This is a quick look at the collection of stuff which constitutes the physical side of the "Circuitous Root Typefoundry and Press." I intend this present document/webpage to be a place where my friends, old and new, can see what it is that I've got.
I should note first of all that I am not a printer. This is an important note, since I've started to associate with many fine printers who, kindly, assume that I, too, am a printer. I'm not. This isn't simply because I've not printed much and consequently am not a very good printer (which is true), but more importantly because I don't think like a printer and am not driven by printing qua printing. A printer thinks always in terms of the printed sheet. I think always in terms of the physical type and machinery with which the printing is done.
I'm not a printer. I'm a collector of heavy old machines. My goal is to become a linecaster operator (Linotype/Intertype/Ludlow; Elrod), a linecaster mechanic, and perhaps to some degree a typefounder and a punchcutter. I want to learn how to run the machines, and to maintain and repair them. I want to be able to do, with my own hands, all of the things necessary to make physical letterpress printing type in every one of the ways in which it has been made. Most importantly, I want to document all of this while the knowledge still exists, to share it with other enthusiasts and to preserve it into the future.
To me, a printing type is more beautiful as a three-dimensional cast metal object than as its (mostly) two-dimensional impression on paper.
I'm also not even a very experienced non-printer. While I've been interested in type for some time, I made the mistake of thinking that type had something to do with computers (my family has been involved with computers since the 1950s, so this mistake is perhaps understandable). It wasn't until 2008, when I was 46 years old, that I became seriously interested in real type.
I call this workshop a "typefoundry and press" because in it I do in fact cast relief printing type (although presently as slugs from linecasters, not as individual types for handsetting; calling it a "slugfoundry" just wouldn't convey this, though) and because typefounding is more important to me than printing.
Anyway, here are the larger bits and pieces which make up the shop. Many of the photographs are of machines in transit. This accurately reflects the shop, because I'm still very much in the process of setting it up. I haven't settled in yet. You won't see here a nice overall view of the shop laid out for efficient production. It isn't. The working machines are all crammed into my garage, along with a lathe, a metalworking shaper, and a tractor. There's some overflow storage in the barn, and the typemetal is stored in a shed. This is not optimal. Indeed, it's barely workable (but is workable!) You do what you can with what you have, and this is what I have.
I have five "composing linecasters" (machines where you sit at a keyboard and compose type which is then cast as complete lines). Two of them are Linotypes, one is an Intertype (a Linotype clone), and one is a curious hybrid that is both a Linotype and an Intertype. I love them all; there is no better machine.
It might perhaps be good to keep in mind that the Linotype was developed in the late 1880s. My oldest machine was built in 1912, when Taft was president of the U.S. Yet all four of them were in commercial service through the first years of the 21st century.
The Model X is a fascinating hybrid. It is my oldest linecaster. It began life as Linotype s/n 15,527 in the first half of 1912 (model as yet undetermined). At some point after 1916 it was obtained from the field by the Intertype Corporation and "modernized" with Intertype parts. They renamed it a Model X. Basically, the main motor, the pot, and most of what you can see from the front of the machine are Intertype, while the base machine underneath remains a Linotype. It takes (two) Intertype magazines (but is not a mixer). It has a 2-mold disk. It does not have a quadder. It was one of the first two linecasters I acquired, in late 2008.
Both Linotype and Intertype "upgraded" machines from the field in this way, although Linotype only upgraded Linotypes, while Intertype upgraded both Linotypes and Intertypes. The Model X takes standard Intertype 90-channel magazines, but the Magazine Frame mechanism used is unique to the Model X (and quite different from the standard Intertype mechanism).
This machine is down pending restoration. That restoration shouldn't be too difficult, as the basic machine isn't in bad shape. It did come with two lovely brass Intertype magazines which had been stored escapement-down in a damp location, so their escapements are ruined. I hope to rebuild these (if you have Intertype escapement parts available, let me know!) I have much later "Visilite" Intertype magazines which fit it just fine, though.
