I have great affection for old Underwood standards. They didn’t change much over their long, long years of production because they just worked. And they continue to work 80, 100, 120 years later. Opening up an Underwood and seeing their old-fashioned guts is reassuring to this hobbyist. It’s like seeing a familiar face at a crowded party.
Rabbit Hole: R. C. Allen VisOmatic A
Every once in a while, I stumble across a type of typewriter that I haven’t met before in person. I had never encountered an R. C. Allen until recently when I started working on a damaged 1962 R. C. Allen VisOmatic A. Everything about the machine is next-level educational.
Sister Ship: Consul 232
I love a freebie. I try to curb my impulse to drag things home because there are just so many good things out there—for free. However, if the freebie is a dysfunctional typewriter, it’s hard to quash the impulse.
Beloved: 1934 Remington Portable Model 5
Sometimes a typewriter comes to me that bears evidence that someone has poured much love and attention into it. I worked on a gorgeous 1934 Remington Portable Model 5 last week that had obviously been worked and fretted over.
Murderbot: 1961 Olympia SM4
A 1961 Olympia SM4 with a jammed carriage arrived on my workbench a couple weeks ago. I started calling it Murderbot. It’s a long story, so I’ll start at the beginning.
Rough Beast: Underwood Rhythm Touch
In these troubling times of widening gyres and blood-dimmed tides, I have been holding my centre through quiet typewriter tinkering. A distressed 1952 Underwood Rhythm Touch slouched into my garage around Thanksgiving last year, and working on it has brought me much comfort since then.
Slow Cook Recipe: Smith-Corona Electric 5TE
Sometimes a troubling typewriter issue needs time stewing in my brain before I find a satisfying solution. I’ll put it on the back burner and think about the problem from time to time, stirring it occasionally. I recently worked on a Smith-Corona Electric 5TE with bell and right margin problems that is finally behaving properly after long slow-cook pondering.
Hope Springs Eternal: Coronet Electric
A $5.00 “as-is” machine is often worth much more than $5.00. If you can repair it, it’s worth more, obviously. If you can’t, it’s a good parts machine. And for me, a life-long learner, a broken typewriter is a wealth of educational opportunities. I recently had a doozy of a “learning experience”.
Attachment Issues: Smith-Corona Clevis Problems
Monica and Stephen are local collectors who have many typewriters that are just my type, my personal kink being dysfunctional machines that need a lot of work.
Farhad’s Coronamatic 2500
A local typewriter enthusiast named Jean asked me to look at her 1980s Coronamatic 2500’s nonfunctional “N/n” key. Jean is a persistent typist, and she loves this typewriter so much that she was making do using double “l” with a handwritten diagonal in place of “N/n” when she typed on it.
Missing Spring, Missing Handle: Royal Futura 800
I recently worked on a 1960 Royal Futura 800 and became familiar with what my research says is a common problem in Futuras: ribbon vibrator forks that flop open allowing the ribbon to migrate out of the ribbon vibrator while typing.
The Rusty Sabre
Gather ’round, me hearties, and I will tell ye the tale of the Rusty Sabre of Portugal. Aye! ‘Twas a Royal Sabre!
My Summer Vacay with a Hermes Babay
Summer got away from me, and here it is mid-August already. In June, I drove out to the wilds of the DC suburbs where I picked up a couple typewriters in need of some attention. They are owned by a local typewriter enthusiast, Suzanne. One was a 30+ lb behemoth, a KMG with a tabulator issue that I fixed up, and the other was a teeny 1943 Hermes Baby.
Good Enough Is Very Fine: Royal KMG Tabulator Issue
I headed to a nearby suburb a couple weeks ago to pick up a Hermes Baby with a carriage bail issue. Owned by local typewriter enthusiast Suzanne, the Baby needed a spring replaced in a procedure that sounded much more complicated than I would have thought. Replacement involved something about special tools and torsion springs. 😬
Black Beauty: Royal De Luxe Portable
A local typewriter enthusiast named Ross has a stable full of Royal portables. These fine fillies are spirited creatures, but after 70 or 80 or 90 years of being ridden hard and put away wet, many need attention. I recently worked to fix some nagging issues on a 1950s QDL and a 1939 QDL, and he had another 1930s De Luxe that I looked at. Continue reading
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