Calling all Monotype Caster owners in Australia
Hi All,
I am moving my newly acquired Monotype Composition Caster this coming Monday. I am begin to get my head around the immense task ahead of me of setting the thing up and actually producing type from it.
I would dearly love to hear from anyone in Australia that has a Comp. Caster in running order and would be willing to let me look over their shoulder for a little while. I’m sure there are Casters operating out there in Oz, but to date I have been unable to locate any of them.
Failing that, are there any old hands that worked with a Caster in the past and would be willing to make their knowledge available?
Finally, I am desperate to obtain wedges,molds and fonts of as many different faces as I can get. I will pay fair prices for complete sets of matrices, wedges and molds for as many point sizes. Any attachments: Display Type attachment, Quad and Spacer attachment, Lead and Rule attachment, Border and Decoration attachment and mats. If you have any of the above and don’t want to part with them I would be interested in some kind of rental/royalty arrangement for the use of them.
If you are out there please get in touch, at least for a chat and possible meeting.
All the best.
Ron
Mount Compass, South Australia
ph.(08) 8556 8368
I’m not sure if this will help, but Bill Welliver here in the US has set up a mailing list devoted to typecasting in all its forms (though as he has developed a very nice computer interface to the comp caster he has, understandably, an affinity for Monotype equipment). The list is very low-traffic so far (it really hasn’t hit critical mass), but might be useful. The subscription/info page is at:
http://lists.riverweb.com/listinfo/index/typecasting
I have an ulterior motive here, of course! I just acquired a display caster and a Thompson (I’ve been a linecasting guy so far), and I know precious little about the display caster. I’d like to get it running (after the Thompson), and would love to listen in on discussions about this.
One thing I will note about the Monotype display caster (which is an adaptation of the composition caster) is that it is much heavier than it looks, and rather topheavy. In some ways I prefer moving Linotypes! Be careful when you move it.
Regards,
David M. MacMillan
www.CircuitousRoot.com
Thanks for the lead David,
And the caution - I have been looking at as many photos of the caster as I can and I can well imagine it might be top heavy. I am setting up to either hoist it up or to get it on to a pallet, depending on the C-of-G of the thing. I’ll definitely be making future posts as I come to grips with the caster and keyboard, both setting it up and then casting type.
Good luck with your Thompson - I’ve never heard of any Thompsons in Australia that are running. I believe the Melbourne Printing Museum has at least one(Not sure of the URL but its something like printingmuseum.com.au).
All the best for now.
Ron
Ron,
You might look at the Melbourne Museum of Print web site which includes Monotype. A note to the Curator might assist however, we are presently moving premises so be a little patient.
Regards Bruce W
Thanks Bruce,
I did send Michael an email but haven’t heard back. I agree this is the best course of action and I am really hoping to get a dialog going and some arrangement with Michael/the Museum. I’ll wait a bit longer for his reply and then maybe try and reach him by phone. I’m an ex-Melbournite so it might be time for a return visit soon.
Ron