The Linotype Model 5E, Serial Number 56,571, was made at the height of World War II, in 1944. It is 2,800 pounds of then-precious cast iron which was made into a Linotype rather than an aircraft engine or tank armor. It is as important as any preserved "warbird" or other artefact of that struggle. Like all Model 5 Linotypes, it has one magazine and can cast lines up to 30 picas long. This particular model has a 4-mold disk, a mold cooling blower, a later Type G (Universal Comet) style electric pot with Micro-Therm C5 controls, and a Linotype Manually Operated Hydraquadder. I acquired it along with the Model 29 (see below) in mid-2009 from the Lynn Card Company of Hutchinson, MN. The folks at Lynn Card are to be commended for their efforts to see that this historic wartime machine was preserved.
As of mid 2010, this machine is nominally "UP" in the sense that I can assemble and distribute lines, and cast slugs from them. It still needs a bit of fine tuning, though.
As I write this, I just acquired this machine in a rescue operation. We had to disassemble it quite a bit just to get it out of the building. It is DOWN, pending reassembly. [NO PHOTOS YET]
The Linotype Model 29, s/n 67,313 from 1956, was acquired with the Model 5. A thoroughly modern machine, there's even a vacuum tube lurking inside it. A Model 29 Linotype is a "mixer" machine capable of composing from two magazines simultaneously. They were manufactured with a capacity of up to four magazines, but mine is set up for only two. This machine is a 30 Em machine (30 pica maximum line length), with a 4-mold disk, mold cooling blower, Type G (Universal Comet) electric pot with Micro-Therm C4 controls, a Linotype Electrically Controlled Hydraquadder, and the Electromatic Safety feature.
I'm cheating a bit with this photograph. This is my Model 29, but it isn't shown in my shop. This is the machine as it appeared at the Lynn Card Company before I acquired it. The only difference is that here it is in a spacious, tidy shop run by a family of meticulous former Air Force pilots. I used to fly ratty old fabric-covered sailplanes in the high desert. Big difference :-)
Prior to their acquisition by the Lynn Card Company, both the Model 5 and Model 29 had been in service at the Dahl & Curry firm of advertising typographers in Minneapolis.
At present this machine is down, but it probably works. All I need to do is to rewire it for delta 3-phase.
The Intertype C4 is my only "pure" Intertype. It is a "Universal Base" machine from 1967, Machine No. 35,067 (it's younger than me!) It is a 30-Em 4-magazine nonmixer. Four molds, mold cooling blower, no quadder.
This machine is down pending some pretty significant restoration. As acquired, the entire structure supporting the magazines and Distributor had been removed (as shown in the left photo, above; it doesn't look much like a linecaster here). I got most of the parts for this, but not all of them. (I'm missing the Distributor Shifter and the two plates which hold the Magazine Frames together at the front, at least.) At present, I've reassembled most of the "superstructure" (not the official term for it), as shown in the right photo, above. One of the Magazine Frames is, indeed, cracked, but probably not in a disabling way. Still, I'm waiting until I can find replacements for the missing tie plates before I continue.
I have three Ludlow Typograph Machines, which are "noncomposing typecasters" (meaning you assemble a line of type matrices (molds, sort of) by hand and then it casts a single line/slug from them). The Linotype/Intertype machines are good for fast composition of text at ordinary sizes, but cannot handle display sizes well. The Ludlow is slow, but can handle very large display type. It is also a remarkably simple, durable machine.
This is the most recently acquired Ludlow. It was a kind gift from Paul Aken of the Platen Press Museum. It's a gas-fired model, and should run just fine once I re-orifice it for propane. It is DOWN pending that. [NO PHOTOS YET]
The Ludlow Model L came as along for the ride when I got my second Elrod, way up in Thunder Bay, Canada, in November of 2009. It is s/n 10,571, from 1957; electric crucible. It presently casts, but won't deliver the cast slug.
The Ludlow Model M is the newer machine, s/n 16,615 from 1966. (For Ludlow junkies, this means no rear table latch but still spring-loaded lockup.) Electric crucible. I do not have the external refrigerated cooling unit for this machine, and have instead rigged up an external cooling tank and pump. I acquired it in Feburary 2008 in Duluth, MN (yes, February in Duluth). It is operational, but needs some tuning (I'm getting flashing on the slugs, and they have poor bottom trim.)
I have two of these. Both probably work, but I've only fired up one of them (the newer one, s/n 3211, from Thunder Bay). It works splendidly.
