Yost 10 - Dremelisation

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Five's a handful

Pretty clean. Skinny rubber. Early Model 5: twdb says 5A 756 is 1957-ish.

You might expect a 99p Imperial Good Companion Model 5 to be too good to be true. I can't complain, but the immaculate all-round cleanliness belies a problem or three. Here's the running order:

1. The platen won't engage the internal clutch so it is just spinning - no line returns. Yes, I undid all the screws but still having trouble removing the platen.
2. The tabs won't set and the linkage is buried deep!
3. The space bar linkage was hanging off and was quite inscrutable to reassemble. This connects to the whole escapement so is pretty critical to get right. Working well now though!
4. There's an annoying snag just as you depress the shift - problem isolated but I need a 3mm right-angle cranked spanner to adjust - or a file.

On lots of machines the cover comes off to reveal the workings - having little practical use except to hang luxuries like feet and paper rests off. This one, though, is an incredibly intricate alloy molding with various bits bolted to it and assembled around it. Maybe because it is a basket shift, but I'm blowed if I can see how to remove the carriage. Could be just a matter of time. I'll leave it a week and have another look then.

The Imperial came from a lady who rescued it from the dump. It belonged to the daughter (who now lives in the States) of a recently late friend. It has suffered some traumas and there are enough gnarled screw-heads to suggest it has been regularly repaired. Out of the case it is a very low-slung machine and the space bar linkage barely clears the desk top. The soft case has no retaining clips and offers very little protection.

Full decals and no skid marks on the lid. Spot the minor crack between the tab keys.

Don't let this put anyone off getting one!

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

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?

Remington crud

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:

1. How do I remove the solidified crud? (First try will be gentle scraping - after that I'll get more abrasive)
2. What do I replace it with? (I was thinking 3-4mm soft rubber strip/tube)

Suggestions welcome, otherwise I'll just make it up as I go along. Many thanks.

Keycomb + guestblog

Anyone nervous about taking the cover off a Remington Rand Model 1? I was, until I lifted the top plate (the four bushes crumbled to dust at this point) and unscrewed the congealed tarry feet and the four screws at the back holding the pressed steel to the aluminium backbone. The cover slips off very easily so you can get a better look at things. 

A previous owner had used a liberal dose of oil to free the keys in their comb* from the 'fudge' but that's as far as it goes. The action is otherwise pretty clean. Now I have a Chinese puzzle: how on Earth do I get the comb out if the keys go through it, without removing keytops? Maybe it is two pieces. I'll loosen a few likely-looking screws, wiggle it, see what happens and let you know.

I think the guest blog idea got a reasonably warm reception - and it has been done before. How to make it work? I have a couple of people's e-mail address so I'll start there. I don't imagine there's any obligation to post, or to reciprocate. Should be fun to: 

1. think of what to say 
2. potentially reach a new readership.

 *Thanks Martin for the disambiguation!

Blog-swap?

This photo makes it look much better than it is! The paper table is rust-lined, the tab rubber's mush, the feet are semi-liquid and the keys are stuck to the comb (or whatever you call the key lever guide thing) because the original rubber cushioning - I'm guessing that's what it was - is now a hardened brown toffee residue. You can just make it out between the K and L. Beautifully made. That cover is cast aluminium and the engineering beneath it is breathtaking. The paint stays on this one!

I'll shortly post some 'work in progress' photos of the out-of-the-attic, cover-plate-off, assessing the situation, not-as-bad-as-it-looks, but-still-scratching-chin, Remington Rand Model 1.

Suffice to say, it is a rubber fetishist's worst nightmare.

On a completely unrelated tack, I was sat here wondering, as you do, what it would be like to write another's blog? Like a house swap but just for one post. Imagine how cool it would be to post on Joe's blog. Or be Matt for a day. Or make a cowboy preacher's proclamation in homage to Father Ted. Or pioneer some previously unimagined typecast transportation road movie type bike cast as Richard. Or a "this day" cast for Robert. You get the idea.

Walk in another's shoes, just for one post. Maybe share post content by e-mail  and upload as usual. Easy, and potentially a lot more interesting than the way I have made it sound.

I don't know, it was just a thought. Empathy, and all that. I'm up for it. Have an opinion.