1 of 1- OliverNo.9
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1913 Royal 'Flatbed' Model 5 - broken ribbon vibrator
So yesterday I picked up a Royal Model 5 at a flea market. It works well and even has some apothecary keys! Now for the trouble. Somehow I missed the bent ribbon vibrator (bent to the left, blocking the print point.) So, carefully I bent it back in place, but I could tell that I better not touch it again.
Unfortunately, it did eventually break and I was wondering if anyone has ever fixed a ribbon vibrator before?
Right now, I have a bent paper clip holding the ribbon so that it does not get tangled and it is working okay, but I would really like to try and fix it.
Thanks in advance. OliverNo.9
- OliverNo.9
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Re: 1913 Royal 'Flatbed' Model 5 - broken ribbon vibrator
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Thread Starter- Uwe
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Re: 1913 Royal 'Flatbed' Model 5 - broken ribbon vibrator
Unless you have the required welding (or in this case brazing) skills and equipment, your best bet would be to take the vibrator to someone who does.
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- OliverNo.9
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Re: 1913 Royal 'Flatbed' Model 5 - broken ribbon vibrator
Uwe wrote:
Unless you have the required welding (or in this case brazing) skills and equipment, your best bet would be to take the vibrator to someone who does.
Uwe, thank you for the advice. I will look into it. You wouldn't happen to know how to get the ribbon vibrator out of the machine?
Thanks again. OliverNo.9
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Thread Starter- mre12ax7
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Re: 1913 Royal 'Flatbed' Model 5 - broken ribbon vibrator
This guy has a guide to disassembling the Royal 5.
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- thetypewriterman
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Re: 1913 Royal 'Flatbed' Model 5 - broken ribbon vibrator
You will need to find someone who is skilled at soft-soldering once you have removed the ribbon vibrator. Brazing or Silver-Soldering requires higher temperatures (red heat) and the thin metal might not take it very well. Soft-soldering isn't strong enough in itself to mend a break like that, but if a steel splint (for instance cut from a tin can) is soldered across the crack (assuming that it will not catch on anything when the vibrator is fitted back into the machine) it will be plenty strong enough and practically invisible. I repaired an Imperial Good Companion ribbon vibrator this way last month and it worked very well. I do stress that you need to find someone who knows what they are doing. It is a tricky thing to solder !
- skywatcher
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Re: 1913 Royal 'Flatbed' Model 5 - broken ribbon vibrator
Hi Oliver
Another option that I've seen for repairing or fusing thin steel together is laser welding. Some goldsmiths have these for repairing jewelry and I saw one being used on an episode of 'How it's Made' for welding the body tube of a model turbine engine together. Just a thought, all the best,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