I've heard it said that one of the few remaining linecaster dealers calls the Supersurfacer "the hardest machine in the world to sell." I admit that it is a specialized machine, but it's such a nice specialized machine that I have a hard time understanding why this is so. It is designed to use a special rotary milling cutter to mill just a tiny bit off of the surface of wider Ludlow slugs (as it is difficult to cast them with perfect surfaces). The slug's surface as it comes off of the Supersurfacer is just beautiful - like a mirror. If you have a Ludlow, you need a Supersurfacer. Everyone needs a Ludlow. Therefore, everyone needs a Supersurfacer. It's just logical.
I got this Supersurfacer, a rather early one which is s/n 133, along with the gas Elrod E (s/n E4129G). Here it is on the truck coming home. The Ludlow cabinet to the right is a rather old style flat-topped cabinet.
I got this Supersurfacer, s/n 3211, in Thunder Bay, along with the electric Elrod E (s/n 3463), the electric Ludlow L (s/n 10,571), and the EasyKaster EK-5C (s/n 5780). In the first photo it's still in Thunder Bay. In the second, it's about to come off the truck at home. Generally I dislike pallets for machinery, but for something as (relatively) light as a Supersurfacer this one worked quite well.
This is an odd little machine, intended as a part of the "Hot Metal Paste-Up" system marketed jointly by Ludlow and Hammond Machinery Builders. I've got most of one (someone had, for no discernable reason, begun to disassemble it at some point; I think I have most, perhaps all, of the parts).
I have two Elrod stripcasters, made by the Ludlow Typograph Company. The Elrod is a remarkable machine. All other typecasting machines are "die casting" machines where you have a metal mold of fixed size into which you inject molten typemetal under pressure (indeed, typecasting machines were the first die casting machines, historically). The Elrod is a continuous stripcaster. Molten typemetal sits in a pot on one side and passes through a water-cooled mold. It solidifies into a strip of material which is pulled out continuously (and cut off to length automatically). This is 21st century technology invented in 1917.
The Elrod casts only strips of typemetal. These may be the non-printing "leads" used to separate lines of type, or the printing "rule" used to create visible lines in print. It cannot cast patterned borders, however, since the strip is pulled through the mold which creates it.
As if to compensate for this limitation, the Elrod has a remarkable advantage. By design, air is excluded entirely from the casting process. With a properly-run Elrod there cannot be casting porosity. This is enough to make any caster's eyes light up with excitement.
The electric Elrod is a Model E, s/n 3463 from 1953. It came from a printing shop in Thunder Bay, Canada. I've not yet run it, but with a few minor fixes it should be operational. I did manage to get a bunch of starter strips with it, which will be handy. (In hot metal terminology, "a bunch" means, here, 214 pounds. Hot metal shifts one's perspective.)
Note that the strap around the machine in the photo above is cinched quite loosely. It's just sheet metal on the front, and easy to bend.
The gas Elrod is also a Model E, s/n E4129G, from 1956. It came with a huge Monomelt (an external hot-metal feeder, which premelts typemetal and drips it into the main crucible). It is a restoration project, having been through two garage fires at its previous owners', after it was taken out of service by a still earlier owner. It is presently in storage in the barn.
I'm scowling more than usual in the photo at left. In part this is because I lose all sense of humor when rigging. In part it's because I had just done something very stupid and almost lost the Elrod off the back of the truck because I was using the liftgate and not, as shown here, my tractor. I will never again try to use a liftgate to unload an Elrod-weight object from a truck when I have my tractor available.
I have two EasyKaster machines, built by Hammond Machinery Builders. These were designed as low-volume flat stereotype plate casters which could also be used to cast ingots ("pigs") for feeding linecasting/typecasting machines. I expect to use them mostly for casting pigs, although it would be fun to cast a stereotype plate someday.
While I have done pig casting at a friend's shop, on his equipment, both of my EasyKasters are currently (winter 2009/2010) in storage in the barn awaiting restoration. Casting ingots is a springtime project.
EasyKaster Model EK-5B, s/n 4502, gas. In what seems like a very long time ago now, it's shown here in my pickup truck as it was being unloaded. This is 2008. I didn't actually reassemble it until November 2009. This is a gas-fired machine, which at present is set up for natural gas. I still haven't re-orificed the gas jets (I'll have to use LP gas (Liquified Petroleum Gas, which in North America is mostly propane) with it). I got a couple of long ingot molds and a short ingot mold. This unit doesn't have a Pig Caster (the casting table that the molds sit upon when in use).
