Offline
That sounds a fun gathering!
I'm my own spouse at the moment so I embarrass myself bringing things in the door. There's only one door. The place is so small, & much as I love them I'm getting sick of seeing typewriters everywhere I look: on the bottom shelf and on top of the book case in the living room, under the table which is my desk in the living room, piled in front of another bookcase next to the couch in the living room... under the sideboard in the bedroom, under the bed, and set up on two small tables in a corner of the (admittedly enormous, but very much multitasking) bedroom. There's even a Splendid with its carriage off sitting naked on the little shelf underneath the coffee table. Oh, and two behind the little couch, one of which is my only parts machine, the SM5. There are 33 typewriters in my living room. And miraculously it still feels pretty much like a living room, but there's just too much pressure on every bit of this flat. It's no wonder I can barely work. And there are nine in the bedroom, so I've just figured out how many I own. (And there's the Lexikon coming on Monday.) (And all this is before you get to the guinea pigs! Thank God there aren't 42 of those...)
Much as I'd love another Progress, in other words, I must be content with my little Continental.
Offline
Sometimes I ask myself: "is this a hobby or an earnest mission of preservation?" That and I just like using them. Or, are there more sinister elements? Addiction? Where's the anonymous help network? My friends don't understand how I've been sidelined from old trucks to typewriters. (I confess I saved for a correspondence repair course from age 14 until I got my driver's license)
It can be fun by twos. My wife likes old sewing machines, but she doesn't have near the count I have in typing machines. On the weekend I went for the Woodstock I posted earlier; we made a nice get-a-way trip of the day. Dinner and a vintage Steiff bear for her from a 2nd hand store made for a nice time for all.
Offline
+1!
Offline
Reading Kat's post, I don't feel so bad! I was eyeing an Olympia with a wide carriage on Craigslist in an estate sale, but it has gone over $60 and I'd have to drive an hour or two at least to pick it up. I'll keep the money for the Royal that I've already committed to locally. One of those portables with the glass keys.
Offline
The Olympia appears to be an SM-4 with green space bar and tab set keys. I have been eyeing a green IBM Selectric II, but know nothing about those. It seems to be in good shape and was even serviced at some point locally.
Offline
colrehogan wrote:
Reading Kat's post, I don't feel so bad! I was eyeing an Olympia with a wide carriage on Craigslist in an estate sale, but it has gone over $60 and I'd have to drive an hour or two at least to pick it up. I'll keep the money for the Royal that I've already committed to locally. One of those portables with the glass keys.
That's the name of my current game, colrehogan - priorities!
Offline
I drove about 40 miles to get a Smith Corona (actually SCM) Secretarial, standard size machine from the early 60s. Very grungy, but for $5 I figured I couldn't go wrong. Turns out the drawband was wrapped around the mainspring drum, which was why it didn't work. But after finally freeing the drawband, threading it back under the carriage, and winding up the mainspring, suddenly the spring didn't take tension. It must have come detached from the core. Game over -- that is well over my competency level.
But the great news is that the brackets holding the feet are, as I thought they might be, exactly the same size as for my Deluxe Secretarial of a few years' older vintage, which came to me without the left side feet. (I've been using a book to support it!) So, if and when I get the mainspring fixed on the Secretarial, I can swap its feet back on it. But for now, I have a fully operative Deluxe Secretarial, which has more features (like three position ribbon switch, plus stencil) and is a darn nice standard machine.
Offline
Well, more great news. I'm an airhead at times: The spring on the Secretarial is perfectly fine; for some reason I was trying to wind it in the wrong direction. I must have gotten distracted and started to wind it in the wrong direction, and of course that didn't work. So, I am happy! Just need to reattach the drawband to the drum and carriage and I should be in business -- hopefully there are no other problems that haven't manifested themselves yet. The shell is still very grungy, and it may not ever look too good. The platen on the Secretarial is actually not too bad, so I may swap it into the Deluxe Secretarial as needed (these machines allow very easy removal and reinstallation of the platen).
And finally, the Secretarial and the Deluxe Secretarial will use the same set of left side feet going forward -- like two aged sisters who share dentures.
Offline
Just when I was certain there wasn't another typewriter out there that I needed, I found one.
A really, very nice Remington Rand, Deluxe Model 5 (post 1948) caught my eye while out shopping for another hand crank wall phone.
Everything seems to work as per factory spec and the only things missing are the ribbon spools, although I do have the grey plastic spool covers.
The case is nice, even without the key.
The two tone grey body is clean and scratch free and although the innards are just a little oily, the machine is very clean under the hood.
I was happy to pay only $30. (US) for it and even more so because of the interchangeable type slugs.
I have never actually seen a machine with this feature so I'm glad to finely have an example.
One thing I don't see is a way to set the right and left margins ?
I should have a spare ribbon that will work so as to give it a type test tomorrow.
Offline
Rattle Tap wrote:
even more so because of the interchangeable type slugs.
I have never actually seen a machine with this feature so I'm glad to finely have an example.
One thing I don't see is a way to set the right and left margins ?
I didn't know there were DeLuxe Model 5's with interchangable type slugs. That is really interesting; I'd really like to see a picture of this. As far as the margin settings, if it is the model I am thinking of, they are located behind the pull-down rear panel, behind the paper table.