This is the 1948 Royal KMM that I bought for $10 along with the 1914 Remington Standard 10. These two machines were said to be in a barn, but after seeing the rust and in the case of the Remington, the obvious sun-caused deterioration of the celuloid key tops, I'd say both of these have spent a lot of days sitting out in a weed patch somewhere.   This is what they looked like when I brought them home on 26 Sep 2015.


I decided to start with the KMM because I'm more familiar with that model... and the Remington looks like a basket case. So I started cleaning out the leaves and spraying the penetrating oil liberally to see if I could get it torn down a bit. And it's looking worse than I thought inside. Here's a shot with the top cover and the carriage off, showing the rusted escapement. That's the worrisome part.  It looks like the rust is worse on the inside of this machine than on the outside.


I'll start tearing it down further tomorrow, if I can. These rusted screws are really tough to get loose. At the very least it's only $10 I'll be out and I'm getting a good education about KMM tear-down procedures.

If you paid $25 for it and it types then you've got a decent machine. Regarding your right margin it's just a matter of TLC. If it really, really looks like it ought to slide, but it won't, then put a little oil (penetrating oil maybe) on it and see if it will wiggle. If it wiggles then you're home free. Keep wiggling and working at it and the oil will do it's stuff. Those 1940's KMG series have the "magic margin" feature, which seems like a lot of extra complication to me, but you can pull the paper tray towards you to see the magic margin mechanism and then work on loosening up the right side slider with oil, etc. Good Luck.

I know I'm going against the forum moderator here, but i recommed gun oil for type segments, and a lot of other moving metal against metal joints inside a typewriter. Get a wooden fondue skewer with a pointed tip and some gun oil  which is silicone based (not 3-n-1 household oil which is petroleum based), and drop oil into each segment gap. Silicone oil doesn't collect dust like petroleum oils do and besides, you're going to keep dust out of your valuable typewriter anyway with a dust cover, aren't you?

colrehogan -- if it's always at the same spot then have a look at the knot on the draw string (or draw tape if your Silent has one instead). Notice if it is frayed. Then carefully watch it with a flashlight underneath while you space across to see if the knot is hanging up on something metal under the carriage. That can cause the carriage to encounter resistance at a certain spot sometimes. If so, then you can try trimming the frayed part off the draw string or something else. Hope this works for you. J.W.

I noted your problem seems to be with the "a" key. I have a 1936 KHM that has a ribbon vibrator problem with the "a" key.  (Also the "q" key and the 1/2 key, but I don't use those so much in my writing) The problem with my KHM is that the U-bar is looser on its brackets than it should be, so it tilts a little to the side when I use any key on the far right or far left of the keyboard. it's supposed to move forward and backward evenly. Since the U-bar also trips the escapement as well as lifts the ribbon, it might be that yours is doing the same thing. If the escapement is only partially tripping it can sometimes allow more than one click of the star wheel to go by, especially if there is a lubrication problem. Just something else to look for... good luck!