Cheap. Cheap! Cheap?

If you have more than one typewriter that is in need of a ribbon you could always take 1/2 the ribbon from a spool and put it on a spare. Like magic I can make one typewriter into two. Being a teacher makes you a little creative with money...and apparently typewriter ribbons.

Final Assembly

Tonight while watching some television, I finished assembling the panels on the newly painted and freshly platen-ed Travel-Riter.

Green!

It wasn't the biggest project, but it was a lot of fun. All I need to do now is wait for the paint to cure. This should take at least a week. Until then I need to be carful and avoid scratching the finish. The hammerite type paint worked very well and is very shiny.

Coin Operated Typewriters

My Sophomore classes are reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In the Afterword Bradbury describes how he considers F.451 a dime-novel. It cost him $9.80 in dimes to write at a coin-operated Remington or Underwood. He needed a place to type and the basement of UCLA's library prevented him from wanting to play with his children rather than working on his novel. He indicates that the time constraint really helped him write. Sounds like the NaNoWriMo challenge many people are working on this month.

This started me thinking about coin-operated typewriters. At 30, I am not remarkably old, but I do have a memory of coin-op typewriters at ASU. They were in an alcove on the 2nd or 3rd floor of the stacks. There were about 3-4 IBM Selectrics (the early ones, not IIs) ready for students to use. At the time I think it was a quarter for a half-hour of use.

I called the Hayden Library to ask whether the typewriters were still there, or if they had been taken out. I was saddened to hear that they were removed (or moved) some time after 2004. I put a call into the facilities manager for the library to see if they had just been moved or were completely removed. Knowing ASU as I do, they are probably in some closet gathering dust.

I wonder if there are any still in existence?

On another note, I came across this very interesting video by Bill Hammack on how the A/D converter (the whiffletree or whippletree) in an IBM Selectric works. Even though Selectrics are not my particular brand of crazy, I have seen so many of the type elements for sale (esp. script).

Weekend Project

Between all the regular things you do on the weekend, I began to paint the Remington Travel-Riter that I found. The surface of the old machine was rusty and very ugly. The platen was fossilized. I had it in my mind that this would be an easy project. The first challenge to that notion was the platen.

The first problem was removing the platen. The platen on this typewriter was clearly never intended to be removed by human hands. Bolts, nuts, weird compression-fit line ratchets all met to foil the work. The biggest hurtle to disassembly was a steel rod that extended the entire length of the platen. To remove it I had to take a pair of pliers and wiggle it loose. That took some time.

The dumbest idea was that I could find a suitable replacement for the platen rubber from something around town. I struck on the idea that auto heater tubing might be good. It's made from real rubber and I figured that it would be inexpensive. I went to Checker and asked the clerk if he had something that fit the bill. The tube that they did have fit on the inside diameter, but the outside diameter is a hair larger than the original platen diameter. At the time I thought it wouldn't be a problem. It would later be a problem.

Trying to feed the tube over the platen was a challenge. I won't give you the boring details, but an hour of work let to a newly shod platen and a broken line advancement ratchet. It was attached to the end of the platen via a compression fitting. I popped it off and had to re-attach it. It ended up being alright. When I reinstalled the platen, the size was a little larger than before, so things were too tight. I had to adjust the feed roller and the paper release lever so it would work. After fiddling for a while it seems to be working well. Or at least well enough for me.

The most exciting part was the painting. I hemmed over what color. I wanted something green, but I was concerned over my painting ability. When I was at Ace I noticed that Rust-Oleum had a Hammerite finish paint in colors. Hammer finish paint really hides irregular substrates and has a very glossy surface. The green color was perfect. I followed the instructions and here is how it turned out.

Shiny!

The hammer finish is a look. I like it. I know some people would prefer it to be a mirror finish or something smoother. It says 1950s to me so, it stays. I have quite a few more panels to paint and I will be finishing those over the course of the next few days. When it's all done I'll have a newly painted Travel-Riter.

Viridescent!

Easy

The process of fixing the Silent's linkage was surprisingly easy. Nothing was really bent. One of the junctions where one part of the linkage connects to another worked loose. I looked at the other linkage connections to see how this one was connected. Five minutes later we were in business. I am always surprised with how easy it is to tinker with a typewriter. I know that the professionals would rather you leave it to them. That makes sense if you are not the least bit handy. If you are...go for it! The Adler was pretty easy. The SC Sterling was a piece of cake. This Silent was no problem. If you know how they work or can imagine the pieces fitting together, they are no more scary to fix than anything else.

On the Bench

The first mechanical casualty of the CTP has been had. A lovely Smith-Corona Silent has a bent typebar linkage. The young lady who was using it noticed it immediately. I'm not sure if the problem was careless typing or something inherently wrong with the linkage. The O isn't the most commonly used letter. It's coming home with me (sorry honey) and I'll get it working again. I might also give this one a good cleaning.

I'm sad about my linkage.

Sterling with a Heart of Gold

On Saturday, the baby went down for a long-needed nap and I was able to visit a couple of vintage and antique stores. I wanted to find another inexpensive typewriter to make the total in the CTP 10. So, I visited Antique Gatherings on Thomas Rd. and Zinnia's on 7th Ave and Indian School Rd. Antique Gatherings is a very clean antique store, but a bit pricey. Also, they didn't have any typewriters. Zinnia's did, however, have a few that were interesting and not too expensive.

The first was a 1930 Royal Quiet. It was in fair shape, but it did not come with the case. The crinkle paint was chipping in a few places. I have a more than reasonable like of Royal typewriters, but I have a nice QDL at home and a brown QDL (of the same vintage) at work. So, I don't need another. At $30 I thought it was a reasonable price for one that old, but I like complete typewriters. A missing case is not something I would want to deal with. The other typewriter was a 1960s Smith-Corona Sterling 12 in blue. At $19 I thought the price was acceptable and I bought that one.

60s Style

When I got it home and started the process of cleaning it up, there were a few problems that manifested themselves. First, the internal typebar cradle was not in the machine. It was at the bottom of the case. It did not have any cork, rubber, or felt padding, so I took some leftover material from the Skyriter project and make a nice pad. Ace Hardware hand the appropriate replacement screws. The whole process quieted down the machine a great deal.

This body-style has a sliding ribbon cover. My ribbon cover was loose because a screw fell out at some point during the life of the machine. This caused the cover to be misaligned and the "1" key and +/=  would strike the edge of the opening. Flipping the machine over, I found the shift stops and fiddled with them. I was able to dial in a setting that would allow the typebars to clear the opening of the ribbon cover. They clash sometimes when the cover is not properly seated, but we can live with that. There is one problem; I have an extra screw and spring that came from the machine, but do not appear to go anywhere. The machine works fine. I think that the spring might be for the lid mechanism, but it dosen't really matter. It's a perfectly fine typewriter that now puts us up to 10 total typewriters.