EasyKaster Model EK-5C, s/n 5780, electric. In the first two photos, it's still in Thunder Bay. I got the long ingot molds, but not the short ingot mold. The Pig Caster (that's its official name; the casting table which the molds are sitting on) is in this case not an actual Hammond Pig Caster but rather a shop-made addition. We disassembled it for transport (using a forklift on the Thunder Bay end). In the third photo, I'm reassembling it at home. The smaller part (on the tractor's forks here) is by far the heavier - the melting pot filled with typemetal.
This unit is known not to work; it won't melt down when powered up.
A hot metal type shop is a machine shop for type as well as a typefoundry. A pure handset letterpress printer can get away with no more than a rule cutter, but slugline composition really requires one or more printers' saws. A power type miterer is also nice. These I have.
I do not yet have the simpler but more general hand type miterer. Neither do I have the Rouse Type Mortiser. I don't have a type router and/or planer, or in general any of the equipment which really characterized stereotype operations. You might think that with over 10 tons of machinery so far I'd have everything, but this is hardly the case.
[I must take a group picture of them]
I have, at present, most of four of the fairly common Rouse "American" style of slugcutter (I say "most of four" because none of the four is both complete and completely working). At some point I need to reassemble parts from these into one complete working unit. The one on the left above (with Hello Kitty®) was free with the Ludlow M in Duluth (February, 2009) It has broken parts, but cuts well. The one on the right came from Thunder Bay in November 2009. It is more complete, but the cutting mechanism is worn beyond usability. I picked up another at the Mt. Pleasant Printers' Fair (2008), and I can't even recall where I got the fourth.
I'm sure the two Rouse Type Miterers work, but haven't yet had the need to run them (and as a result the pictures I have of them aren't very good).
The serial numbers of these two machines are curiously close. I did get them in different shops - indeed, these shops were in different countries. However, these shops were relatively close to each other (Duluth and Thunder Bay), so this might not be as accidental as one might think.
I would like to have a type mortiser, but they're very scarce indeed. However, the second generation of the Rouse Type Mortiser was reengineered to share most of its parts with the Rouse Vertical Miterer. Someday I may adapt one of these Miterers to be a Mortiser. (Of course, I have a long list of projects which begin "Someday...")
Acquired in Duluth in February 2009.
Acquired in Thunder Bay in November 2009. This isn't a very flattering photo of it; it's sitting on a pallet in the shop in Thunder Bay. Underneath the dust, it's really very nice. It's also much heavier than it looks.
The best printers' saw I have is the Hammond Glider. It is in the shop, awaiting power (3-phase delta).
In the photo above, it's shown just before I acquired it, in Duluth. I've since acquired the "Tool Board" for a similar saw, and have almost all of the accessories for it
The C&G/Morrison saw ran when I got it in late 2008. However, the motor didn't spin up when I last tried it; I think I got some rust preventative in it. Otherwise it's in good shape, but in storage in the barn as I've got a Hammond Glider.
The Miller came with the first two linecasters in 2008. I lack most of the accessories for it (though I have managed to find the workholding clamp, such as it isn't). It may also be missing many of its original parts, as it looks as if it is a model designed originally with an overarm for operations such as plate routing; this was not present as acquired. It is a restoration project.
I have one platen "jobbing" press and two small proof presses. Not a Vandercook or a Kelsey in sight.
The Chandler & Price 10x15 New Series "Gordon Style" jobbing press will be the shop's main press, once I return it to operation. It is s/n C50291, from 1911 (the first year of manufacture for this model, which started with s/n C50100; mine might be the 192nd such press made). It's actually in pretty good shape. It needs new rollers and one new gripper. I've replaced its treadle (missing) and removed its add-on motor; ideally I should make a treadle hook of proper length, too, but right now I'm improvising.
The photo above was taken just after I'd reskidded it onto proper, substantial skids. (It had been on a pallet. This is a 1500 pound press; such a heavy machine should never be on a pallet.) It had been motorized, with a pulley over the flywheel. I'm not going to run it under power, so I've removed this much later motor. It has a flywheel brake (not shown here and, indeed, not yet reinstalled). I have found an original treadle for it. I have the original long ink fountain for it, but the ink fountain had been removed many years ago and stored in the damp; it is rusted solid. The feedboard may or may not be original, and is a bit rickety. It is shown removed and upside-down here.
