New to Ludlow

A friend of mine and a fellow letterpress machinist has been given a Ludlow. He thinks it is a ML9G - No 6990. Lots of cabinets of matts spares metal and font cataloges. Thiere is no manual. Somewhere on the net I came across a site where the manuals were there in PDF form. Can anyone help point me in the direction of these downloads. He is like me in that ludlows were around us but we never got to use them. That was a compositors job. We would really appreciate any help. Our intention is to use it for our own respective presses.

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There are two versions of the manual for the Ludlow Model M online (that I’m aware of). One is at:

http://metaltype.co.uk/library.shtml

The other is in the midst of a bunch of Ludlow documentation I’ve scanned, at:

http://www.circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/noncompline/ludlow/...

(go to the Manuals section, at:

http://www.circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/noncompline/ludlow/...

The manual for the Model L is useful even if you have an M; regrettably, my scan of the Manual No. 10 (the numbered manuals covered the L) is at present incomplete.

Dave Seat, of Hot Metal Services, has a number of very useful Ludlow documents online at:

http://www.hotmetalservices.com/downloadable_documents.htm

I would also note that he does Ludlow service, and travels. He’s the best.

I’ve scanned Edition D of the hardcover Ludlow Typefaces book and uploaded it to The Internet Archive at:

http://archive.org/details/LudlowTypefacesEditionD1140

Have fun, but work safely.

Regards,
David M.
www.CircuitousRoot.com

thanks David. I’m sure that will be a great help. I remember Ludlows as being incredibly useful. Big scripts etc. Well see how it goes. It comes with a stack of spares too so whoever originally ran this one kept it all together.
Dennis Wild

one thing about ludlows, they require minimal maintenance but you must clean them faithfully or you will have all kinds of problems, i clean my ludlows every week.

A “must read” for anyone operating a Ludlow:

http://archive.org/stream/KarchOperationLudlowTypograph1939/karch-ludlow...

I’ve never seen a copy of this for sale. I imagine they are quite rare and pricey!
Have fun and be careful!
I set my first line of Ludlow as co-op student with a work permit at age 16. Fell in love with this amazing machine. Bought myself one in 1985 for my 50th birthday. Set type on it now and I feel like kid again!!
Again, have fun and be careful!

Thanks to everyone for some great advice. i will really be careful for me and the Ludlow and will study hard!

Many answers can be found on Internet, for example, the original use and maintenance book/s for Ludlow. — Alan.