overwood wrote:

Huh. Switched the platen and main feed roller (its easy) and the paper still slips. I'm stumped. Both platens look good, but there was a small flat spot on the feed roller that I switched out. Can't imagine its the springs, which seem fine, and don't really want to recover the platen and rollers. I can try switching the smaller feed roller too but that one looked fine. If I cant figure this out I may have to tackle the more odious shore of fixing the first unit that was damaged in shipping.

Well I abandoned the other one now, and am back to this one. I still can't get the end of the carriage run to work properly for any length or time, and give up. I found an orphaned spring in one of my QDL cases, so maybe that is part of the problem.

But anyway, back to this one which only had the mysterious paper feed problem. I finally solved the paper feed problem, I think. I switched all he rollers, again, and still had the problem, so there was only one thing left to change, the metal thingamabob sheet that goes behind the platen and which the feed rollers peek through. Voila! I see absolutely no reason that it was interfering with the paper feed but it seems to work great now. Now the offending metal piece will go with the unfixable carriage machine, into the depths of my closet never to emerge
 

SoucekFan wrote:

overwood wrote:

the metal thingamabob sheet that goes behind the platen and which the feed rollers peek through.

This part I believe you are referring to is called the paper pan or the deflector pan.

That sounds better than what I called it. ;-)  But I sure can't see anything wrong with the troublesome one. I could install it in QDL #2 but since #2 is hopeless for now I'm just happy that #1 is working properly and I finally have a good QDL to type on again!
 

Overwood,

I was just working on my Futura 800 (which is basically a QDL v4 - the insides are pretty much the same as my '41 QDL), when I noticed a similar binding issue in the carriage that you described in your QDL.

I stripped down the carriage to just its frame (no rollers, platen or anything), and disengaged the drawband. Then, with the carriage release held in and sliding the carriage carefully along, I noticed that around column 90 (it's a 12CPI machine) it started lightly binding, and through column 93, I could feel a little of a gear-not-quite-meshing feeling. Not as bad as I think you had, but something similar nonetheless. If it were worse, it certainly would slow the carriage near the end of the main springs force, causing it to stall. (This machine is still new to me, and I spent little time typing on it before I tore it all apart to clean / adjust (it was filthy). I don't know if this was an issue on this machine).

At this position, with the carriage stripped down, and carriage release engage (and I verified the center stop is nowhere near anything), the only thing contacting the carriage is the four ball bearings with their four pinion gears. P. 234 Typewriter Repair Bible suggests the pinions might be bent, but since the carriage is smooth everywhere else, I don't think that's it. I marked the inner and outer carriage rails where the bearings are just as it binds, then slid the carriage to the extreme ends so I could inspect the rails at those points. They looked fine, the holes for the pinion gears were clear. I gave them a good scrub with a brass brush just to be sure. Also, with the carriage at its extremes, I was able to inspect the bearings and pinions - they looked clean and true.

My only guess at this point is that the rails are slightly out of true, or parallel, or have a bit of a bend right there that narrows the gap around the ball bearings. That said, I don't really have a way to determine trueness or parallel without pulling the carriage off (and I don't want to deal with those bearings & pinions). P. 234 of the Bible says that parallel & true could be a cause, and to use special Rail Benders to form the rails until they work. I don't have one of those, and I'm afraid of mucking things up worse if I set to it with my t-benders. (Maybe I'll get a parts QDL/Futura to practice on someday - when I find more storage space).

So, I've no solutions for you, but know you're not alone. Perhaps your machine has a similar trueness issue to mine. I guess if I were feeling really adventurous and was feeling patient enough to deal with those ball bearings, I might try swapping carriages to see what happens. 

[Side note: I've seen Lucas Dul's trick of using drinking straws to get the bearings back in, and I've successfully used it. I wonder, though, if it'd be easier with the proper tool. I wonder if someone who has the official Royal tool were willing to lend it, or measure it with high precision, if we could make more. It seems like something that would be easy to fabricate for a machinist (I happen to know one, but I've not asked him about this yet)].

Ooh. Ouch. Yeah, bouncing around unprotected and unsecured in shipping could do all sorts of damage. It is amazing that it works and doesn't have all the protruding bits rounded off. 

I have a 50s QDL from SGW that I've not played much with. That's the next machine to put on the workbench. (I'm on a QDL/Futura tinker binge - I like working on several similar typewriters at once to use as references to each other).

Speaking of the Futura: not long after my last post, I continued down my checklist of issues, investigating why it seemed to randomly double-advance the carriage. I should have noticed that it wasn't random but very regular: turns out that the star wheel has one tooth missing. Real bummer as the typewriter is very clean (now that I've had at it), and otherwise very functional. Just has a bad heart. Guess that regulates this machine from being a usable machine to a teaching machine. I might try out bending the rails as I really doubt I'll find a donor star wheel. 

In the meantime, I'll finish cleaning and adjusting it so I can see if I like Futuras in general (After Pete E's rave reviews, I'm really curious).