Glue for makeready under wood type

I recently acquired a font of wood type which - in the most optimistic sense - has “variable” height letters. When dealing with this in the past, I usually cut and place pieces of paper or packing under the low height letters. In this case, there are so many I want to glue the makeready to the bottom of the offending sorts so I don’t have to fix them each time I use the font.

Question - what type of adhesive to use?

Mike

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Use self-adhesive vinyl or a decent litho label stock.

Michael
Nickel Plate Press

Couple of well tried and tested options ex U.K.
A 2” wide brown paper wrapping and parcel tape, from the traditional style water trough dispenser, probably still available as >lick and stick< although the taste is not to every ones,Pallete !!
OR
Make ready applied with Hot Melt Glue, as in hand held Glue Gun (Stick Fed), - Bookbinders Hot melt, Glue Pot, Woodworkers/Joiners, Hot melt Glue Pot,
or
best yet, *Printers/Finishers* Hot Melt glue devices i.e. SULBY, Minabinder, or Heidelberg Multi Station binding lines. Both very much still to the fore.

We are still using poster type from the mid 70,s (occasionally) made ready with Glue from a Sulby Minabinda Hot Melt M.c..
The smell from the glue was not very pleasant and the scream from the high speed trimmer was non too clever either.
Good Luck. Mick. U.K..

Glue sticks work well and are reversible

Wood glue and veneer if not too thick for you

Lots of ideas here I hadn’t considered. Thanks!! Probably will use many of them.

In particular I love the idea of wood glue and veneer. We have a block leveler and I’d be able to mill off to make it perfectly type high. I’m not quite sure why that didn’t occur to me.

Mike

I like the glue stick - I’ve also used rubber cement. In the days of yore we used library paste in a tube. We Called it “snot” - or make ready paste as it was called. For wood type I have no advice other than to use a light spray of adhesive on tissue paper to even out the packing. When all else failed I resorted to a thin sheet of rubber called an “impression blanket”. Crazy or not, I bought it from Kelsey for my 6x10 Kelsey.