This creamy yellow Torpedo portable typewriter from the year 1960 came to me a bit broken. Dropped of course, and now complete with multiple bent levers and the paper bail. So sad as I see this with Voss typewriters as well. After getting a few of these models in the shop for dropsy repair I've developed the opinion that the carrying case is to blame. Yes! I blame an inanimate object and its deceased designers. The way both the Torpedo and … [Read more...]

I should know by now that simple things are never really simple. Take, for example, a fine electric Smith-Corona Automatic 12. It came to the shop with a disconnected draw cord. Well, that is pretty simple; just reconnect it to the carriage and re-tension the spring drum . . . done! HA! Take a look at the photos, the original spring drum is on the left and the replacement from a donor machine on the right. How many times has that spring … [Read more...]

This snazzy little bright orange machine hardly needed my touch. Really just a light cleaning of the auto spacing mechanism and a new ribbon got this fast little guy off to the races. I just wanted to share. … [Read more...]

I love the brightly colored machines and this red Royal Quiet DeLuxe from the year 1957 is a delight for the eyes. This customer's machine needed a heavy cleaning and a few bent items re-formed on the carriage. After I got this red demon all cleaned up I shared it with Don at Typewriter Fever. Envy!!! It was hard letting this typewriter go back to a well deserving customer. … [Read more...]

This little beauty was a display item at the customer's home for a really really long time. Recently it was brought out so they could use it. All those years resting comfortably left this machine quite the dust bunny! Such cleaning. I love the color and the Royal decal is perfection. The typewriter cleaned up nicely and has a crisp typing feel. … [Read more...]

These two darlings were brought in by a customer wanting to get them tuned up. What a nice pair, both from the year 1962. The blue model had its draw band all wrapped around the spring drum caused by the tab brake irreparably frozen up. It had a little too much corrosion in the tab brake to make it usable so I had to disconnect it so the spring drum (and tabs) would perform. The same thing happened with the pink model. The Pink machine … [Read more...]

Hi folks. What was a standard Remington portable typewriter service complete with replacing paper rollers, deteriorated frame spacers and a general cleaning, re-oiling and adjustment turned ugly. All this because I'm an occasional klutz. Every thing was going quite swimmingly with the paper rollers turning out fine and the frame spacers nice and new. Then I took the platen to the vent hood to clean it free of crap. Well that damn thing slipped … [Read more...]

This diminutive calculator came in for a good cleaning and needed new rubber feet. It worked, yet just a little slow. When I opened it up, ta-da! Old gunky oil and grease plus a smidgen of dust and dirt. Off to the solvent station and the years of gunk just float away like yesterdays meal. Unscrewing the old feet was the hardest job, as each screw stripped its threads clean away. I hate when that happens. On the other hand the new … [Read more...]

This Remington Standard 7 typewriter came to the shop a few years too late to get it running again. The customer felt very sad since the machine had been in the family so many years. Being stored in garages, storage containers and the like added rust to decades of idle time. Without the rust a Remington Standard typewriter works decade after decade. I was reluctant to take this one on and the customer was very convincing, even adamant … [Read more...]

This West Germany built Olympia Progress Portable Typewriter is from 1948. I think that is the last year the Progress was built in the Olympia plant before it was transferred to the East Germany Optima plant. I nice example of the time. 663387 … [Read more...]