Metal strips in buckets of linotype.

[MGySgt]

Mixed into the linotype buckets I bought are not linotype.
The strips are of varying length but real thin. They bend without breaking. They are the same width as the type metal.
Any one have an idea of what type of metal they are?
I thought they might be tin.

[Winger Ed.]

Kinda hard to say without seeing them and recognizing what they may have been intended for.

A quickie way to get a good idea is if you have a thermometer, watch what temperature they melt at.
A search for 'metal melting points', click---images, and all sorts of charts pop right up.

[Fritz D]

There is a very good chance those strips (called leading) are linotype alloy. I own a small printing company and used to operate a Linotype in the 70s/80s. I regularly had to use leading to adjust the spacing between the lines of type. Some years ago, I replied to a similar post and at that time, I contacted the company where I used to purchase my leading. I asked them specifically what type of alloy they used to manufacture the strips . . . they told me they used linotype alloy.

[imashooter2]

The strips are spacers. They are made of whatever was convenient. Often depleted Lino, but nothing is certain.

[Rickf1985]

When I worked in printing and did typesetting by hand those were the spacers used between the lines of type and they were plain soft lead. We seldom used the linotype machine to make spacers since it was a waste of linotype lead and really just a waste of time when we had galleys full of spacers and just about any print shop that did manual typesetting had packages of spacer leads in all of the thicknesses from 1 pt. up to 18 pt.. The packages were 3 or 4 foot long pieces? Been just a little while since I did that soo hard to remember. :groner: There was a cutter just for cutting them to lengths you needed.

[MGySgt]

Here is a picture of the meal strips. They do not melt when they are in the pot with molten linotype.

[kevin c]

They don’t melt sitting in molten lino? Strange. Doesn’t seem to be type metal after all. Even more so not tin. Maybe aluminum?

Just about all the boolit caster friendly metals and alloys will melt in a propane torch flame (though a sizable chunk will act as a heat sink and take longer). You could try that (not over your pot) with each strip to see if they’re all the same and whether any might be salvageable type metal spacers.

[KenT7021]

The strips I've seen appear to be steel.They certainly didn't melt.

[Stig]

I have had the same experience with these thin strips of metal. I can not say for sure that all of the wont melt, but I fish out quite a few every time I melt down some lino. This is lino from Norway

[MGySgt]

I have about 25 to 30 pounds of them.
I guess they will go in my recycle group. I still have to collect more before I take them to make it worth while. I guess I need to check them with a magnet.

[bangerjim]

DO NOT assume the strip (leading) spacers are anything but a rather soft lead. They did not need to be hard like the type faces that pounded the paper thousands and thousands of times. They only held the spaces between the rows of type when the printer's devil set the type. I have three old antique presses and dozens and dozens of full COMPLETE type faces (6pt to 120pt) to go with them. The hundreds of leading strips I have are soft lead (6-7 hardness). Nothing compared with the mono and foundry type letters I use to actually print with. Print houses many times made their own extruded leading strips and used anything lying around & it went into the pot.

You can count on the hardness of mono and foundry type but not the strips of leading. Even lino can vary greatly, depending on if it is depleted of Sn or not. Treat strips as softer lead. Or in later days they I guess they did use steel. Never seen any in my MANY years of dealing with settable type.

[Rickf1985]

Those you picture are common lead spacers and are soft lead. Keep in mind that soft lead melts at a higher temp than linotype. Quite a bit higher. If you run your temp up to 650 they will melt in just fine.

[MGySgt]

Those you picture are common lead spacers and are soft lead. Keep in mind that soft lead melts at a higher temp than linotype. Quite a bit higher. If you run your temp up to 650 they will melt in just fine.

If they were pure lead, wouldn't they have turned grey? Plus I can't just rip them in half.

[kevin c]

When you said they bend without breaking, is there any spring back? I’d expect that in steel, where soft lead would stay deformed. Steel also wouldn’t be easily scratched, and, unless it’s stainless, should get up close and personal with a magnet.

[Rickf1985]

There are steel strips, They are either perforation strips for putting perforations on the paper you are printing or cutters for cutting. I did a lot of that with label printing. They are .918" high and they are black steel, very springy and hard to permanently bend. What you show in that picture is definitely lead spacer, I can tell just from the color and pattern on the side. They are also the soft lead from the foundry and not the linotype, again, from the pattern.

[imashooter2]

They are spacers and they are made of anything convenient. Guessing what is just that. Guessing.

[MGySgt]

Well they are not steel, unless they are stainless. But there is no spring back when they are bent. I

[bangerjim]

Well they are not steel, unless they are stainless. But there is no spring back when they are bent. I

I would not worry about it. Some print shop found some strips of metal that were perfect size and height/width for leading spacers and used them.

[salpal48]

Those are spacers when used to make columns on the type design on any place the Lino Operator needs them. The length Varies but width is constant to match the galley . They are mot made to be remelted but cut and sent to scrap when finished

[MGySgt]

They do melt by using a torch. I have to wait a few days before I can fire up my smelter due to weather and other things going on.

I will make a few ingots and then see if it will blend with pure lead.

[kevin c]

Then not steel. I’ve managed to melt an aluminum alloy bar on my 1100 watt hot plate (by neglectful accident; I was lucky it wasn’t a mold) so I guess that’s still in the running, but high melt point soft lead spacer strips, as suggested by Rickf1985, Salpal48 and the other wise heads commenting in the thread, seem more and more likely.

[MGySgt]

Well I didn't wait, I used a 2 quart cast iron pot on a hot plate.
Best I can tell they melt a little over 460 degrees and solidify about 400 degrees.
I poured 4 ingots in my Lyman ignot mold.
I have ingots in the same mold from WW with 2 percent lead free solder and linotype. I will check the weight and hardness in a few days.

[MGySgt]

Mystery strips solved. They are linotype. I took 1 ignot from WW+2% tin, Linotype, and the mystery strips.

All were poured in a Lyman mold.
WW+2% 1.17 pounds, BRN = 14
Linotype 14.8 ounces, BRN = 22
Mystery 14.5 ounces, BRN = 22

I don't know about anyone else, but all the ignots I pour are not exactly the same so the different between the linotype and mystery metal is null and void.

Thank you to everyone that replied to this thread. I gained some knowledge.