On Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:08:37 -0600, "Pete C."
wrote:
Steve Lusardi wrote:

Look for Linotype, it makes brilliant bullets. Check with newspaper printers and ask them how they dispose of their waste, you
won't regret it. The bullets will typically cast about 8% lighter than pure lead. They can be used to 1800FPS without gas checks
and not cause barrel leading. If I remember correctly, lead is around 9 or 10 on the Brinnel scale and Linotype is about 28/29,
which is considerably harder. Linotype bullets are much better penetrators and do not deflect off window glass like lead bullets
do. Don't ask how I know that.

I've been out of the printing biz for a decade or two, but does anyone
use Linotype anymore? Certainly no newspaper I knew of 20 years ago did,
they all use offset web presses with AL plates. The only place using
Linotype back then was a tiny shop that mostly did numbering and other
specialty stuff.

Actually, yes - Go into any good rubber stamp shop that still does
lots of work, and you'll find a motley assortment of Linotype,
Monotype and Ludlow (Headline sized type - DEWEY BEATS TRUMAN)
machines and every font that the owner can find.

When you make the Bakelite matrice for the stamp the heat distorts
the type metal, so regular movable type goes to heck in a few uses.
Linotype is perfect - you use it once to make a matrice (maybe twice
if you blow the first one) and you can make a hundred stamps from that
one matrice.

Then you throw the used and heat distorted Linotype slug back into
the melt furnace pot for reuse.

If you only make one or a few of a certain stamp, ask the shop if
you can have the matrice too just in case. When the stamp wears out,
you can send the matrice back to get an exact duplicate.

And the photo-resist style plastic stamps flat out don't hold up to
severe service like the old stuff.


-- Bruce --