I love it when one of my customers brings in a machine that you don't see often. While you see Rheinmetall portable typewriters, the large standard machines are few and far far away. This full featured GS beast is from 1950, serial number 12250. It is a recent customer purchase brought in for a cleaning, tune up and the tabs were hanging up. The machine features ease of service as the carriage assembly lifts off with a twist of knobs on each … [Read more...]

This stately Remington Model 17 wide carriage typewriter from 1952 is the king of any desk top. A recent purchase of a customer and brought in to show off and get some decades deferred TLC. Once opened up there was quite the layer of old tobacco smoke residue. There was enough tar and I had to remove the escapement assembly and use the big guns; carburetor cleaner! The machine also exhibited some shift and upper and lower case alignment problems. … [Read more...]

I consider the Corona portable machines as pretty durable and when clean and adjusted they are trouble free. The most common adjustment I make is upper case print alignment. This nice customers burgundy example from 1934 came into the shop for a much needed cleaning, left margin bent and the upper and lower case characters were WAY off. Way, way off. Also, this machine while all pretty and shiny is thrashed mechanically. All sorts of previous … [Read more...]

Hermes 3000 3D Printed Knobs are pretty damn fine. These skanky knobs were on a customer machine from 1966 and needed replacing. The new knobs press fit onto the original metal hubs. A perfect fit. Look nice too. … [Read more...]

This Remington Scout from 1932 is a quite nicely preserved machine. Brought in by a customer for service after what I presume, was a successful typewriter hunt. The machine needed a good cleaning, new paper rollers (always) and new frame spacers. It really needs a new platen, yet puts good print on paper with the old one. Cosmetically, this typewriter is very attractive. This Scout has both upper and lower case, no tabs, no back … [Read more...]

This fine example of a Maritsa 2 Portable Typewriter is a customers brought to the shop for a little love. The typewriter  was recently purchased during a trip to Europe, I believe in Spain. Built in Bulgaria you don't see too many in the Northwest. The typewriter needed a thorough cleaning and had some corrosion near the carriage, some springs and screws were missing and the shift was a little wonky. The machine features a … [Read more...]

This Remington portable 5 machine from the year 1936 was a recent customer purchase and needed quite a bit of love to get it into top shape. The repair list; new frame spacers, new draw cord, new paper rollers, bent type bars, carriage return arm hanging up, tabulator not working plus the normal cleaning and tune up routine. The only thing left would be a new platen! Normally I don't recommend spending a lot of time on the Remington … [Read more...]

This Olympia SM2 portable typewriter was brought in for service. Undeniable it was dirty on first examination. Wow . . . what a mess. It was such a dirt bucket. Corrosion and rust, copious dust and debris, chunks of unidentifiable matter (yes I closed my eyes then whimpered). Also as I dismantled the machine for cleaning it became apparent this machine had been THRASHED. As in well used. As in worked hard and put away wet. Damn did I … [Read more...]

This sweet Torpedo Portable is a customer machine in for service. I love the creamy yellow color. The machine was skipping and needed some general cleaning. After the normal cleaning and tune up the skipping was still present. Usually a good cleaning is all you need. So what do you do? You go look at the escapement assembly to see what is up. In this case, the rocker assembly was still sluggish, the loose dog not returning crisply as it … [Read more...]

This Erika 10 typewriter came in to the shop after a customer bought it online. He knew when buying it that much work was needed. The case and typewriter were filthy, yuck. When I made up the estimate I noted the paper rollers were flat, sticking keys, and many many disconnected type bars. When I opened up the machine and vacuumed out all the crap I discovered that a couple of the links and springs were missing! Well darn it. Erika got all … [Read more...]