The Black Gunge of DEWM

While I still have serious doubts about my ability to compete in this year's NaNoWriMos, I am doing my best to prepare. I'll probably do most of my writing long hand, since I do not have a good computer set up for long writing sessions (goal #1: obtain a desk), and none of my typewriters are especially functional--or if they are, portable.

To that end, I have decided to bite the bullet and attempt a full cleaning of the Remington Portable #3, since it is my only semi-working portable.

I got this typer in spring of last year. According to the serial number, it is from late 1930. My great aunt and uncle had it collecting dust in their garage, and handed it off to me. It still has the original decals poorly attached, but in one piece.

I have a few complaints about this machine which have kept me from using it on a regular basis:

1. There's debris in the carriage, under the platen. I've used it anyway, just for short typecasts, but I don't want to use it for long periods for fear of damaging it.

2. It doesn't have a bar that comes down to hold the paper in place. From the pictures I've seen, that seems to be a characteristics of the #3s, but it means that the slugs are really loud when they hit the paper, because the page bounces with ever strike. It's a minor thing, but while I like the sound of the slugs hitting the page, I don't like the sound the paper itself makes when it shifts.

3. When I reach the end of a line, I have to hit the carriage return bar, then very carefully turn the platen knob to go to the next line. The uneven line spacing that results drives me batty, and I'm not sure if this is once again a characteristic of the machine or if something is actually broken.

4. The ribbon spools are smaller than average.

5. The ribbon doesn't always advance on it's own.

6. There doesn't appear to be a way to set the margins, and this one will happily type both before the page begins and after it ends.

I've learned to deal with numbers 2, 3, and 6 for the most part. My solution for #4 (which I will tackle later this morning) is to cut the ribbon I'm using in half so that I'll have 2 lengths of 1/2" ribbon, and to store the second half in a ziplock bag for later use. I might also trim 1/8" or so off the width of the ribbon, because it is just slightly too thick, or it appears to be. Trimming the length might help just by allowing it to sit more evenly on the spool. Since it peeps over the edge of one or the other of the spools, this might be causing problem #5, and if I can kill two birds with one stone, all the better.

#1 is the real problem, obviously. I haven't a clue how to remove the carriage, and generally speaking, I'm hesitant to remove anything if I can't see exactly how to put it back before doing so.

While I can't move forward with that aspect, I've begun doing as thorough a cleaning as I can manage on the rest of it. The outside I cleaned upon receipt, but there were a few areas on the interior that were still quite grungy.  The worst offenders, however, were the type bars, which were covered in an oily black gunge of unknown origin. Soap, hot water, and a toothbrush won't touch it. If I were a more daring or knowledgeable person (or perhaps just much dumber) I would take apart the type basket and try cleaning each piece with a mild poultice of vinegar and baking soda, since the slightly pitted metal will likely never be entirely clean by mechanical methods. Instead, however, I am doing the only thing that seems to work, which is carefully scraping each slug with dental picks. It makes me nostalgic for my archaeological conservation work in Italy, when we spent hours scraping dirt and mystery substances from 2,000 year old ceramics and 300 year old paintings. Is it weird that I find this sort of thing enjoyable?

Cleaned up

Still very dirty. I'm about 1/3 of the way through.

Once I get 1-5 sorted out, there are a couple of other things I would like to do--there's some old adhesive residue on one side that I can't get off. I'm not sure what solvent to try without damaging the paint. I'd also like to reattach the decals, but again, I'm not quite sure what to use. And I want to replace the felt under the type bars, because it's absolutely disgusting. Those are all rather minor things, however, and I can live with those a little longer than I can the others.

Are your machines in ship shape yet, or are you as behind as I am?

___
P.S. The witching Hour comes out on Wednesday!

P.P.S. Were you paying attention, or did you miss it like I did? Saturday was my 5 year blogiversary. Kudos to anyone who as put up with my nonsense for that long. And for the rest of you, I hope you stick around for another five!

Typecast #5

Here is an image of the logo and sticker on the front of the machine (obviously taken before I finished cleaning it).

Sorry about the poor quality of that typecast--apparently, purple ribbon ink doesn't scan very well, and even photoshop had trouble with it.

