Wow! I just noticed that I have been upgraded to ""Platen Punisher". I'm honoured.

theoldman wrote:

Wow! I just noticed that I have been upgraded to ""Platen Punisher". I'm honoured.

Congratulations!!  Before too long, you'll make "Speed Champion."  Just keep writing everything you can about typewriters--what you've found out, the machines you buy, and all the other stuff that other people will either be uninterested in or will not understand.  I use this forum, in addition to trying to help out others fix their typewriters, to get all that conversation I have had bottled up for the last 35 years that my friends told me they didn't understand, or "had a baseball game to go to," or  "had something on the stove."  And those people eat out all the time--never saw any of 'em ever cook anything in their lives!!  I just had to take the hint, shut up, and go back to fixing my typewriters.  Now I can talk about it too!!
 

TypewriterKing wrote:

TypewriterKing wrote:

theoldman wrote:

Wow! I just noticed that I have been upgraded to ""Platen Punisher". I'm honoured.

Congratulations!!  Before too long, you'll make "Speed Champion."  Just keep writing everything you can about typewriters--what you've found out, the machines you buy, and all the other stuff that other people will either be uninterested in or will not understand.  I use this forum, in addition to trying to help out others fix their typewriters, to get all that conversation I have had bottled up for the last 35 years that my friends told me they didn't understand, or "had a baseball game to go to," or  "had something on the stove."  And those people eat out all the time--never saw any of 'em ever cook anything in their lives!!  I just had to take the hint, shut up, and go back to fixing my typewriters.  Now I can talk about it too!!
 

Good luck, and hope to see lots of posts from you!
 

 
I'm sure that I will have many more questions TypewriterKing. I do carry on or so I've been told.

In fact do have another question. What about removing the platen on the Underwood? Possible? Doable? Forget about it?

SoucekFan wrote:

theoldman wrote:

In fact do have another question. What about removing the platen on the Underwood? Possible? Doable? Forget about it?

It is doable, but I wouldn't recommend messing with it unless you have to. If you need to remove the platen, I posted some instructions below. I believe the original instructions are for a later Underwood, but they are very similar, except you may also need to remove the carriage release key to get it out of the way in order to pull the shaft. I have added details on removing the release key. Also note, that after replacing the carriage, if you reattach the right knob too flush to the skeleton carriage guide, it may interfere with the shift. There needs to be a hair of space between the right knob and the metal guide.


I

 
Thank you for your very helpful instructions. But I will follow your advice and not remove it unless it is absolutely necessary. It does look like its a little hairy to say the least. I had in my head that it would be a good idea so that I could get deeper into the inside to clean. But I don't want to get into trouble here if I don't have to.
Thanks again for the instructions and your input. I have saved your diagram.

NDW76 wrote:

The carriage of an Underwood 5 is very easy to remove some you can get at the guts. Just unscrew the platen on the front top that has the ruler/scale attached. Then unhook the draw string and attach it to the mainframe.  Then lift up the front of the carriage and slide the whole thing off.

You can also remove the platen assembly,  but this is a bit more fiddly and getting it back on can sometimes involve a bit of swearing

 
Thanks. I am going to make an effort to clean with just removing the basic minimum. But it's good to know its doable incase I change my mind. Thanks for your input.