Monotype question

[nonferrous]

I hate to admit it, but I do not know what Monotype is.
I have about 50 pounds of Linotype in the shop and it pretty much looks like it's name, a line of type, cast on one stick.
I would assume that Monotype would be one letter or symbol cast on one piece of lead, at least this is what I hope it is. These then would be lined up in the press to make words.
Am I close to being correct?

Thanks

[cabezaverde]

You done good. Monotype is usually large letters, like that used in headlines.

Individual small letters is foundry type.

[Shiloh]

That is my understanding as well.

Monotype was used for very large print in single characters. EXTRA at the top of the page in the extra editions of newspapers was one use. These editions were for commemorating extraordinary events and/or disasters.

The higher antimony and tin helped fill-out and the extra hardness for holding the edges of the large letters.

I have never come across any of this metal, just heard about it.

Shiloh

[sagamore-one]

I work in a print shop and we refer to single letters of type as mono and lines of type as lino , or ludlow. Lead type is now obsolete in our shop and I took all the left over alloy off the owner's hands at 20 cents per pound. He was happy to not have to deal with recycling the " hazardous" material.
There is a real difference in the alloy of each when it is fresh, but continual re - melting causes the alloys to appear quite similar as far as cast boolits are concerned. Still... great stuff.

[cabezaverde]

Boy, does this bring back memories. I used to be good at hand setting type in a "stick".

I can still read upside down and backwards almost as well as the regular way. A great sales skill when you are sitting across the desk from a purchasing person.

[bobthenailer]

about 5 years ago i bought 150 lb of monotype its about twice as hard as linotype when testing on a lbt bullet hardness tester lino 20 bhn , mono 37 bhn

[nonferrous]

Thanks for the info, I kind of thought that was what it was. I used to like to say that "even a blind Squirrel finds an Acorn once in a While".
I was at lunch yesterday with some friends and mentioned that if anyone had any connections with a tire shop, I could use some wheelweights. Someone asked why, I told them that I needed casting lead and that they were becoming hard to find.
A longtime friend told me to follow him home and he had some lead that I could have. I was just going to look at it because I was on my bike and I didn't want to lug it, when I saw it, I knew that I didn't want to leave it behind. I have a Harley Ultra and thats big, but 50 pounds in each saddlebag was a load. The letters are about 1" tall, each casting is a very nice piece of work, almost too nice to melt down.
I couldn't help but think about how much the Die cost for each letter, I used to work in that industry.
Anyway, I have about 250 pounds of pure collected and I had been wondering what I was going to alloy it with, this should do it. Now I have many lunches and cocktails to buy.
Thanks again for the help

[454PB]

You may want to check out this thread:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=61115

[nonferrous]

Thank you 454PB,
That thread really puts a point on the subject of foundry type, it's very helpful. It's interesting that all that lead was sold by a scrap dealer for .15 cents in 2009.
Last spring our gun club contracted with a lead reclaiming company, they mined the Trap and Skeet fields and removed about 80'000 pounds of spent shot. They hauled in their own machinery and a crew worked at it for a couple of weeks. The Club got about .40 cents a pound cash for that very dirty scrap lead. And the Mining company was glad to pay it. It had to cost a fortune to extract it.
I and a few others bought a few pounds to try reloading it and by the time it was washed and cleaned it worked out to about 10% loss because of dirt and trash.
Anyway, it's curious that a scrap dealer would not know the market price of lead, I can't find one.

Thanks again

[squid1230]

I was at lunch yesterday with some friends and mentioned that if anyone had any connections with a tire shop, I could use some wheelweights. Someone asked why, I told them that I needed casting lead and that they were becoming hard to find.
A longtime friend told me to follow him home and he had some lead

I've often thought of the "networking" approach because you never know who someone knows. I have never dared to bring up lead because I live in Liberal infested Ontario and would be escorted from the restaurant if I mentioned lead or shooting. My think of doing it discreetly though. Good find - kudos!

[nonferrous]

Squid,
Lately I have been mentioning the search for casting lead whenever it fits into the conversation among friends. I am a kind of a string saver, but a lot of people can't stand to have stuff sitting around, it must be a bad gene that they picked up from some ancestor.
Anyway, it cant hurt and so far I have picked up dive weights, a can of shot, a can of fishing weights and a 50 pound ingot of mystery metal that melted around 650 that I suspect was part of a boat keel, not to mention the Monotype.
Somehow, the growing shortage of cheap or free lead seems to have added another dimension to the hobby. It must be like when a collector finds an old "I Like Ike" pin or something.

Get it out there, you might be surprised.

[475/480]

I have some mono, lino and WW.
WW- BHN 12-14
Lino is BHN 21
Mono is BHN 28
I also have what I think to be lead insulaters for electrical lines - BHN 8
Someone said there mono was BHN 37 ,that seems a LOT to high.


Sean

[largom]

I have some mono, lino and WW.
WW- BHN 12-14
Lino is BHN 21
Mono is BHN 28
I also have what I think to be lead insulaters for electrical lines - BHN 8
Someone said there mono was BHN 37 ,that seems a LOT to high.


Sean

I also have Lino and Mono. My Lino checks out at 21 to 22 and the Mono at 28 to 29.
Larry

[mpmarty]

Interesting; I've got close to 500 pounds of mono and have never tested its' hardness. Guess I'll dig out some samples and check it out. I'll post what I find later today.

I have both the letters as I got them and some ingots I smelted. I'll check both.

[mpmarty]

OK this is interesting;

The monotype letters, probably twenty or thirty years old tested 29.9 BHN
The ingot cast smelted from these just a few weeks ago tested at 20 +- BHN

Anybody got any ideas what's going on? I am pretty sure the ingot is pure mono metal without any ww added.

[blaster]

This is what Lyman says about Mono
Alloy Lead Tin Antimony BHN
Monotype 72 9 19 28

[zomby woof]

Here's what I'm calling Monotype. It's hard as a rock. Makes a great pot sweetner.

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/100_2994.jpg

[9.3X62AL]

I cut in foundry type 6:1 with WW metal to get roughly 92/6/2 alloy, and monotype 8:1 gets about the same result. Lino/lead @ 50/50 gives 92/6/2, AKA Taracorp alloy.

[Ian Robertson]

Most of what you guys are calling monotype it actually foundry type. There is actually very little monotype around and it is normally in small sizes. Headline type is virtually always foundry type.

[nonferrous]

That would be a good thing. I read somewhere that Foundry type is even richer in Tin and Antimony than Monotype.