1 of 1- Repartee
- Key Master
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- From: Brooklyn
- Registered: 12-10-2015
- Posts: 683
Key Prosthetics
I am looking at an elderly and not that uncommon machine about to turn centenarian, in many ways physically well preserved but one: the key tops are completely destroyed. They appear to be original but not glass, and whatever their material they have desintegrated. They are pasted over with crude labels.
I would like to adopt this machine, but finding a donor machine and completely replacing the keys is just out of the question. Aside from esthetics I am quite sure the way the machine is now it would be very uncomfortable to type on, so I am trying to dream up some more attractive and functional repair. All I can think of is a more uniform set of labels - maybe white on black - neatly covered with clear epoxy for durability. But this would result in convex key tops vs. concave, and I'm fairly sure would also be uncomfortable to type on and unusable.
Any thoughts on such a repair that would at least be functionally and esthetically tolerable, while the machine waited for science to develop stem cell typewriter parts and grow new keys?
"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
- thetypewriterman
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- From: Leiston, England
- Registered: 29-5-2013
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Re: Key Prosthetics
Can you post a photo, or at least tell us what make and model you are looking at ?
- Repartee
- Key Master
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- From: Brooklyn
- Registered: 12-10-2015
- Posts: 683
Re: Key Prosthetics
thetypewriterman wrote:
Can you post a photo, or at least tell us what make and model you are looking at ?
Early Royal 10, six digit serial number. I may post a photo later. Again, I am not looking for a way to restore original appearance - only something not too horrible to look at that might actually be used, because I don't think the machine is such a rarity it can't actually be put back to work.
"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
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Thread Starter- Spazmelda
- Key Master
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- From: Ohio
- Registered: 25-2-2015
- Posts: 830
Re: Key Prosthetics
MrE did key top prosthetics on a chopped typewriter. I will try to find the thread and post a link here.
- Spazmelda
- Key Master
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Re: Key Prosthetics
Okay, here is the link. I don't know if it will suit what you want to do, but may give you some ideas.
- thetypewriterman
- Key Master
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- Registered: 29-5-2013
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Re: Key Prosthetics
If I understand correctly, the keytops are still there, it is just that the keycards have worn through leaving you with a chrome ring with some dirty cardboard where the character was ? If this is the case, and you only want to replace a couple of characters, this is what I would do. If you are clever with computers, or know someone who is, print out the desired characters in white on a black background - the actual size that you want them. Do several on a sheet of A4 paper in case you need to have a second try. Put the paper through a laminator so that the characters are encapsulated. Remove the key-ring very carefully and take out the old cardboard and the remains of the keycard. Find a piece of metal tubing with an inside diameter the same as the outside diameter of the old keycard. Cut the tubing off square, and sharpen the end. If you happen to have a sharp wad punch of the right diameter, even better. Place the punch that you have just made, over the laminated character. Check that it is exactly concentric. Hit hard with a hammer, and you should have cut a new keycard. A piece of wood under the laminated sheet will allow the home-made punch to cut through without blunting it. Find some cardboard the same thickness as the damaged original, and punch a piece of that out too. Place the punching in the metal 'cup' with a spot of glue to stop it rotating, then another spot of glue and your new keycard on that. Put the keyring back carefully and you are done !
- Repartee
- Key Master
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- From: Brooklyn
- Registered: 12-10-2015
- Posts: 683
Re: Key Prosthetics
If I understand correctly, the keytops are still there, it is just that the keycards have worn through leaving you with a chrome ring with some dirty cardboard where the character was ?
Yes. You have it exactly! And thank you for telling me what the material under the character is likely to be.
If this is the case, and you only want to replace a couple of characters... <snip extremely detailed instructions>
Ah. There's the rub. It's more than a couple of characters...
In the thread Spazmelda was kind enough to point me to there was a comment about something looking like "Franken-typer", and that seems apposite here.
Since my first impression I am beginning to think this looks kind of cool in some ways. For one thing, it looks like a deliberate collage-like artwork in a certain kind of of decayed machinery idiom. Maybe it is even a deliberate artwork - though I had taken it to be evidence that at one time this typewriter was owned by a person who did not give a hoot how old it was, for whom it was simply a working typewriter to be kept going by any means. Or maybe that look is the point of the artwork. I am on the fence now whether it is art imitating artless artifice, or artifice unintentionally artful. I am seriously considering buying the machine and leaving it the way it is - but then, I don't think it would be pleasant to actually use it - and I don't want to own any machines I would not at least like to type a letter on!
Many thanks for your thoughtful instructions.
"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
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Thread Starter