And we thought "type cast" lead was almost gone ...

[Digger]

Like many here as we always are on the lookout for lead of various sorts ... type cast being one of the preferable ..
Here is a twist .. it is still being used for printing in San Fransisco of all things .
Came across an article about the company and what they do , it gives a general picture of their business and procedures at this point in time , only a pic or two but they show the machine also.
Here is the link to the article ..
Link:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-california-type-foundry-is-keeping-vintage-printing-alive?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[kevin c]

Neat stuff. I'm close enough that maybe I'll visit. Thanks for the link.

[mozeppa]

there's a place in indianapolis owned by a mr. churchman that has a hundred times what i saw in that link ....drawers floor to ceiling every place you could get them mostly mono type he has 2 type setting machines several hundred fonts , picture blocks, in dozens of point sizes, and type sets in 75 languages
including simplified chinese and japanese even latin! all this covering 100 'x 100 ' building ....must be in excess of 500 tons of lead type!

then he has 2 presses at his home with another 50 + tons of type that he uses constantly. he claims the largest collection of mono type and linotype in the world.

and sells type sets worldwide. his son also prints but not on the scale his dad does . churchy is in his early 80's and still works 2 day a week ...i fear he'll be gone soon then his son gets it all.

[Digger]

there's a place in indianapolis owned by a mr. churchman that has a hundred times what i saw in that link ....drawers floor to ceiling every place you could get them mostly mono type he has 2 type setting machines several hundred fonts , picture blocks, in dozens of point sizes, and type sets in 75 languages
including simplified chinese and japanese even latin! all this covering 100 'x 100 ' building ....must be in excess of 500 tons of lead type!

then he has 2 presses at his home with another 50 + tons of type that he uses constantly. he claims the largest collection of mono type and linotype in the world.

and sells type sets worldwide. his son also prints but not on the scale his dad does . churchy is in his early 80's and still works 2 day a week ...i fear he'll be gone soon then his son gets it all.

Wow ! , you should get some pics and elaborate a bit more on that for the members here if you could ...
Fascinating !

[mfraser264]

Great article, thanks for sharing it.

[lightman]

That would be cool to see! I briefly worked at a local paper years ago but they had gotten away from lead type way before that. One of the older printers showed me where they had several buckets of mixed type and I still have a lot of it.

[PbHurler]

Neat stuff. I'm close enough that maybe I'll visit. Thanks for the link.

Just leave cash, credit cards & checkbook at home :kidding:

[Slugster]

If the loons that run commiefornia see this there will be a midnight no knock raid to save the planet from the evil Pb.

Having said that, Wow.

The neighbor who lived on the block directly behind the house where I grew up ran a couple of type presses in his garage. Was really cool to watch the old Heidelbergs running. He got busted for printing some kind of gambling sheets and they confiscated his entire shops contents.
That was 55 years ago. The local Gendarms are probably still casting with his stuff.

[megasupermagnum]

there's a place in indianapolis owned by a mr. churchman that has a hundred times what i saw in that link ....drawers floor to ceiling every place you could get them mostly mono type he has 2 type setting machines several hundred fonts , picture blocks, in dozens of point sizes, and type sets in 75 languages
including simplified chinese and japanese even latin! all this covering 100 'x 100 ' building ....must be in excess of 500 tons of lead type!

then he has 2 presses at his home with another 50 + tons of type that he uses constantly. he claims the largest collection of mono type and linotype in the world.

and sells type sets worldwide. his son also prints but not on the scale his dad does . churchy is in his early 80's and still works 2 day a week ...i fear he'll be gone soon then his son gets it all.

Is that Monotype in that first picture? I've got about a half bucket of little flat sets of words like that. I always assumed they were Linotype for no particular reason.

[shdwlkr]

Decades ago while in college I was able to set at a Linotype machine and create type to be used in the college. We went through more lead then many places as we had 40 linotype machines, mostly because that was what most printing places used, newspapers, book publishing places, etc. anyone of you know what a lead pig is? used to be several palates stacked up for us

[dondiego]

Decades ago while in college I was able to set at a Linotype machine and create type to be used in the college. We went through more lead then many places as we had 40 linotype machines, mostly because that was what most printing places used, newspapers, book publishing places, etc. anyone of you know what a lead pig is? used to be several palates stacked up for us

I have about 20 of those pigs set aside from a local printer.

[bangerjim]

Type like that is still used in hot metal foil stamping for small to medium jobs. For large lobs they use lino-type format.

Hard metal type is still very alive and well! You guys have not melted it all down into boolits yet, and probably will never. Demand is too great for foil stamping on products, both individual and commercial printing.

I have 3 hot foil stamping machines I use for custom cards, boxes, and other letterpress type stuff. I can even print on pens and pencils. How do you think they emboss your name on stuff with gold foil?

I have over 55 full sets of font faces arranged in those long flat divided wooden drawers I use with those machines when needed. And at least 250 blocks of graphics from my old antique letter press machines.

Long live letter presses! They will outlive boolit melters/casters.

banger