New to me molds up and running

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I have a couple five gallon buckets of lino in type and spacer form. Who really knows the composition. I use it from time to time as a sweetener. Not very scientific.
That's a good point. I recall reading more than once that virgin linotype is quite a lot different than whats been remelted dozens of times. These days if I had a real need for lino, I'd be buying from Roto or some place like that.
 

Dimner

Named Man
I bought a lino pig off a guy local to me here. He had it tested, we called it diet Lino. 7.5sb and 3.5sn. It got me thinking too about Lino being remelted over and over again. Where does the Sb go? I doubt they are diluting it with pure, so it has to be a reduction of Sb. Maybe they skim off dross or something that is antimony heavy?

Reason I'm curious is that it seems to be a common occurrence, Lino being a bit diluted. So that leads me to think that there is something in the process that the printshops are doing.
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Very nice castings, Boats.

I find myself to have an excess of pure, laying around. So my preferred all around alloy is 3-1 pure to lino. Behaves pretty much like WW alloy. You can heat treat, if you need harder, than 14-15 BHN......that's the most economical alternative. Or you can increase the proportion of lino to lead...............pure lead is far cry cheaper than linotype. Want softer? Four to one is a decent HP alloy.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I bought a lino pig off a guy local to me here. He had it tested, we called it diet Lino. 7.5sb and 3.5sn. It got me thinking too about Lino being remelted over and over again. Where does the Sb go? I doubt they are diluting it with pure, so it has to be a reduction of Sb. Maybe they skim off dross or something that is antimony heavy?

Reason I'm curious is that it seems to be a common occurrence, Lino being a bit diluted. So that leads me to think that there is something in the process that the printshops are doing.
I would imagine that's pretty much what happens, or happened since real print with lino letters is about as dead as the Packard. I rather doubt the guys doing the casting were real concerned with maintaining the elements in the alloy to the max. They probably did tons a week and didn't give it a thought.