Hi Paul

Those are effectively extra tall cheese-head screws, I have an Empire Baby S/N-7434 with the same setup. I don't know about the Hermes Baby, but the screws on the Empire are secured to the back of the body with nuts. A pair of modified Mecanno screws and nuts may be a possible solution. Tom The Typewriter Man would be your best bet for sourcing replacement or similar screws. Hope this points you in the right direction,

Sky

Hi Ted

You'll find instructions for posting pictures here:

Typewriter Talk » Typewriter Talk FAQ - PLEASE READ THIS FIRST!

Hope this helps,

Sky
 

Hi TTW

As Thetypewriterman says, type slugs punching holes in the ribbon is a sure sign of a rock hard platen. I bought a 1936 Imperial Good Companion S/N AL-018 several years ago which had the same issues. Although I had given the unit a thorough deep cleaning, servicing and tune-up, the ribbon was still being cut by the type slugs. Other issues were the paper not tracking true, the type bars making a sharp clack as they hit the platen and my fingers getting jarred at the end of each keystroke.

Living here in Canada, I was able to send the platen to J.J. Short in New York state to have it re-covered with new rubber a few years ago. The difference a renewed platen made was incredible. The paper tracks true, print quality has improved, the type bars now make a dull thud when they hit the platen and I'm sure that I can feel the softness of the new platen through the keys as I type.

I don't know of any rubber specialty companies in Scandinavia that would be able to re-cover typewriter platens, but who knows, someone might. Shipping to North America and back would be expensive no matter how you slice it. Hopefully this will give you a few ideas to work with. All the best,

Sky

Hi Herik

From what I have learned about the German (and possibly other European) typewriters, the 23 refers to the pitch of the escapement or the space between characters. The pitch of North American typewriters is measured in "characters per inch" (CPI), whereas the pitch of German typewriters is measured in millimeters per character. 23 is 2.3 mm per character and 25 is 2.5 mm / character.

If you are familiar with nuts and bolts, threads are measured in the same way. Imperial or standard bolts are measured by the diameter of the bolt and the threads per inch, for example, 1/2"- 13 means the bolt diameter is 1/2" and the thread pitch is 13 threads per inch. Metric bolts are measured by bolt diameter and distance in millimeters between the threads, for example M12 - 1.75 means the bolt diameter is 12mm and the thread pitch is 1.75mm from crest to crest of the threads. Clarification or correction welcome and I hope this gives you something with which to work,

Sky

Hi Pete

Those sewing machines are beautiful, evidently built when manufacturers cared about the quality of their product. I had the pleasure of working on a late 1950's Singer portable 185J a few years ago (please excuse the clutter on the table). Having typewriter covers made for servicing and reconditioning those sewing machines sounds like an excellent trade. That's what I would call complimenting each other's skill sets.