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I'm looking for a service manual for the Hermes 2000. I've not found any on the web so far. How much similarity is there between the 3000 and the 2000? I.e. if I got Ted Munk's Hermes 3000 Typewriter Repair Bible, am I 80% of the way there?Meanwhile: I've got a Hermes 2000 that came to me with a carriage that's frozen a half inch or so right of center. Carriage release levers do nothing, nor do space, tab, backspace, or letters. (letters don't make it all the way to the platen, either, as if the line lock is on). Any suggestions?
I notice that the carriage release levers move a bar that runs under the carriage and engages a vertical post. Looking under the typewriter, that post moves something near the star wheel, under the back-space pawl. That moves almost freely and doesn't seem to do anything other than contact the side of the star wheel and move away. The star wheel won't budge. No signs of rust or corrosion. A fair amount of oil is there.
Looking down the carriage rack from the side, I see nothing engaging the carriage except a gear connected to the star wheel, and the bearings.I'd hoped to remove the back panels to get a better view on what's going on, but that requires moving screws behind the carriage...
Any tips or hints? Or sources of drawings for the escapement and carriage?
(My current theory: years back, the typewriter had been put away, correctly engaging the carriage center lock. Then, the previous owners opened up the case, and, not knowing how to disengage the center lock, tried to force it (as often happens on RP1s and RP2s). Looks to me that they opened the case with a little force, too, which seems to corroborate the theory).
Thanks!
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Hi Robmck, I wonder if you have solved your issue. I recently restored a 2000, and it is now my favourite typer of the 14 permanent keepers I have. When I rescued it, it had the same problem, and it turned out in my case to be the lightning margin. The following address will get you the PDF of the user manual. The margins are explained within.
Kind regards,
zoom
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Oh, the address:
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Oh, the address:
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I had set the machine aside and moved onto the next one in my work queue. Thanks for the tip! I'll dig this out of storage and give it a try.
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Thanks for the tip, Zoom.
It turns out not to be the margins. Both margins were drawn into the center (nice for shipping). I used a hook to pull them back out to the sides, but the carriage still wouldn't move. The stop had nothing up against it.
Taking the opportunity to look deeper into the machine with better lights, I think the problem is in the escapement: the carriage rack engages a gear (I'll call it the carriage gear because I don't know what it's properly called), which engages a gear that's part of the starwheel. The starwheel/gear is off axis, and the carriage gear is hitting one of the starwheel teeth. So, I've either got to get that starwhee/gear back on axis, or somehow get it out of the machine (or at least out of position enough to free the carriage gear.
Looks like the starwheel/gear axel is towards the back of the machine, with centering screw in the front that it's no longer engaging with. Not sure what my approach will be yet, but it certainly will be of the slow and patient variety. Maybe I can find some axis to the nut at the back of the axel. Or maybe I can somehow pull the carriage gear. I should be able to pull move the centering screw back a bit, but I don't know that buys me anything.
Of course, if I am successful, I don't know if the starwheel axel the rest of the assembly is bent beyond repair.
Still, it's a fun adventure. I bought this machine and a few other non-functioning machines to learn.
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Hi Robmck,
the starwheel is designed to float, and I would be very hesitant to touch it.There are some interesting posts about the 2000, OZ Typewriter having two articles I think.
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I thought I'd give you all an update on what happened with this little typewriter.
After posting this thread several years ago, I decided that this problem was beyond my skills at the time, and I put it on the shelf until I'd learned more.
Last week, I decided it was time to give it a go.
First, I made several attempts at removing the starwheel in situ, but there was no way to get wrenches near it, with enough room to operate. I was not able to remove any body panels to get access since the side and back panels had screws under the immobile carriage.
I decided to loosen the four screws that attached the escapement to the bottom plate of the carriage. This freed the carriage, enabling to move the panels around. Even with more access, I was unable to do much with the escapement where it was, so I removed the entire carriage, including the base plate.
