I thought I should take a few reference pictures to remind me how this thing goes back together. Under a layer of brown crud, I found the final two tiny grub screws fastening the bottom of the key comb to the main part. Easing the clogged comb up over the keys was slow progress, but only after making a note of which key goes through which slot. The two space bar restraints (one of them is blurred in the foreground) needed one of their screws removing so they could swing down to allow the removal of the bottom part of the comb. I also had to lever the bottom edge up to clear the key tops. The metal seems to be coppery under the black paint.
Anyone else ever had to this? If so, this would be an ideal opportunity to share the answer two questions:
- How do I remove the solidified crud? (First try will be gentle scraping - after that I'll get more abrasive)
- What do I replace it with? (I was thinking 3-4mm soft rubber strip/tube)
Rob, I'm the guy who can't even see which way up a red/black ribbon is, so you know how much credence to give me. But for what it's worth, on my Remington Noiseless Portable the keystops (which is what the crud on your machine used to be) look like some sort of foam rubber, so for crud-removal might a rubber solvent be gentler than scraping? The first that comes to mind is petrol but there must be others. The other thing is that when you get round to putting the keystops back, I remember from messing around with my RNP that if you set the bottom one too low, it stops the noiseless mechanism working. The key can travel too far down, so that instead of the typehead being released and carrying to the platen by momentum, the keylever bangs it into the platen. Possibly not good for the mechanism. And if I recollect, the tolerance is not very great. I think you'd need a replacement strip of rubber that protrudes about 2mm above the gutter it sits in.
ReplyDeleteGood luck - looking forward to pics of the work in progress.
Word verif: pirch: what a berd sits on
Thanks for that bikethru: there's more than a passing similarity between this and a noiseless, so I can do some comparison on reassembly. I'll try a little petrol.
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