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Hello Sirius
I envy you your access to the German market for typewriters, which is amazing. All those wonderful Olympias, Alpinas and Adlers! When I buy them, I have them sent to Australia - and you can guess what that costs.
Are you a native German speaker?
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beak wrote:
I envy you your access to the German market for typewriters, which is amazing. All those wonderful Olympias, Alpinas and Adlers! When I buy them, I have them sent to Australia - and you can guess what that costs.
I can imagine. Collecting devices mainly manufactured overseas is an expensive operation. I admire your passion to do so nevertheless.
beak wrote:
Are you a native German speaker?
Yes. English is still a little difficult to me, but it mostly works. If you need a translation of something, just ask, I’m happy to help.
Greetings
sirius
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Hi, thanks for having me in your group.
I think I'm falling in love with typewriters. At first, it was just the one bright orange German typewriter (1980s vintage, perhaps?) by Karstadt which I've had a couple of years now. but only use from time to time because I can't get used to the keys being in a different order.
Really, I only got it because it was broken and cheap. I like fixing mechanical things and typewriters are basically the next logical step. It was pretty easy, one of the springs had come unhooked, an area needed a tiny spot of oil (I used sewing machine oil, I hope that's light enough), and a new ribbon. It works like a charm, the only problem is with the user (me) not being able to remember the keys are mixed about.
Then this weekend I found a typewriter that's much more my style. I think it's called a Remmington Standard, model 30. I was really looking forward to taking it all apart, fixing it, then putting it back together, but I can't find a single thing wrong with it that a good dusting wouldn't cure. It has lovely smooth typing motion and is intuitive to use (once I figured out what a tabulator(?) is). I think this will replace my fountain pen for dedicated writing time. My first job is to clean the machine, make a dust cover for it, then learn how to best take care of it.
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Welcome Trampled! Sorry it took so long to welcome you!
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Hi, thanks for letting me join!
When I walked to my dumpster yesterday night, I saw a beautiful vintage typewriter sitting next to it. Apparently someone wanted to get rid of it. After taking it home I found out it was an Underwood Touchmaster 5. It seems to be in near mint condition, but the keys are very sticky, which can probably be resolved by cleaning it a little.
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Welcome to the forum, Schop. It's surprising - to me at least - how many typewriters are found in the garbage.
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I recently got a Touchmaster 5 myself (not for free; $10) and you have a very nice machine there. Plenty of info here about cleaning the segment to free up the typebars. Did it come with the ribbon spools? Ribbons you can replace, but the spools are harder to come by.
Welcome!
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Uwe wrote:
Welcome to the forum, Schop. It's surprising - to me at least - how many typewriters are found in the garbage.
Hoo boy!! You said a mouthful there, man. One time I found eleven typewriters in one dumpster. Sounds like a tall Texas tale from a tall Texun, but I'd swear there were no fewer than eleven!
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And, I trust you salvaged them all??
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Well, I went through them all, and salvaged about five. Ten of these were IBM selectrics, and one Royal HHE with a 15" carriage. Four Selectrics I was able to fix and sell--the others were parts machines, and the Royal I gave to a friend.