A big thank you to everyone for your help with this.

The Halda is almost fully functional again.

Things happened and stuff and you know... but finally, I spent the last few days cleaning the innards of the machine and good grief, there was one heck of a lot of guck in there.  



So far I've used rubbing alcohol and q-tips, stiff brush, and a bamboo skewer to carefully remove the crud.  This fixed most of the problem with the keys not falling back.  The "A" key is still a bit of a problem, but this is partly because I think it needs lubrication and partly because my little finger can't hit hard enough (yet).  

This is what I plan to use for oil.  It's a very light machine oil, a bit lighter than sewing machine oil, that I use for spinning wheels.  The applicator is like a thick hypodermic needle so it can apply very tiny amounts.  

I did have to make one tiny adjustment to the escapement.  I'll try and get a photo later, but basically, when I hit the keys, it moves a bunch of stuff, which transfers motion to the advance carriage thing.  There is a machine screw that it hits and I can move it in or out to change how sensitive it is.  It also has a nut on it to lock it in place, and I think this had come loose as the screw had worked most of its way out.  

Next step:  Find an oiling diagram someone mentioned.  Wait for my ribbon to arrive from Amazon.  Keep practicing typing to make my fingers stronger.  Read more about typing.  

There's a lot of writing I want to do, but the computer is causing too much distraction.  I've been typing on my Remmington standard a bit, and I like not having the internet to distract me. However, this brings up another thing I want to learn - an easy way to transform typed pages into text documents.  

Thanks again everyone!

Or you could just use carbon paper! (Assuming it's still to be found.)

The ribbon I ordered from Amazon is due in the post today.  I'm only waiting for paper then I can get started on some writing (I used pre-used paper for testing the keys on, so don't worry, I didn't hurt the platin).  The ribbon is so torn up that I ended up taking it out and am just practising with scrap paper.  I really like the feel of these keys, much softer than my old Remmington.  The more I practice, the smoother it feels - but that is probably mostly breaking in the user.  

Of course, I ended up getting the first and most affordable ribbon that Amazon had to offer.   Looking at the listing now, it doesn't actually say what size the ribbon is.  I hope it fits.  Any thoughts?  https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B007MSN51E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Another question, there is some old tape mark on the side of the machine.  Like someone used some masking tape to write their name on it or something.  Any thoughts on how I should approach removing this?  I was going to start with dish soap and warm water, but I would love your thoughts.  (off to search the forum for tips on this)

Thanks for the tip about the Varsol.  I'll have to make a trip into town and get some.

The ribbon fits well.  The spools weren't right for the machine, but it has metal spools (although I am not sure these are the right ones for this machine, they work).

I got some books from the library today I hoped would be about typing, but they turned out to be more about history and art than about how to improve my technique (but interesting all the same).  Typing today, I noticed I am having trouble pressing 'a' and 's' down hard enough to advance the carriage but other letters I'm pressing hard enough to go through the page (through the first page but not the second as I read I should have two pages so not to hurt the platen - is this right?).  I'm convinced this is user error, but I'm not sure where to go to learn how to improve my technique.  So I'm just going to keep practicing.  

Got the first chapter written though, so I'm excited about that!  Something I couldn't manage on the computer due to destractions.  Thanks everyone for helping to make this possible.  

I believe this model of Halda requires proprietary spools with special tabs on the bottom to engage the automatic ribbon reverse function. Below is an image, taken from Richard Polt's blog, which show what these Halda portable spools look like: