markings on my portion.

So there’s a fairly good chance it’s Linotype and not just lead?

Probably Linotype or some fairly rich alloy is the good news. Shops would re-melt yesterdays lines of type to use again. Those "generic" linotype pig molds would be what they would pour the recycled type into. The "eye" at one end is for lowering into melt. Each recycling would deplete the tin and to a lesser extent the antimony. Eventually some pure tin or high antimony lead would be added into the melt to "refresh" the alloy. You have no way to know where the lead that went into those ingots was on that cycle of depletion and refreshing

If you can't find a scrap yard to XRF gun the suspected linotype a member here BNE will test a pea size sample in exchange for 1 pound of lead. I find it easiest to just drill a few shallow holes in the bottom of the lead to be tested and then melt the shavings in a ladle with a propane torch to get the pea sized sample.

On depletion of linotype an example would be that I have about 50 lbs. of 5.4% Sn 10.1% Sb "linotype" still a rocking alloy to mix in with other stuff but not the 4/12 Sn/Sb one would expect from linotype. My guess is the Sn was refreshed but the Sb was also a somewhat depleted and didn't get refreshed. So the alloy ended up as high in tin, low in antimony.

Tested will allow you to make a more precise mix. There are crude ways to get "hints" at the alloy makeup. Hardness, how it melts and at what temperature, is it hard enough to break, what does the grain of the metal look like in the surface of the break. Etc. Not precise but can help determine if it is a "good" alloy worth snatching from the scrap yard or sending in to have tested. Lino should be harder than COWW lead and melt much easier. Hard enough to break a piece off and have a fairly fine even sandy grain. Like 80 grit sandpaper.

[metricmonkeywrench]

Thanks!! I did some hunting and finally found out how the Pigs were used with the linotype machine to feed the melt. Interesting stuff.

As my piece is relatively small and the only one I have it may not be worth the trouble of testing to confirm as I cant get any more of it. I will try to get a BHN out of it and go with the theory that it is "linotype like" and confine its use to rifle bullets like Lyman #2 mix until exhausted.

At least that hanger point profile gives me something to look for while on the hunt