Typewriter Talk / Royal KMG carriage strap/draw band repair

**Posted by WJC** 22-7-2023 22:12:07

I posted this previously, but I realized I posted in in the wrong sub-forum, so I'm reposting it here where I hope it is more appropriate.

I recently acquired a 1949 Royal KMG, and I was very happy with it! But, while I was typing yesterday, the draw band that connects to the mainspring snapped (both of the metal clips are okay though). After some research, I've concluded I should be able to use some flat shoe laces as a replacement for the band. However, I need to attach the shoe lace to the clips. I do not own a grommet tool to attach the band how it was originally, but would it be possible to sew the shoe lace to itself to attach it to the clip? I can provide pictures of what I mean if this is unclear.

**Posted by thetypewriterman** 23-7-2023 03:44:35

Yes absolutely you can hand-sew metal ends onto drawbands. Many typewriter manufacturers did this as standard, although machine-sewn of course.

**Posted by Pete E.** 23-7-2023 13:44:27

My wife sewed back together my Facit T2 draw-band that broke in the middle. She cut away some frayed ends and overlapped the newly cut ends by about 1/2 inch and then used one of her sewing machines and did a few passes with a zig-zag stitching pattern so more sewing threads were holding the draw-band pieces together.
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**Posted by WJC** 23-7-2023 18:37:08

Thanks for telling! Sewing worked great, the new band made of shoe lace is working great.

**Posted by Pete E.** 24-7-2023 09:53:57

1/4" wide woven ribbon from the sewing section at Wal-Mart works great too. Strong as heck.

Plus you can get some very cool colours and jazz-up the inside of a machine.
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**Posted by WJC** 10-9-2023 16:37:33

It's funny that you should mention using colored ribbon to jazz up the typewriter; the shoelace that I used for the repair is black with an orange stripe down the middle, and I think the pop of color really looks fun on the KMG!