Linotype

[jrayborn]

I got real lucky this week and ran across a guy that was getting out of the printing business and offered to sell me some linotype. Me being me I drove the two hours and about killed myself dragging 1000 pounds of linotype out of his basement.

So now I'm in the middle of smelting, stacking and storing bars of linotype and it occurs to me...I have been casting for about 5 years and have never used linotype. What am I going to do with all of it now? I have mostly cast for .32/.327 mag .38 .357 and .45ACP/ .45 Colt and never really had any problems with using the wheel weight lead. I have just touched on casting for .30 carbine and 7.5 swiss again with good results using COWW.

And of course as I smelt I have been sorting out all the monotype and have at least a half bucket of it too. I feel very fortunate for this windfall but now I'm thinking that maybe I have too much of a good thing. I smelted about 3000 pounds of COWW last summer and figure I can quit hunting down lead for a while. Now I just need to find time for some shooting...

So how should I go about using up some of this lino? I suspect I will be experimenting with casting more rifle boolits in the near future.

[onesonek]

Well, even if you don't currently use it, you can blend it with coww's or pure, in ratios that work for your needs. Or you can use it for trading stock. Or you can sell some off. Wouldn't dump it all, you never no when it might come in handy!

[lwknight]

Linotype and its constitute components is worth about $2.40 per pound.
You could probably sell off whatever you wanted for maybe $1.50 or more.
Or you could just hold it as an investment for its tin and antimony content.

[MikeS]

Linotype is always good to have on hand. As others have said, you can use it to harden up your boolits, by mixing it with your coww, or mix it with pure lead. A 'common' alloy is 50% linotype, and 50% pure lead. As you have so much COWW available to you, I'm sure your could figure out how much of it you need to add to a quantity of linotype to either approximate the 50/50 mix, or make a harder alloy, etc. I personally make up an alloy that closely approximates Lyman #2 by mixing linotype with pure, and tin based solder, and use that for everything I cast (other than ML stuff which is 100% pure)

[mroliver77]

I paid $.33 lb for most of my lino not to many years back. I have a lot of range scrap I paid $03 lb for and WW the most I paid was $.15lb and a lot were freebies. Did somebody say investment? I only wish I had bought more! I bet the price just keeps going up.

I don't understand why you smelt lino into ingots. The type works well as is and the bars easily snap into pieces.
J

[bumpo628]

I don't understand why you smelt lino into ingots. The type works well as is and the bars easily snap into pieces.
J

That's true. If you resell any of it later, people will want to buy it in raw form.

[ColColt]

So how should I go about using up some of this lino?

Simple-sent it to me!:) You lucked up for sure. I've been using LT for decades and the 50/50 lead-LT will give you BHN 14.5-15.5 depending on the alloy. It generally runs 15-15.4 for me...not that the .4 means anything. Mix a couple pounds of it with ww's and you get about the same thing. It has great use and if you want to sell any pm me.

[bumpo628]

So now I'm in the middle of smelting, stacking and storing bars of linotype and it occurs to me...I have been casting for about 5 years and have never used linotype. What am I going to do with all of it now? I have mostly cast for .32/.327 mag .38 .357 and .45ACP/ .45 Colt and never really had any problems with using the wheel weight lead. I have just touched on casting for .30 carbine and 7.5 swiss again with good results using COWW.

So how should I go about using up some of this lino? I suspect I will be experimenting with casting more rifle boolits in the near future.

Here's how to make an alloy like WW:
1 lb linotype
3 lbs pure lead
= alloy with 1% tin, 3% antimony

You can also make hardball:
1 lbs linotype
1 lbs pure lead
= alloy with 2% tin, 6% antimony

[Cherokee]

Never turn down lead. Check with your local CB friends, they may want to buy some lino, but I would keep a large share for myself. To me, lino is best used as a base for making other alloys. Ditto on keeping some in its raw form, buyers like to see it that way so they know what it really is. Great score.

[jrayborn]

Thanks for the idea's folks. Just finished smelting my last pot and ended up with nearly 1100 pounds of lino and just south of 70 pounds of mono-type. I think its going to be a very good summer!

I can't help but think about how the fellow that sold (almost gave) me this at the end of a 50 year career. He had 5 presses in his basement, all well used but still in good working order, antiques by his admission. He went into much detail showing me and my wife and 9 year old son a lot about those presses and what they could do. It was all very interesting and I am fortunate not just for the casting material but for having met him as well. He is also a caster and re-loader but mostly only shoots trap now.

