1 of 1- TBarnatt
- New Member
Offline - From: Milford, MA.
- Registered: 21-9-2014
- Posts: 10
Hermes 3000
Hello all. I have been doing typewriter repair, cleaning adjusting lubricating and minor repairs for almost a year. Mostly older machines all manual. Have had a few almost stump me but I managed to figure them out and get them working well. I just had someone bring me a Hermes 3000, and I hope it's not too much for my experience! Better to tell them I can't work on it than mess it up!!!! To start could someone tell me what the red ribbon pully system is that connects to the paper bale? The left side is disconnected and hanging loose and there is a very small spring still attached to the ribbons end.That and the fact that the ribbon won't lift when the keys are depressed are the only things I think that are wrong with it. I read on line that to take the body off you remove the feet and I think the carriage? In the back, one on each side is a screw and small plate with a plus and minus symbol on it, does this remove carriage IN ONE PIECE ? Hoping for some advise. Thanks Tom
- JoeV
- Touch Typist
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- Registered: 11-4-2015
- Posts: 152
Re: Hermes 3000
The red ribbon in the paper bale indicates the position of the left and right margins. The allowable range of movement for the carriage will be within the left and right red bands. As you set the margins, the red bands move accordingly.
I wouldn't know how to repair them, but that's how they operate.
~Joe
- Uwe
- Moderator
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Hermes 3000
Good luck with that repair. It's an intricate system of pulleys and springs, and I've always thought it was a ridiculously over-engineered solution to indicate where a margin is set. It sounds like maybe one of the tensioning springs snapped, but photos would help. The case is a pain to remove, and I do recall having to remove the feet and carriage, but it's been a while since I worked on a 3000.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Spazmelda
- Key Master
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- From: Ohio
- Registered: 25-2-2015
- Posts: 830
Re: Hermes 3000
I have not had to repair the margin ribbon. Good luck with that. You can probably find a blog that discusses it. I think I've seen it floating around somehwere.
Yes, to take the case off you do remove the feet. I think you can get the case off without removing the carriage, just by shifting the carriage over to the side to slide the case off but I might be remembering wrong.
The carriage is very easy to remove though. There are two big screws on either side (if you move the carriage over on each side, you will see them where the carriage connects to the body- and yes, the ones with the plus and minus) that you loosen to be able to slide the entire carriage assembly out. If I recall correctly, one of the screws unscrews the normal way (lefty loosie) and the other goes the other way (that took me forever to figure out, so you are welcome to skip that potentially screw stripping step). I also seem to recall there is some other fiddly step with putting the carriage back on. You have to hold the space bar down so that a particular connection is made. I ended up using a magnetic dish to hold the space bar down while putting the carriage back on.
Last edited by Spazmelda (26-9-2015 17:14:09)
- Typewriterlv
- Platen Punisher
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- From: Los Angeles, CA
- Registered: 25-9-2015
- Posts: 90
Re: Hermes 3000
I actually "repaired" one of these on my first Hermes 3000. Something happened to the right side and I found out (to my complete HORROR) that the original owner SUPER GLUED that right ribbon to the interior end of the bale. Even my usually great repair guy wouldn't touch it. Said he couldn't do anything about it. The margins still set but the right ribbon didn't move and a part of the spring inside was stretched and uncoiled. Well I never say never so I set to work on it. Since I am a complete amateur, my methods may have been unconventional but in the end they worked.
First I unscrewed the bale on the right. Then I used a q-tip and acetone to gently loosen all the thick dried super glue that completely clogged the opening. I used fine tip paper piercer to carefully dig out the loosened glue. Unfortunately, the ribbon came off the spring and the metal Clip holding the ribbon to the spring popped off too and broke in half. Shocking as that was, I still plowed on. Next I pulled out the ribbon and let it hang there while I switched to a super fine tip steel file to gently clean out the tube so it was reasonably clear enough for the ribbon to move back and forth easily. Then I made a makeshift wire hook to snag the end of the spring from inside the bale. I managed to use strong double sided tape to reattach the tiny metal clip to the ribbon end. It was tricky but I also got the spring extended out enough to hook it back on the metal clip holding the ribbon after I trimmed the ribbon end clean. I had to snip off the uncoiled part of the spring too so the spring could bounce back and forth easily again. Once everything was reattached, I put the bale back in place and SUCCESS! The right side of ribbon is moving again!!!!
The only downside is that that end is about a few mm off from the true margin stop. Otherwise it moves back and forth. I'll probably take it to my repair guy someday to see if he can recalibrate it but I'm not in a hurry. I'm just glad it's working again.
- Spazmelda
- Key Master
Offline
- From: Ohio
- Registered: 25-2-2015
- Posts: 830
Re: Hermes 3000
^Impressive!