I acquired this machine with the Model X and C4 in 2008. It had been in production continuously from 1911 to the early 21st century. It will be in operation again by the time it turns 100.
The Chandler & Price Galley Proof Press (of the "free-roller" style) is perhaps the simplest and most reliable machine in the shop. I should make a proper galley substitute plate for it. Someday I think I'll make a tympan and frisket assembly for it so that I can do proper registration on it (several folks have done similar things for their proof presses). But as-is, it works just fine.
This press came from Jim Doletzky in Michigan. In the photo shown here, it's just done the first printing in my shop. The printing is pretty poor, but the press is beautiful. I haven't found a serial number on it, but this style of press was marketed from 1889 through at least 1923.
The Nolan No. 1 proof press came along with the Ludlow M. I'm sure it would work if I were to use it, but right now I haven't. I may move it down to the library for proofing pied sorts.
Speaking of the library, I do have a Multigraph there. I have yet to use it, although it was actually my first press (I've had it for well over a decade).
It's hard to get involved with this without picking up various other relief printing machines, such as Addressographs (three so far), and so forth. I list these on the Presses page, but real printers would scoff at them. I do not.
I've got four no-name (but nicely built) racks for Linotype magazines. Three of these come with nice drawer units which store spare parts, and are in the shop. The fourth doesn't match and is in storage in the barn. At present, I've got about 23 Linotype magazines ("Model 5" style 90-channel). I could use more.
As to Intertype magazines, I've only got a minimal set: four full-length Visilite magazines, one Visilite half split, and two nonfunctional full-length brass magazines. I don't have any Intertype magazine racks at all (and the Intertype magazines won't fit into my Linotype magazine racks).
As to matrices (Linotype-compatible and Ludlow), see the Matrices at the CircuitousRoot Typefoundry Notebook. I have a tiny, tiny collection of handset type; see Type at the CircuitousRoot Press Notebook. I don't really want to buy much more type - I want to learn how to make it!
What else...? A Honig Rule Broach. Three Ewald Plunger Cleaners. A Reid Plunger Cleaner. Most of the many tools necessary to keep the linecasters going. A machine for patterning the surface of slugs, and another machine for "knurling" slugs to increase their height. A big old Hamilton imposing table with a stone surface (but the stone is far too chipped to be used as an imposing stone). This is in storage in the barn. We're up to 8 Ludlow cabinets now, but only two of them are holding Ludlow mats. (They're very handy general-purpose cabinets.) Three and a half banks of galley racks. One Linotype matrix cabinet. A Saranac wire stitcher (rusted restoration project).
... and as many parts as I can get my hands on. When keeping an antiquarian technology alive, parts are essential.
... and something over a ton of typemetal, counting what is inaccessible in the pots of nonworking machines.
Experienced printers will note that I am missing one essential machine: a printer's paper cutter. I'm also short on binding equipment.
After a while it becomes impossible to estimate total weights, but it is not unreasonable to come to a figure of somewhere between 12 and 14 tons for all of this. By comparison to several other people I know, though, I'm a lightweight.
Information and Things are equally important. You need Things (like printing presses) to save Information. You need Information to make Things.
The CircuitousRoot Typefoundry & Press' Library is expanding as rapidly as I can manage. I think that I now have pretty much all of the "standard" Linotype, Intertype, and Ludlow sources from the 1930s on. I'm looking now for the more obscure stuff - however ephemeral.
I've also been scanning as much as I can. Measuring digital volumes is even harder than measuring physical ones, as high-resolution scans are huge (many Gigabytes) but sometimes the critical piece of information is in a note of only a few bytes. Suffice it to say that I'm using terabyte disks now. The scan of Legros and Grant's Typographical Printing Surfaces alone took more than 20 Gigabytes.
Within the combined limits of copyright law, web server space, and time, I am trying to get as much of this material online as I can.
All portions of this document not noted otherwise are Copyright © 2009 by David M. MacMillan and Rollande Krandall.
Circuitous Root is a Registered Trademark of David M. MacMillan and Rollande Krandall.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons "Attribution - ShareAlike" license. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ for its terms.
Presented originally by Circuitous Root®
Select Resolution: 0 [other resolutions temporarily disabled due to lack of disk space]