I turn 40 today and enjoy seeing what I suspect is a lifetime of lead stacked in my garage after a lot of work. I had my two son's helping (just a little) and its been a good time teaching them about smelting and just spending time with them. Now we can do a bit of casting and shooting too.

[ColColt]

He had 5 presses in his basement, all well used but still in good working order, antiques by his admission.

I'm curious if one of those was an old Kluge. I once operated one of those and you had to set the type(Lino of course) between wooden blocks in a metal frame and there was a key you used to tighten things down with. There was a large metal, circular disk you smeared ink across and cut the machine on and two rollers would spread the ink as the plate rotated. It was at this old print shop I got my Linotype back in the early '70's. If I had known then what I now know I would have bought up twice what I did. Much of it was just given to me. When I wanted more I made a trip to Carolina Linotype a few miles away and got a lot there as well. Neither the print shop nor the Linotype company are there anymore the last time I went to NC to visit.

[jrayborn]

Yes he did have a Kluge (I think) and some Hiedelburgs (I Think) and some others I don't remember. I am a machinist so I was very interested in what all the machines did. It was quite impressive actually and I could have spent days there just talking with him and he was VERY generous with his knowledge. You could tell he enjoyed his trade.

I hate to see these types of trades dry up and vanish. The printing press is one of the most powerful tools of freedom. Now everything is put out electronically online, and control of the internet is granted to us from our government at their discretion. Hate to say it but I see society moving in the wrong direction in a lot of ways.

Same thing in manufacturing. Its so hard to find talented machinists that we have to engineer our processes to the n'th degree so lesser skilled employees can be successful instead of training them up to higher standards. At some point our country will make nothing and then we will be at the mercy of the third world that does.

[max it]

Thanks for the idea's folks. Just finished smelting my last pot and ended up with nearly 1100 pounds of lino and just south of 70 pounds of mono-type. I think its going to be a very good summer!

I can't help but think about how the fellow that sold (almost gave) me this at the end of a 50 year career. He had 5 presses in his basement, all well used but still in good working order, antiques by his admission. He went into much detail showing me and my wife and 9 year old son a lot about those presses and what they could do. It was all very interesting and I am fortunate not just for the casting material but for having met him as well. He is also a caster and re-loader but mostly only shoots trap now.

I turn 40 today and enjoy seeing what I suspect is a lifetime of lead stacked in my garage after a lot of work. I had my two son's helping (just a little) and its been a good time teaching them about smelting and just spending time with them. Now we can do a bit of casting and shooting too.

HI, May I offer my 2c worth; help him get the presses to a museum.
2) watch the weight on your basement floor, it gets too high for concrete really fast.
Otherwise enjoy, I have some of the same stuff, gleaned from the similar.
Max

[jrayborn]

We discussed having the presses given to a museum, he is trying to sell them I believe, but he said that most simply aren't interested. Its too bad because just like men of his generation, they don't make them like that any more.

[ColColt]

There's a definite interest in old presses like a Kluge. I operated an Heidleberg, A&M)Addressograph/Multigraph) and Davidson as well as an AB Dick 4-color press. A most interesting trade but I did this while trying to finish college at the same time.

http://www.a-1enterprises.com/list_by_make_a2.php?make=KLUGE&


The one I ran looked something like this one...

http://www.briarpress.org/17299

[t_dickinson]

The printing press is one of the most powerful tools of freedom.

Oh boy. Well said sir.

Let me piggy-back... Though you lament the by-gone era of the press, it's not all in vain. You're not gutting it and throwing it's parts in some scrap yard. You're using it to enjoy shooting.

I submit that to that end, a printing press lives on to support our precious freedom as a legacy to the 2nd Ammendment. Certainly a hero in life and death.

Whew, God Bless America! Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition...and the tissue.

[jrayborn]

:bigsmyl2:

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July? And yes, this particular printer is still working, from one freedom to another. From the first amendment to the second ;)

[birdadly]

I recently met a young couple that bought out an old printing business and they didn't need the linotype machine (sorry don't recall the brand) and they found a guy who wanted to buy it. It was his TENTH one! He doesn't have a museum or anything, but he must have a nice pole barn or something and it's probably a pretty neat sight inside!

[MtGun44]

Back when I had lots of it, I mixed it 50-50 with pure lead and cast some really nice boolits
out of it.

Bill