Last night I was watching Terry Gilliam’s 1995 movie 12 Monkeys and in one scene I noticed one of my presses in the background. Well, of course not actually my press, but the same model. During the first scene inside…
Category: Letterpress
Monotype Computer Control: First Run
I have my 12-point Binny Old Style diecase set up, so last Saturday, I tried my first run with my laptop controlling my Monotype Composition Caster. The text is a little note to include when I ship type across the…
Finding Missing Composition Matrices
I have a Monotype diecase for Lanston 12-point #21EFG Binny Old Style which includes most French accents, but was missing question and exclamations marks in both roman and italic, as well as the small cap Z. I was quite pleased…
Mystery Monotype Diecase Combs
When running a Monotype Composition Caster to cast from cellular matrices, the matrices are usually contained in a diecase, which holds a 225, 255, or 272 matrices in a grid arrangement. The caster positions this diecase to select the appropriate…
Video: First run of Monotype Compostion Caster Computer Control
I just posted a video on YouTube of the first run of my Monotype Composition Caster under control of my laptop computer. I have been working on the hardware and software for this interface on and off over several years,…
A collection of Monotype pumps
Someone recently asked me about spare parts for the pump for a Monotype caster so I went through what I have. In that last photo, top-to-bottom: A pair of wear shoes for Lanston pump bodies An English standard…
Giving up on Strip Casting (for now)
After several unsuccessful attempts at casting strip material on my Monotype Composition Caster, I’m giving up for a while. The problems I’ve been fighting with include: Unfused strip material, which easily breaks up into pieces Blowback through the nozzle seat…
Troublesome Monotype Water Valves
The Monotype Composition Caster uses water to keep the mould and surrounding area cool, and the caster is fitted with two valves to control the water flow. The main valve just controls the overall flow. Most of the water flows…
Lanston Monotype Pump Cleaning
I recently tried to get strip casting working on my Monotype Composition Caster but gave up after several failures. One suspect was the pump; the strip-casting moulds use a different pump than composition and display casting, and I had never…
First try at strip casting
I have my Monotype composition caster converted to produce strip material—leading and rule—and this is my first try at running this setup. You can see the inauspicious results in my accompanying YouTube video. I am using a pump body which…
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