Servicing a Linotype Knife Block - video

[Dave Hughes]

Forum regular @KPMartin recently had trouble with the knife block on a Linotype Model 5 at the Mackenzie Printery Museum, it was hard to use due to a build-up of dried out lubricant.

Here's a video of him servicing it along with a link to further details of the operation on his blog:


https://youtu.be/FMjejWxbiTw

Says Kevin:

In this video I service the knife block from a Linotype model 5 linecaster.

The caster contains several knives which trim the rough-cast slug to its final dimensions.

This block is used to adjust the right knife for the thickness of slug that is being cast (based on which mold is installed and selected).

On this caster the knife could not be adjusted because the lubricant had dried out leaving a sticky residue instead of a lubricating film. I had removed the block, disassembled it, cleaned the parts and reassembled it. This video shows the reassembly (disassembly is just the reverse) along with some description of how the parts fit and work together.

There is a bit more about this work on my blog at https://papertrail.ca/blog/linotype-knife-block-rr/