Right.  I know there is no direct link between tab and backspace (lousy pun unintentional), but I was just remarking that compared to the more common 12 it may have been necessary to redesign the backspace components to accommodate the different nearby tabulator components -- as you know the 12 has the traditional manually movable stops but the 30 not only has the multiple tabulator keys but the more modern complete row of tab stops set from the keyboard - though an odd tab clear mechanism that requires you to reach around to the back of the machine.

In terms of access to the mechanism I did remove the back panel but that does not give me a clear view of the parts of the mechanism near the escapement -- I'm not sure I want to attempt additional disassembly, I mean, it's a relatively minor problem as you can always push the carriage back a few spaces by hand and space forward!  If it's not an easy fix I will probably let it go.

By the way, one of the blades on the turbine looking thing engaged by the pawl is broken off. I'm afraid that happened on my watch  -- there is some separate issue that locks the carriage very occasionally, and the first time it happened I was jiggling it back and forth perhaps with a few more grams force (pedants begone, I know a gram is a mass) than strictly advisable on an older machine, and there was that gear slipping sound you never want to hear. I think it broke then because when I first saw the break it was bright but a few days later is was dull.  Next time the carriage locked (only two times so far and I've typed twenty or thirty single spaced sheets on the thing) I was more gentle and squirted some solvent around the escapement and jiggled delicately.

This means in some positions of the carriage the thing will not backspace at all, but does not seem to be related to the failure to catch when it does backspace. Thank the god of typewriters I broke a tooth which only is involved with backspacing and not one on the main escapement gear - and those things look pretty darn fragile! 

mre12ax7 wrote:

If you are a TWDB member there is a repair manual under the repairs section under resources.
It is titled DE Fox typewriter repair or something similar. It has a whole section on the Remington 12-series machines with illustrated diagrams.

Thank you for that. I don't know if you have to register to see that one but some you don't and I started reading one and it was a very humbling experience.  It made me feel like a damn fool for thinking I knew something about typewriters and it also made me aware just how high the standards (pun unintentional) were for machines in daily commercial use. There are a few pros out there now but many gradations of amateur, and most of the machines we drool over would probably be considered badly in need of servicing while some which prompt encomiums over their endurance would be considered overdue for rebuilding or junking. But what are you going to do - typewriters now for most of us are like cars in Cuba during the long drought: no new ones but a lot of creative repair work to keep the old ones running. A '56 Chevy kept running by jury rigging as personal transportation in '06 was not up to factory spec either.

The reason I did not register immediately for TWDB is that gmail need not apply! Bunch of damn spammers, we are.