Linotype find

[Mjdd23]

246196
Went to an estate sale 2 weeks ago and got real lucky to find and purchase almost 150 pounds of linotype, monotype and spacers for the low price of $55. At one time the garage behind the house was used as a print shop and was loaded with cabinets and drawers filled with type metal. I bought almost as much as I wanted but the scrap man beat me to it and bought 99% of the type the day before! I'm happy with what I picked up though.

[RogerDat]

You know what is sort of sad, type in drawers and still organized can have a much higher value than the lead. However it is a specialized market and it is much quicker to find a buyer for the cool empty wood cabinets and drawers, and scrap the lead.

Still it is good you managed to pull in some of it for a more useful purpose than scrap to make battery posts out of or whatever they do with scrap lead. Now all you need is a few hundred pounds of plain to mix with it, of course if you get a good deal on that you will probably need to score more alloy and.... is fun the way that works.

[Mjdd23]

Yeah it's a shame to see years and years of work arranging all of those drawers. To see all that work just dumped into tubs and hauled away, sad indeed. I'm going to save the individual letter blocks (monotype? ) to make crafts. I couldn't believe a print shop garage would still exist in my area but they still do.

[Conditor22]

I'd be happy with that also

You have basically 3 different lead alloys (hardnesses) there.
the spacers,
the linotype,
the single letters Monotype/foundry.(these are fairly close together)

[Mjdd23]

I have to pencil test for hardness when I get some time but you are correct. I've been scrounging pewter and solder at thrift stores and flea markets and have a decent stockpile to alloy with my wheel weight and soft lead. I spend way more time building boolits than I do shooting them! Retirement in a few years and I can't wait.

[RogerDat]

I have to pencil test for hardness when I get some time but you are correct. I've been scrounging pewter and solder at thrift stores and flea markets and have a decent stockpile to alloy with my wheel weight and soft lead. I spend way more time building boolits than I do shooting them! Retirement in a few years and I can't wait.
Just don't make the mistake of casting up so many when you first retire that all you can do is load and shoot for years after! Need to be able to savor the whole "end to end" experience.

I would suggest keeping all the linotype and individual letters in their current easily identifiable form. Made into an ingot it could be "anything" as it is one knows exactly what the alloy is. On the spacers I would melt them into one big batch. Even if I had to do more than one batch and cross mix ingots to make it a homogenous and consistent alloy. Send sample to member BNE for testing and you will know exactly what alloy you have from them.

Have seen spacer go from just a tin/lead alloy to close to mono type alloy. Have a bunch that came out as 1.5 times linotype alloy 6/18 instead of 4/12 so clearly the spacers can be really good, but also inconsistent. Making a really large batch allows you to have the entire supply of spacers be one consistent ingredient. Lot of consistent alloy is a big win whenever one is dealing with scrap lead.

[lightman]

Any type metal score is a good one! Congratulations!