The individual ribbon covers on my 1947 Underwood Noiseless 77 are one-piece plastic, not two-piece painted and chromed steel like the older Remington Noiseless Portables I have, or the Remington Rand Model 1, for that matter. Because the ribbons wind onto a built-in core without the need for a spool, flat ribbon covers are useful in keeping the ribbon neatly wound and coiled. You can see from the picture above how haphazardly the ribbon's wound.
These plastic tops are warped like Pringles. Is this the reason the coils of ribbon are bunching up in places? I think the tops are molded thermo-plastic and I'm wondering if weighting them on flat surface after a minute in boiling water might help to set them back as flat discs. Advice welcome...
PS: Turns out Pringles are on Blogger too!
PS: Turns out Pringles are on Blogger too!
And here I thought you were going to use a chip can lid as an ad-hoc spool cover.
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With bunchy ribbons I blame the machine's past history, and mis-handling by someone else. I've had Remingtons with the open-spool design, and if the ribbon is properly threaded through the vibrator, it seems like it winds on to the take-up spool without incident.
Food-related post titles make me hungry too! Really, though? Thanks Mike. Maybe I'll try fresh ribbon - this one's creased and sort of always goes the way it went before, maybe that's the problem and not the sombreros. Still might try flattening 'em though.
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