Welcome, Woodstockwhiz!

With most machines, a clean up is a good place to start. You don't want to get too carried away at first as there may be loose springs or other small parts that could easily be dislodged and subsequently lost.  I am not familiar with the Woodstock machines, so am not sure if anything can be removed from the outside so you can see inside.

Hello there, everyone! 

Newbie here from the Philippines. I grew up in the 80's so I had used typewriters before for school papers and such. My typewriter then was a pre-WWII Royal. I'm not quite sure which model it was, but for sure it was pre-war because it had glass keys. It served me well until the family could buy a PC and printer, and then I passed it on to someone else. 

A couple of years ago I became interested in typewriters again because I wanted to get one for someone suffering from Parkinson's Disease; she could no longer use her hand to write down notes or even sign her name. I thought maybe typing on a typewriter would be good exercise for her hands, and would help her express herself better. At first we borrowed a couple of typewriters (probably 80's-made) to try out and see if she could use them, but they felt too "flimsy" (I don't really know how to describe it) and she couldn't type on them. So we thought maybe something that felt more substantial, like the old Royal, would be better. Unfortunately that one was since passed on to someone else as well. So I had to look for one online. But pre-war Royals cost a pretty penny these days. In the end, I bought a 1950's Mercedes K45 from a German online seller (price + shipping were reasonable). The keys were plastic but everything else was metal. It worked like a charm and she could type on them fine.

After that, I ended up buying three more typewriters, for myself this time, because how cool is it to have typewriters with different fonts as well? ;) 



 

Thanks for the welcome, beak!

The typewriters I have now are an Atlas S12 (Antares) with Script type, a Swissa Junior with Bulletin type (with a ribbon vibrator problem that I made worse - see thread on Maintenance and Repairs) and a Triumph Tippa with Esquire/Bruxelles type (yet to arrive). I use the Atlas for typing greeting cards mostly. It's not in perfect shape (some of the plastic parts were broken and I had to glue them back together, and there's a couple of missing screws) but it works and has a script type, so I can't complain too much. I love the typing "feel" of the Swissa Junior... it just screams "Type some more!" Now if only I could fix it.

Hello and welcome!
I like everything about my Hermes 300o - except the paper rest.  You have a great machine there.

Hello,

My name is Brent Wiggins, I live in Florida and I loved the idea of typewriters so much that I decided to buy my own. It is a Smith-Corona Galaxie Twelve XII and it's in the bluest blue with a grey keyboard face. There's something about making the letters on a page permanent with the rhythm and motion of the machine and the man together. It gives you a new critical way of thinking that I enjoy far more than I can anticipate every time I sit down at the typewriter!