Foreign correspondent

Life feels so empty and meaningless now the Remington Rand Model 1 is finished. Whatever will I do with all this spare time? Maybe I should dust it.

Looks a bit wonky because I photographed it that way.  The typewriter's fine.

Happy feet

The cobbler in town wouldn't sell me any rubber soles to whittle new feet for my down at heel Remington Rand Model 1. Said he didn't want people going off mending their own shoes, even though I told him it was for a typewriter. Fair enough. But he did sell me a piece of 8mm flat rubber he uses for stacking soles for £2 - enough for 8 feet. Much better material than the heels would have been. It is dense enough to just be able to deform it a little when you pinch it. I used the metal 'shells' as templates, then cut pieces to size and shape with a Stanley knife, chamfering each of the edges and sandpapering to round the corners. For these to work, close is good enough. Clamping the shell to the new foot, I drilled a 4mm hole through to take the bolt. The photo shows the sequence.

The bolts have a shank which prevents them being screwed in too far and I'd evnvisaged having to cut a recess to accommodate the square washer but tightening the bolt snugged it well into the rubber. By the time I'd installed all four new feet, it was obvious that there was a small chance the bolt heads would scratch whatever surface the typewriter may be used on. There might have been 0.5mm clearance, and these will inevitably compress over time. If you could get this stuff in 10mm, it would be ideal. I just stuck on a handy patch of 3mm neoprene to cover the base of each foot. A bicycle inner tube repair patch would probably have been OK too.

Happy feet

For bikethru - RNP vs RR#1

Remington Rand s/n P31552 c.1938

Remington Noiselesss Portable s/n N48665 c.1934

Bikethru queried the 'noiseless' weights on the type bars linkage referring to Richard's Remington round-up.

I'm not sure that the pictures are much help. The Remington Rand Model 1 (s/n P31552) certainly looks to have disk shaped weights on part of the linkage, my Remington Noiseless Portable (s/n N48665) doesn't - yet it has that distinctive 'Remington silent' feel to the action and is, in fact, a little quieter. 

You'll spot the additional felt cushioning at the top of the RNP photo and the elbows which are visible just below that are weighted sections - sort of wedge shaped, as far as I can tell. The only way to be sure would be to strip it down, which I'm not about to do any time soon! The type heads on the RR#1 certainly don't whack the platen like, say, a Corona 4, but they do hit the paper with more energy than the Noiseless.

PS: Bikethru, who are you?

RR#1-ding fix

OK, I had four more jobs to do before considering this typewriter fit for purpose:

1. Replace the rubber roller that keeps the tabs from falling off the tab bar
2. Fix the bell
3. Make new feet and source some replacement rubber bushes for the cover screws
4. Clean the bodywork.

1] Replace the rubber roller that keeps the tabs from falling off the tab bar (A)

You can see, it doesn't resemble anything especially purposeful, but you can tell what it used to do. Now, I only have one tab (B) in all the world, and I can live without tabs. I got as far as removing the nuts that hold the roller but then decided to service and grease the carriage return linkage instead. You can't see the dead rubber (C) from the front and its condition has no impact on the function of the typewriter.

2] Fixing the bell

The spring had broken so there was nothing pushing on the flat spot on the bell's connector rod (D) - a simple assembly compared to some that works fine with a lightly tensioned spring. I don't have a drawer full of parts, so I generally have to improvise. I thought a neatly trimmed and partly unwound safety pin would work - springy wire with a loop for the bolt. Guess what? Works great. (E)

Yep, I know, it is rusty!

3] Make new feet and source some replacement rubber bushes for the cover screws

Any owner of a 1930s or '40s Remington will know it has hollow hard rubber rectangular feet in truncated pyramid section. They don't have them at the hardware shop. I'd intended using carved pencil erasers but just can't seem to find any. After some head scratching about the source of a likely material, I wondered about rubber heels from the shoe repairers. If they are flat, they should be easy enough to carve and if they are around 8mm thick, they'll be the right height to keep the typewriter snug in its case. Cover screw bushes? I wondered if 'O' ring seals from a car mechanic's workshop would fit the bill, I'll find out and let you know how I get on.

4] Clean the bodywork

There were a lot of subtle but ugly marks and a generally grimy patina about the paintwork. I tried soap and water but this just made the paint go temporarily grey and blotchy. So I tried T-Cut, a very mildly abrasive paint refinisher in a petroleum distillate. You shouldn't apply it too vigourously as it is abrasive. I went lightly around the decals especially, but it shined-up pretty well. I'll wax it too. No T-Cut in the US? Try Turtle Wax T415 Premium Rubbing Compound

Postscript

Bikethru commented on my previous post about the comparative type bar action of this RR#1 and an RNP. JUST after I'd put the cover back and restrung with part-used red and black I'd been saving. So, next post will be a "spot the difference" contest.

Remington Rand Mod. 1 - progress

Nothing much worked at removing the hardened key cushion material, and I had some paint stripper left and... well, you know how it is. The Nitromors softened the brown stuff enough to scrub off, mostly with a toothbrush, but I had to resort to a green pan scrubbing pad to get the more stubborn bits off. The steel's plated with copper and then a black finish. Some of that's intact. Some of the copper is visible (see pic) and some of the bare metal is showing through. Who cares? It works! I lined the (now cleaned) cushion groves with strips I cut from bouyancy block material which is used as a transport block for car-topping a my kayak. Replacing the key comb was pretty straightforward, it being clean. I didn't have to resort to my diagram showing what key goes in which slot - it sort of just fell into place. Shame to waste the effort of my reading it out and Robin writing it down, so I'll share it at the foot of this post. For now, it works a treat - interested to see how long it lasts. Compared with my Remington Noiseless Portable, a harder rubber was used originally - but then the NP's cushions aren't brown...

I'm going to leave the comb as it is for now. If I could find a way of cleaning the keys themselves (they are crud-contaminated but not  in places which prevents them functioning), then I might have repainted it.

One similarity (with the NP) is where the carriage release lever spring goes at the left end of the carriage. To begin, the platen needed to come out so I could clean it and the rusty paper tray. I'd run out of 0000 wire wool, so I used 400 grit emery paper for both.  I thought it would help to remove the left-hand carriage cover plate - it didn't - just two screws, not a big deal. Until you find that the two screws also retain vital bits of the carriage release lever, and a spring, which sprung right off the machine. So, out comes the NP and off comes the end plate. Different set up, but similar enough to find which boss the spring had to sit on and where both ends should be tensioned. So, spring back on, keeping everything lined uptakes two hands but you have to pick up the end plate... and then a screwdriver. My mum would describe it, wrongly, as "frabbing". It was a struggle to the point of exasperation. The air was blue. 

Of course, in retrospect, I should have let gravity lend a hand by tipping the machine on its side. Then I'd only have been one hand short. Needless to say, there are no photos of this part of the process.

And finally, for now, replacing the platen. If you ask me now, I'd say it was the easiest thing in the world. Thirty minutes ago I would have just snarled. It might have been the beer (London Pride), but I spent nearly an hour trying to get the platen back on. The detent roller (which makes the clicking sound when you wind in a clean sheet of paper) needs to be moved out of the way before the platen will go snugly home. It is so easy, just approach the job from behind the carriage and lever it down against its spring. The platen practically self-installs.

Next time: Feet, bell and tab-securing-rubber-roller-thingy.

Which keys go in which slot in the comb?