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Have you ever had a typewriter that you liked to use, but it was so loud, or just loud enough, that it was unpleasant?
My Underwood No. 5 is this way. Very nice machine to use... but because it is so loud that it is a bit unpleasant to use and it does not have a hard platen.
My LC Smith 8 s the same way and it has a good platen, too.
OliverNo.9
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You tested the two platens with a durometer? And when you say loud, are you referring to the overall operation of the typewriter or just the sound of the type slugs making contact with the ribbon?
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Uwe wrote:
You tested the two platens with a durometer? And when you say loud, are you referring to the overall operation of the typewriter or just the sound of the type slugs making contact with the ribbon?
Uwe,
not with a durometer, just the fingernail test I once heard about.
As to the loudness, I'm mainly referring to the type slug hitting the ribbon and platen.
I mostly asked because I wanted to know if others had had similar experiences as out of the machines I own, only a few are unbearably loud to me or unpleasant to the ear.
OliverNo.9
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OMG yes! My underwood 3 bank could wake up the entire block, its such a loud clack!
I have a hermes ambassador as well that is quite loud. It can put holes through 3 sheets of paper. As soon as I realized, I stopped using for the sake of the slugs...
One of the reasons I like my noiseless is because I can actually hear myself think while working
And it doesn't disturb the peace...
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Lovely SM3 I have, my first Olympia, two tone maroon over gray. Very loud -- hard platen, though the slugs don't dent the paper at all. But the touch is so nice that the loudness just conveys the sense of it being a serious typer.
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My S&N Erika S is a screaming little vermin, because of the spring-loaded typebars and the hard platen. That´s a match made in heaven which sounds like a Tommy gun, because this machine allows for devilish speeds. My Torpedo 20 is quite noisy as well, this one only due to the rock hard platen.
Another veriosn of being noisy is the Hispano Olivetti Lexicon 80. The platen is fine, but the operation of the machine (mostly the caps system) sounds like a , or more accurately it goes PLONK PLANK PLONK PLANK.
But the Smith Corona Electra 220 takes the cake. Not only the motor is noisy (as expected), but it drives the typeslug with extreme force into the platen. For now it´s fine, but I guess such passion could put too much wear on the platen and the typeslugs.
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Interesting question.
For me, I think it is the Remington 5 and the Smith Corona Coronet 12 electric that I own. I am self conscious if I use these machines in public. Public being the writing grohp that I participate in. Funny thing is that they didn't really think that of the electric when I used it. But that was all I could think about all evening.