Linotype score, but almost hate to melt them

[jonk]

Buddy of mine called. Buddy of his showed up at the range with 2 big half cylinder sheets of printing linotype, each weighing about 30 pounds. Total of 60 or so. My buddy doesn't cast but knows I do and sometimes I send some bullets his way if he finds me lead so he took a risk and bought the 60 pounds for $20.

He asks me if this is a good deal. Heck yeah, I would pay more than that for wheelweights! So he trades me the linotype for a pound of powder ( I had just bought an 8 lb jug of H335, which he uses) and the promise of a few bullets.

Thing is, these are the original New York Times headline rollers from June 28, 1978. Apparently the guy who sold them to my pal, well his dad worked for the times for years (and apparently has a bunch more of these half rolls). So I'm wondering, before I melt them, if there is any historical value to these things?

[imashooter2]

Ebay would tell you if they're lead or collector's items.

[jonk]

Ebay would tell you if they're lead or collector's items.

There's nothing like them on ebay, nor do I even know what to call them really. I know what they were used for, and what they're made of, but is there a term for these things specifically?

[Cowboy T]

Yes. Rifle boolit material. :-D

[southpaw]

First I would concern myself with getting the rest of the lead off of your friends friend. That is a pretty good price, I would buy all he has or all I could afford which ever came first.

I can't help with what it might be called but I wouldn't smelt the lino down unless you don't have the room to keep in whole. when you decide on an alloy you can smelt it with it them.

Jerry Jr.

[madsenshooter]

Give use a pic, to my limited knowledge, lino wasn't used on cylinders, it went on flatbed presses.

[lwknight]

I second the priority on getting the rest of it then you can decide if there is any value other than good sweetener material.

[jsizemore]

So what's historic about 1978 other then the economy was in the tank, gas was high and the dems blame the nations problems on the previous republican administration?

[eveready]

The half cylinders you've got could well be monotype not linotype. These half cylinders were used on web presses to print newspapers before offset printing was the way to go. If they are monotype they should be harder than lino.

[zuke]

Post one on EBAY and see what happen's.
PM me the link and I'll make sure it doesn't go for less then what you paid.

[bruce381]

So what's historic about 1978 other then the economy was in the tank, gas was high and the dems blame the nations problems on the previous republican administration?

wait is that not what they are doing now

[Frank46]

The half cylinder sheets could be either steryotype or monotype. Way to good just to melt down into boolits. You could very well mix it half and half with just lead and extend your supply. Frank

[Bloodman14]

In 1978 I was in the 4th grade; melt 'em.

[Suo Gan]

I vote to Boolitize those suckers.

[madsenshooter]

Stereotype most likely. Stereotype has a composition of 7%Sn, 15%Sb, 78%Pb and a BHN of 23. This composition is very close to lead-based babbitts.

[Elkins45]

wait is that not what they are doing now

No, gas is relatively cheap now:mrgreen:

Linotype was cast in single lines that were clamped in a frame. I've never seen what you're talking about, but the very name 'monotype' implies that the pages were cast in to a single unit. I agree that eBay would find the value, but unless something important happened on that day I'm not sure anybody would be interested. I know if they were mine they would become 30 caliber rifle boolets.

[madsenshooter]

No, gas is relatively cheap now:mrgreen:

Linotype was cast in single lines that were clamped in a frame. I've never seen what you're talking about, but the very name 'monotype' implies that the pages were cast in to a single unit. I agree that eBay would find the value, but unless something important happened on that day I'm not sure anybody would be interested. I know if they were mine they would become 30 caliber rifle boolets.

Mono, meant single letters I believe. Checking around, stereotype was what newpapers still using the letterpress system back then were using. Monotype is a two-part machine: a keyboard for the punching of a paper tape that is transferred to a caster, providing the directions for casting individual pieces of type, just like handset type. No doubt it'd make great high velocity bullets, I use some Stonewall Babbitt that is similar, except it has about .5% Cu also, it's good for 2450, as high as I've had it thus far. Straight stereo may be somewhat brittle.

[Nose Dive]

Melt it...pour it out...load it up...have fun...

Nose Dive

[onesonek]

wait is that not what they are doing now

Some things just never change,,,,no matter how much they preach it!
Dave

[fryboy]

my first one happened to be the date one of my buddies was born .... i kept telling him to run off a copy before i melted it ....he never did [shrugz] nor would he replace it so into the pot it went , mine seemed high antimony ( the oatmeal slush took alot of heat to mix ) but yes sir lots of good boolits can be made out of it , i break them with a hammer into chunks that fit in the smelting pot

[Fugowii]

Give use a pic, to my limited knowledge, lino wasn't used on cylinders, it went on flatbed presses.

Nope, lead half cylinders were used on rotary presses. Lino would have been used.

[cajun shooter]

The large single block letters are monotype, at least that is what I was told when I was given a bucket of them. It is too hard to make good bullets as they are very brittle.

[casterofboolits]

The plates are sterotype plates used in rotary printing presses. Linotype was used to produce a galley. The galley was then put in a press with a fiberous sheet and impresed by the galley. This sheet was put into a special molding machine and the curved plate cast. The plate was then transfered to a special milling machine that cut on a curve to releave the areas between columns.

I was assigned to Pacific Stars and Stripes in Tokyo from 61 to 65 as a USAF photographer, every spring the Japanese employees went on strike and the EM's filled in for them. Two of the years I made sterotype plates, the other two I drove 2 1/2 ton stake trucks to deliver papers to the bases and housing areas.

I wish to heck I had all the linotype and sterotype that was in that room. The sterotype plate machine pot held a 1,000 pounds!! [smilie=w:[smilie=w:[smilie=w:

[Ilwil]

You have stereotype lead, harder than linotype, still harder than monotype. It was used until about 25 years ago in the pressrooms of the big daily papers. (I ran the linotype pot for the composing room of a Seattle paper for a couple years while I went to school. It has to be the rarest of all, but I doubt it could have any historical value; much better to be used as an alloy mixer.

[David2011]

I think the large individual letters are called Foundry Type was used for headlines. At 15% tin and 23% antimony it's considerably harder and more brittle than monotype which is 8% tin and 16% antimony. Monotype is small individual letters which were retrieved from storage tracks when the operator typed that character and set in rows. After the print job was finished the letters, due to individually unique profiles, were returned to their individual storage slots in tracks that would only accept that one profile to wait for the next time they were needed. Linotype was kept molten in the typesetting machine and cast on the fly as the operator typed the character. In 1976 I had a college professor in a communications class explain that computer typesetting was a fad that would pass and hot set type would prevail. Glad I didn't take any stock market tips from him!

David

[zxcvbob]

If it's monotype (if I recall correctly) you mix if half and half with soft lead to make linotype -- it is linotype concentrate.