From there I removed the escapement to assess the situation. The starwheel itself looked in good shape. One of its axel pins had its point flattened in whatever blow knocked the starwheel loose. The pinion gear refused to turn. Finally, I saw that the escapement frame had been bent. The side that contained the flattened axel pin was bowed.
Looking at the assembly from the side, both axel pins were pointing upward. Exactly what you'd expect given the position of the starwheel before disassembly.
I removed the starwheel and axel pins. The pinion gear wouldn't turn on its axel, but when I tried to turn the axel screw, it turned with it. So, it was not hung up on the frame. I put some Kroil on it and it freed up immediately. The copious amounts of congealed lubricant that covered everything inside the machine had turned to glue. I still could not free the front screw of the pinion from its axel adjustment, but the gear turned fine, now so I left it. The entire assembly got a nice ultrasonic bath.
Then, I tried to true the escapement frame as best as possible. I stripped it down, and put it laterally in a wide vice (with covers on the jaws), with the bowed section against the fixed side of the vice, then carefully cranked it down. This straightened it out much more, but left a bit of bow. Cringing a bit, I allowed myself to use channel locks to squeeze it at the center of the bow - only a just a bit as the frame looks die-cast and I didn't want to snap it. It's not perfectly true, but it's functional.
I also used some parallel pliers to try to carefully straighten the starwheel axel mounts.
Reassembling everything, I mounted it to the newly cleaned and overhauled carriage, and remounted the carriage, thankful for the aligning pins keeping it all in adjustment.
Well, actually, I remounted the carriage twice: the first time I thought I knew how it went together. Then, when the tabulator, ribbon lift, and motion didn't work, I saw sow how it _actually_ went together, I removed the carriage and reassembled it, putting everything it its right place. With that, everything on the carriage worked.
The keys and typebars however, were just as immovable as the pinion gears. Ultrasonic cleaning, mineral spirits, and PBlaster did not work. Again, Kroil came to the rescue, though the segment still took three courses of cleaning to be mostly functional.
Everything reassembled, the typewriter is really nice. I love the keyboard feel, and the levers for color selection and tab setting. Everything else was in good adjustment.
I am still tracking down two quirks, though.
1) The leftmost three typebars in the segment (Q, A, and 2) skip an extra space after typing them. When I manually push the u-bar on that side of the segment (using a segment pick), it trips the escapement only for a single space, as does pressing the keys very slowly. With the segment pick, I don't notice anything untoward in these slots, but it does seem that a targeted rinse of these slots with mineral spirits + 10% oil improves it for a few lines.
I first thought it just needed more cleaning given the above and the fact that the extreme ends of the segment were the worst-off during cleaning. But, I noticed that these keys don't skip in the capital shift position... So, I'm scratching my head still.
2) Several keys (Y, P, Q, G, comma, period, ?, ", #, $, and %) clank loudly when struck - only in capital shift position. Moving the typebars slowly, I don't see anything that they contact other than the platen and segment ring (they sail beautifully through the type guide). I tried putting electrical tape on the segment ring as a cushion, but that didn't change anything.
I'm not fully done working on this machine, but considering the state it came to me in, it looks quite promising.
And I never did find a Hermes 2000 service manual.
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I've sorted out the caps clanking (I had set too high the metal strip that goes across the front of the carriage).
Still scratching my head over the skipping issue for the leftmost keys (Issue #1, above). Anyone have suggestions for me on that?
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I've seen a couple posts elsewhere on the internet suggesting that the Hermes 2000 skipping may be due to vibration, and that it can be addressed by using a typing pad. At any rate, it seems like something others have encountered.
Reddit: Hermes 2000 carriage skip
The Baffling Case of the Hermes 2000 Skipping ‘A’
Thanks for the detailed pictures of your work. I ended up here because I was also hoping, without luck, to find a Hermes 2000 service manual.
I recently bought a 1950s Hermes 2000 that came with a frozen carriage caused by the starwheel/pinion slipping off of the point of the front pivot screw just like yours. I also had to remove the carriage to access the area in order loosen the pivot screw, set the starwheel/pinion and tighten it back up. It was much easier to remove the carriage than to get it back on