Thin Linotype spacers?

[mtgrs737]

I got a box of linotype from a gent here on the forum and when I opened the box it contained a lot of the thin spacers. The ultra thin spacer strips seem to bend real easy, so I was wondering if the alloy of the spacers might be a softer material? But it could be that the thinness of the strips just allowed them to bend easily. Anyone here know the answer to this? I may cast up some slugs from the stips and then run a hardness test on them.

[damron g]

Dad worked on the Linotype machines and said the thin blanks were cast from Linotype.The bigger spacers were brass.

George

[deerslayer]

I am the Gent so if they are not right please let me know so I don't get or sell anymore. I was also told by a printer that they are cast from the same lino.

[Echo]

My (limited!) experience is that the thin spacers that bend easily are indeed lino. It's the harder alloys, like mono- or stereo-, that are really brittle.

[fecmech]

I bought 300lbs new of those spacers about 30 years ago, they will bend to a point and as the bend gets close to a 180 deg. angle they will snap.

[mtgrs737]

I bought 300lbs new of those spacers about 30 years ago, they will bend to a point and as the bend gets close to a 180 deg. angle they will snap.

Yep, that's them, I figured they were OK but I just wanted to confirm that the really thin ones that bend easily are indeed lino. No worries here, now.

[Lloyd Smale]

What i was told by a printer is this. they are linotype. MOst print shops had a machine that made them and they used the lead they had on hand. He also said that they were a good way to use up lead that had been reused many times and had lost a bit of its hardness so they make not be exactly as hard as the letters. But then again if all a printer had was reused monotype they could be harder.

[lwknight]

I smelted spacers and letters separately and both melted at the same temperature and both were eutectic. I dare to say by that that the alloy is the same.

[glicerin]

I bought 10 lb boxes of new spacers, believe they were cut to length as needed, and it would make sense that they were same alloy, to allow recycling as print.