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- skywatcher
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Offline - From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 737
Re: Royal "O" model - how is the carriage held on to the main body?
Greetings Octavius and Welcome to The Forum
You'll have to expand on your description a little before any of us can give you definitive answers. When you say held down, are we talking about physically holding the carriage in its track so it doesn't simply lift off again? Are we referring to stopping the carriage from coming off either end of the track, or are we talking about keeping the carriage in the lower case position as opposed to upper case knowing that these are carriage shift machines not basket shift. Give us a little more information with which to work and we'll see what we can do for you. All the best,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- Octavius
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- Registered: 24-6-2013
- Posts: 9
Re: Royal "O" model - how is the carriage held on to the main body?
Sky,
Thanks for welcoming me to the forum. Sorry about the vagueness of my question.
Perhaps a little history on this Royal may help.
I had taken the carriage off to fix something (can't remember what), lost interest and put the typewriter in the closet. That was about 20 years ago, no kidding.
Now, I'm trying to fix the typewriter. As a first step, the carriage would need to be put back on its track so it doesn't lift off. How is this done?
Cheers!
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Thread Starter- skywatcher
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- From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 737
Re: Royal "O" model - how is the carriage held on to the main body?
Hi Again Octavius
Now we're getting into some serious technical territory here. If you kept all the parts when the machine was taken apart, you should have 4 steel ball bearings and and 4 little star washers. The 4 balls are what hold the carriage in its track and a star washer around each ball keeps the balls in the correct position. You will notice that there are rows of holes along the edges of both the carriage rails and the track rails, the points of the star washers engage into these holes and move the balls along at half carriage speed.
The balls and star washers have to be inserted at precisely the correct position as the carriage is being reinstalled from the end of the track rails. In other words, they have to be timed to the carriage in order to work properly. If not timed, the carriage may wobble or the balls may fall out at the end of carriage travel. There was a special tool Royal part # P545 available to typewriter repair shops specifically for timing the balls during carriage reinstallation, but who knows where one might find a typewriter repair shop that still has one, yet alone how to use one.
Hopefully this hasn't made your head hurt too much. Maybe a forum member who has a lot more hands-on experience with the repair and reassembly these machines than I do might be able to guide you in the right direction. All the best,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- Octavius
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- Registered: 24-6-2013
- Posts: 9
Re: Royal "O" model - how is the carriage held on to the main body?
Sky,
Thanks for all that info.
It certainly is a complicated way of doing things.
This is my 3rd post so I'll link some photos tomorrow, if anyone is interested.
Cheers!
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Thread Starter- skywatcher
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- From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 737
Re: Royal "O" model - how is the carriage held on to the main body?
Hi Once Again
One has to remember that this was 1930's technology and it was the dark days of the depression. Engineers were doing the best with what they had. World War 2 hadn't started yet, so there was nothing to really push research and development in things technical. A war does wonders for hastening technological design, which ever country can gain the edge on technology usually gains the upper hand in the war.
I stand to be corrected here if needed. Back when these machines were built and regularly serviced, materials were expensive and labor was cheap. It didn't matter if it took half a day to service one typewriter, that was likely $2.00 labor on a $60.00 machine. These days with labor rates edging towards of $100.00 per hour in many shops, 1 hour's labor charge for repairing a $150.00 lawn mower doesn't make sense any more. Everything must be viewed in perspective. All the best,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- M. Höhne
- Key Master
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- From: Maine
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 640
Re: Royal "O" model - how is the carriage held on to the main body?
Octavius wrote:
.... snip .... It certainly is a complicated way of doing things. .... snip ....
I think you would find most machines more complicated than you expect when you really look into them. I hope you're not thinking this carriage bearing system is unnecessarily complicated. These designs worked fine for over a hundred years, and when companies finally started to change them in the late 1960s, we pretty much agree that the changes were for the worse. This carriage rail bearing system was assembled in a skilled factory setting and was never intended nor expected to be serviced by amateurs without tools or instructions.The fact that something has to be done in a proper way should not be held against it. Instead, praise the cleverness of the engineers in making such things that work so well for so long.
- Octavius
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- Registered: 24-6-2013
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Re: Royal "O" model - how is the carriage held on to the main body?
Sky and Mr. M. Höhne,
Many thanks for putting that in perspective.
I stand corrected.
Cheers!
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Thread Starter- skywatcher
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- From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 737
Re: Royal "O" model - how is the carriage held on to the main body?
Hi Again Octavius
Do you still have the carriage balls, star washers and the small screws that stop the carriage from sliding off the end of its track? I just did some measuring on my 1935 Royal Model-O S/N O-476568 for some ideas. The carriage rails and carriage track are both 10.25" long and the balls as measured by the outer point of the star washers are 4.45" apart. This means that with the carriage perfectly centered, the balls should be 2.9" in from each end.
As we know that the star washers engage in both track and rail, they move the balls exactly half the distance of the carriage. Someone who is good at mathematics should be able to take these numbers and calculate exactly where on the track to stick each pair of balls and star washers with a dab of silicone grease so that as the carriage is slid along the rail, the star washers engage the carriage rail perfectly timed to the carriage.
I never was very good at math in school, so just thinking of this sort of equation makes my brain hurt. Therefore, I will hand this project off to someone who has in their head a good deal more active brain cells than I do. All the best,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- Octavius
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- Registered: 24-6-2013
- Posts: 9
Re: Royal "O" model - how is the carriage held on to the main body?
Wow, many thanks for thinking about the problem Sky!
Unfortunately, I never did find the ball bearings or star washers.
Let me ponder the math bit - that has an interest all on its own.
Cheers!
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