Note that I'm not talking about metal type
("letterpress") printing,
something I already have a bit of experience with. I'm now looking at
offset printing, which is a whole different animal. That isn't quite so
pricey on a hobbyist level, since it's dealing with equipment that
production print shops often have a very hard time getting rid of.
As an aside (and not at all relevant to the OP), I found a couple of
semi-techncial books on the monotype nad linotype machiens in a charity
shop a while back. Semi-techncial meaning theu included diagrams of the
mechanism, instructiosn for dismantling and adjusting it, etc.
On the groudns i tend to buy any technical books if the price is right,
they came home with me... I'd better not start collecting that sort of
machine, though, classic comptuers give me enough of a (lack of) space
problem as it is.
-tony