Im planning on using him when I repaint my KMG. Will he do custom decals for that?

Wondering why there is silly putty? Use it to clean type slugs!

(Im serious..)

TypewriterGuy, 

The clock on your desk is exactly the same one as the one in my parents' room, and they got it when I was still very young! What are the odds... (pretty high apparently)

And I never thought of using Silly Putty as a typeface cleaner... Seems more efficient than picking it out slowly with the tip of a dull knife... (not to mention less dangerous)

Today was both - a joy and dissapointment. First, the joy - this locally found Optima Elite is actually in great mechanical condition, with perfectly aligned typebars, and it is very easy to type on it:


Now, the part of joy and dissapointment - I have always wanted to buy Hammond with round keyboard, but the price was always too much. Finally this year I decided to buy a Christmas present for myself, and ordered this machine from ebay. Although it was described as "excellent working condition", unfortunately it is not. Missing immersion strip, loose carriage, damaged and cracked platen and feed rollers are still the minor problem - major one is left side of the keyboard, which functions incorretly, printing wrong symbols, getting stuck or not printing at all. Besides, pressing one key sometimes depresses two or even three - a problem not easy to solve I guess.




Needless to say this was not a cheap machine...

It was a three machine day for me yesterday. One planned for, two were unexpected, and fortunately all are in good working order. Here are the before photos (I've since started a full cleaning of one):

1974 Adler Electric 21d
[img]http://www.vorg.com/typers/1974_Adler_Electric_21d_-_Wachtendorf_Collection_(sm1).JPG[/img]

It's a surprisingly well-featured and nicely executed machine. There are display windows in the on/off and tab set rockers to show the ribbon colour and imprint settings. It has a paper injector, albeit not as nice as the one found on the Olympia SG models, and a dual ribbon system (regular multi-use nylon and one-time carbon). I'm not really an electric collector, but for $20 it was impossible to pass on, and the worst case scenario was to use it for parts; I need a right side platen knob for a Triumph Super Matura and this machine has the same knobs, but since it's working I'll have to mold a replacement instead. I have to give thetypewriterman a shout out for pointing me in this direction. He had graciously offered to sell me the knob, and while I was mulling it over this machine fell into my lap. 


1959 Smith-Corona Galaxie II



I wasn't really after another 6-series Smith-Corona portable, but this one looked flawless and had the green-coloured platen and the jeweled escapement, so for $25 there wasn't really an option to say no.


1943 Torpedo 18a



And finally there was this Torpedo, which has for better or worse turned out to be an enigma. The RM (Reichsmark) key is the first evidence that it was manufactured between the late '30s and 1948, and its serial number suggests that it was actually made in 1943, but there's a problem: the second digit in the serial number has been stamped over (with a differnt typeface - so it's unlikely a mistake with the original number), and that 'new' number indicates that it was made in 1947.

I have a number of theories to account for this, but they are nothing more than guesses as I don't have any hard data to support my ideas. One of my thoughts is that the machine was refurbished, or otherwise refitted at the Torpedo factory after the war - a period when such machines would have been difficult to come by - and then resold with a new number. A number of key legends have been replaced, but with ones that are identical to the originals, which might suggest that it was done within a few years of it having been made. I'll have to look for evidence that this sort of thing was actually done within the history of the brand, so for now it remains a small mystery to me.

The Torpedo looks like hell in the photos, but it's been cleaning up nicely, and more importantly, it works well with a slightly heavier type action when compared to a Royal portable from the same era.