__________

Did you guys see this article on Yahoo this morning? No, I'm not talking about Harry Potter. I mean this one about middle class jobs in danger. Scroll down near the bottom where it lists the 10 fastest declining positions in the country. Eight of the ten are related to the textile industry. I find this absolutely tragic, considering that for centuries textiles were the backbone of many local economies.

I know that this probably won't effect my job specifically, but I still wish that we could reclaim our industry, rather than shipping it overseas. I find this especially tragic since I (not so) secretly harbor a desire to get into the textile industry, in a small way, and I hate seeing an entire trade get cut down like that.

Oil Can

In the DVD player: Charmed, Season 1
Currently Reading: Dracula

It seems to be Theme Week here at chez KnotMagick. Maybe the Oz theme is coming from the fact that I heard "If I only had a brain" on the radio the other day (did I mention the new car came with satellite radio? Awesome! I love the 1940s station).

I think that for the moment, I've gotten as far with Oliver as I can. The rest requires knowledge and tools that I don't yet possess, like how to nickel plate/chrome something, or how to remove the platen from the carriage. I'm not even sure if this one can be saved. I've heard that there's a way to rejuvenate the rubber that is reasonably simple, but I'm not sure this one is even worth saving. The rubber is so dry it's starting to flake.

The more I work on it, the more I wonder if it's even possible to get it in working order. Well, everything can be fixed, I'm just wondering if it's within my ability and my budget. I'd be happy with a display machine, but I'd be happier with a working one, since my space limitations dictate that nothing that isn't useful can come in.

I did finish with the rust converter today (I think; there will probably be touch ups in the future). I've got some before and after shots so you can see how bad this was. All of the black areas were once rust.

I also took a few little pieces off of the back of the machine, and lo and behold, you could see the original paint color! It's amazing how dark it's gotten, but then again, it is eighty or so years old.

It took me a while, but last night I discovered the wonder that is Yahoo Groups, namely the Typewriters forum. I'd tried groups years ago, and was frustrated by the number emails and the disjointed way the conversations were presented. My first group was extremely active and it was impossible for me to keep track of what was going on. This one is a little more reasonable. It helps that I figured out that there's a page for the group, where you can read things forum style rather than in a bulk email. (See, this is why I like typewriters. They're fairly straightforward most of the time, unless you have to take them apart. Which isn't strictly necessary most of the time.)

Anyway, the people over there directed me to some awesome video tutorials and websites, and that helped a lot--I can't believe how easy it was to remove the carriage! It looks really really complicated when you're looking at the Oliver but nope, just pull it to the left, hit the right tab key, and it slides right off. Once the converter was dry, I just put a couple drops of oil on the little rollers and slid it back on, no problems. Now if only I could get the carriage return to work. I think there's a hook missing, but I'm not sure. That will be my next question for the group at large.

Although, can I just say, this typewriter is probably the dirtiest thing I've ever worked with. I've cleaned 3,000 year old ceramics, and let me tell you, this machine had more dirt and grime on it than an Etruscan tomb. I wiped down some areas seven or eight times and still had streaks of dirt left behind. It's kind of funny though; I'm thinking it was kept in an attic for many years, with the right hand side near a window, since that's where the worst of the rust is.

A Good Day for the Tin Man

In the DVD player: When in Rome
Currently Reading: The Golden Fleece and the Heroes before Achilles

We finally had a break in the weather, so this morning I hauled Oliver and Henry outside to apply the rust converter. The '53 is still in the garage, so I made do with a sunny spot on the front porch and spent about three or four hours taking apart the few pieces I was brave enough to attempt (and knew I'd be able to put back properly). He got a good deep cleaning (or as deep as I could get without taking off the carriage--something I have no idea how to do) and I put the converter on as many of the exposed pieces of metal as I could get to. I also took a ton of macro shots, the best of which are now up on Devart.

I put the converter on Henry, too, but it's not as impressive of a result since Royal KMMs are black, anyway.

It should also be noted that this counts as my weight training for the day. I'd forgotten just how heavy those machines are! I think the Oliver is easily 25 pounds, the KMM has to be at least 30. Of course, I'm also a wimp with no upper body strength so that might be a bit of an exaggeration.

Now if only I can get my hands on a Dremel to polish some of it, since re-nickeling is kind of out of the question.

I'm off to upload the next chapter of Fortune's Fight. At some point I'll be scanning and uploading my journals for both Henry and Oliver's restoration efforts.