Hi Pete,
I have just had a grope around the Internet and I can get JB Weld and will definitely give it a go. I have heard of it but never actually used it during my adventures with vintage (pre1930) cars or later with British motorcycles. I now find typewriters mechanically equally interesting but lighter to handle. Again thanks for your help.
Woodman

Hello all,
I have recently acquired a 1935 Hermès Baby courtesy of my sons efforts with Marktplaats,a sort of Dutch eBay. I am a great enthusiast of the Baby although I am well aware that it was produced to be a light, compact and not too expensive portable a bit like the Blickensderfer in its time.
My first typewriter was a 1949 Baby and I didn’t realise at the time what a good choice it was. I do have rather large hands and the spacing of the keys is perfect for me and I find touch very agreeable when in use.
I have since acquired a model from 1939 and now one from 1935, the first year of manufacture and, by chance, my year of birth which makes it a bit special for me. However, there is a problem. There is a U bracket on each side at the rear of the side of the frame which in each case carries the adjusting screws for alignment of both upper and lower case letters. One of the limbs of the right hand bracket has metal fatigue and needs to be replaced or in some way reinforced. Unfortunately this bracket is welded (?) to the frame and so cannot be easily replaced. I have a 1939 donor machine but during développement the frame of this machine is more solidly braced. I was hoping to swap the whole rear section of the frame but now I realise this is not an option.
I am a collector of typewriters now but I am not interested in any machine that does not do its job so I have to resolve this problem some way. I will start by dismantling the rear part of the frame and try soldering the weekend angle. If this fails I have thought of using a hacksaw to cut out the part of the frame holding the offending bracket and then attaching  the bracket from the 1939 donor after hacking it out of that machine. I hate ‘vandalizing’ either machine and wonder if anyone among the more experienced members has a more sympathetic solution to offer.
I would be most grateful for any help offered and thankful for the opportunity to air my problem on this site.
Happy Tapping to you all, Wo

I had another look this afternoon. As a result, I think your original diagnosis of hardened and shrunk platen could have been spot-on. I am still convinced that the adjustments I have been working on are simply to align upper and lower cases. I have taken both the stops off the machine and see that the uppercase stop has an oval hole at the locking screw allowing it to swing, whereas the lowercase stop has two round holes, so a fixed position when assembled and no adjustment movement. When the uppercase adjustment is fully down the tops are still a bit light. I did consider a ‘codge’ of ovaling the one hole on the lowercase stop but know that, apart from being sacrilege, it would not create enough movement anyway.
Thanks to Lauren’s van Galen I know a very good enterprise in Amsterdam whose name I have temporarily lost but they did a splendid job at a very reasonable price on the platen of my Underwood 3 bank so that looks like the next move.
Thanks for your help anyway, best wishes, Woodman.

Hello again
Firstly many thanks for your replies Phil and Sky. Well, the penetrating oil did its work and this morning I had a little go. In fact the adjustment only affected the alignment of upper and lower case letters, so I put it back to the orignal position and am no further forward.
Before I found ‘the solution ‘ on reddit I was hunting for the hard stops and until now have not found them. I had done the trial with gradually depressing the shift key and indeed there is a point where I get a correct and evenly printed letter, so the hunt continues. Yes Sky, I am sure Tom the Typewriterman will have the answer as I have benefited from his expertise on previous occasions, but I am a bit pigheaded so will carry on hunting a little longer until I am totally defeated. As they say here I have all the time that remains to me!
Again many thanks, I shall report any success or failure.
Best wishes to all typers, Woodman

I recently acquired a fairly shabby Klein Adler 2. I soon realized that this machine was not complete, it was in fact missing its carriage return lever. Fortunately I later found on the same site, Marktplaats, an Adler 30 which had the necessary part and I  was able to get it for a very low price. I now have both machines and am able to compare them in detail. It appears that the ‘30’ although extremely dirty, is in better condition than the Klein 2.
I have a question about the serial numbers of these machines, Klein Adler 2, Adler 30, Adlerette, Adlerito, etc. Are they all numbered as if they were the same series when they left the production line or has each nomination got a separate series of numbers? If the former is the case that would put the ‘30’ at 1927 and the Klein 2 at 1929.
The reason I got the first machine is the fact that the type bars work in a completely different way to a ‘regular’ typewriter and now that I have these examples I can well understand why the system was not taken up generally, there is too much fiction involved resulting in wear which the more conventional system avoids. It is still interesting to have in my small collection and I shall enjoy making one good one out of the two.
Happy tapping, Woodman