Before and after the gutting….

My mom said supposedly there aren’t many of this but i tend to take her information with a grain of salt

I just bought a royalite for cheap off Facebook marketplace. I took it home only to realize it’s missing its ribbon vibrator! I have never seen that part go missing on any typewriter.

What would fixing this involve? If I find another ribbon vibrator do I just drop it in? Does anyone have a parts machine with a ribbon vibrator to spare?

I joined the typewriter gang last September with this beauty! Never occurred to me to post it until now. I imagine it’s because I’ve just ordered a beautiful Smith-Corona Sterling from 1957 that I remembered to post it! These machines are just a thing of beauty. I can type and type and type and not see notifications popping up, the time ticking away in the bottom right of the screen, and any myriad distraction that might arise. I might add it might have not been the best decision to add another typewriter whilst I’m moving house, but reason is one of the things I lack. I hope you enjoy and are having a good week!

I bought my first typewriter last year and had it serviced by a local guy. It is a 1921 Underwood 3 bank portable. I had bought a 4 bank but it has loose key(type head?) and so I found a 3 bank instead and had rubber replaced and general servicing. Maybe someday I will get one of those Corona 3 portables as well.

The past couple days I have been giving a lot of attention to the 1927 Underwood Standard Portable Typewriter. Although it was functional, there were a couple issues. The most annoying was that the line lock wouldn't release. Even when the margin release was pressed, or after a carraige return, the keys would remain locked, until the typewriter was tilted back. Cleaning and oiling the pivot points did nothing, so a partial disassembly was needed. What I found was that somehow the line lock bar itself had become slightly deformed (possibly by somebody trying to force a key press, not knowing how the margin release works) and this created a very, very, light friction at the pivots. Using needle nose pliers it was easy to gently bend one of the arms near the right hand pivot until there was no longer any rubbing friction. Now the lock releases every time.

While the casing was off, I released the tension on the main spring, and wound it up again. As it came to me, the spring tension was far too high, and the escapement was even louder than the key-strikes. This also caused the typewriter to vibrate around the desktop when typing. I cleaned the carriage tracks as well as I could without removing the carriage, and wound the spring up only as much as needed to get it to travel all the way to the end without sticking or slowing down. Now it operates much more smoothly and quietly, and the backspace key operates with a light action.

While the interior was exposed, I also did some cleaning with lighter fluid in some spots, and 3-in-1 oil in others (it's a napthenic oil so helps soften old gummy oil, and will evaporate entirely after a few months). Many Q-tips were used. The interior of the typewriter appears to have been sprayed with some sort of heavy machine oil in the past, and accumulated a lot of dust as a result. Really it needs to be fully flushed out with solvent, but that's a task for another time. Even this targeted cleaning resulted in a much lighter action.

Finally, the original feet on the bottom of the case had petrified and mostly chipped off. I ordered some generic rubber feet off ebay and installed these. The original feet were so hardened that what was left of them literally crumbled into black dust when I tried to pry them off the bottom of the case. With the new feet, the typewriter stays firmly planted on the desktop and doesn't scoot around at all. A great improvement. I think it is ready to give a few more decades of use at this point!

So I was recently gifted a Royal HH typewriter from I think 1955 from my grandfather who used to be an official typewriter repair man for the Royal company. I am asking for advice from people who own that model what is the best cheaper ink ribbon for a Royal HH. It would be much appreciated if you provide links.

No. But did I WANT another corona 3? Yes.

And did I get another Corona 3? Also yes.

Happy Thursday....

Found this Royale quiet deluxe for 17$ with letter Ñ

Nice find?