Vintage work crew photos

[the harmonious blacksmith]

I have one Model 31 Linotype up and running each year at the print shop at the Tri-State Engine and Threshers Assn. in Bird City, KS. That show always begins on the last Thursday of July and the following Friday and Saturday. You can see many steam tractors as well as a lot of older machinery there, a blacksmith shop, etc. The print shop is just a small part of that show. Come see that show if you can and you can see a Linotype in operation.

For some 25+ years after my stint as Plant Engineer for a heavy equipment builder which went out of business in 1982 I operated a commercial letterpress and hot lead typesetting shop I had previously run as a part time "hobby" shop and, as Linotype and other linecasting machinery quickly became obsolescent when "cold type" became the norm, these machines were had for little or no cost just to get rid of them. I believe I owned 19 of them, many I scrapped and parted out. I currently have the one in Bird City and one at my home shop, a Model 32. When I got over 60 I had to get another PE job for health insurance and the letterpress shop was nearly shut down. When Medicare became available to me I retired from the Coil Coater plant previously mentioned and since then I've pretty much do what I wish at my "little tin shed" (5000 square feet) on my small farm East of Denver. In it I have quite a few older machine tools, welding equipment, etc. I just acquired a 19 inch LeBlond lathe (20-1'2 swing over the bed), 8 feet Centers, and have been trying to rearrange things to get it in to replace an old Cone Head lathe 15 inch swing by 8 foot centers dating to the late 19th Century.

I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up!