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!

Remy

I brought the Remington 3 portable back from my parent's today with the intention of fixing it up. I've been searching youtube hoping to find some videos to help out, but so far nothing of use has popped up. I did, however, find this, which is quite interesting:



Judging by the close up at the very end, I would guess that the language is Czech, but honestly I have no idea. The animation of the assembly at the end is particularly interesting, though it doesn't help me with my current plight of figuring out how to remove the platen so I can clear out all of the debris stuck in it.

There are several problems with this machine, though I haven't let any of them stop me from using it:

1. The carriage return does not advance the platen, so I have to go to the next line by turning the knob every time.

2. The tension of the ribbon is off and the spools don't advance properly or consistently. Sometimes they feel like it, but most of the time not so much.

3. There are no margins to speak of and I can't figure out how to set them.

4. The capital letters leave ghostly images on the page when I type. If I type really, really slowly (trying to figure out WHY they're printing) they they don't do it. But when I'm going along at speed I end up with everything printed twice.

5. There is a mystery button on the upper left. It is silver, and unmarked. It is connected to some mechanism on the back of the machine that goes in and out, but doesn't actually seem to actually do anything useful. Perhaps this is the mystery margin button? If so, it doesn't appear to work.

6. The machine itself no longer fits comfortably inside the case. I'm not sure if this is because something is out of alignment and sticking out at the wrong angle, or if it's just age and changes to the wood/metal.

Once again, it strikes me that it would be most useful if I actually saw a working version of this machine before I tried to fix it, but alas, none are at hand.

Aside from that, I did pick up some stationary while I was at Walmart this morning. Eventually it will work it's way into the typecasts, and for $1 each for 3 packs of 25 sheets, I couldn't really say no. Perhaps I'll type out a sample tomorrow so that you can see the ghosting on the page, though if you travel back far enough I'm sure I have a few typecasts here on the blog that exemplify it.

Meme

Edited to make it a little easier to read. Click on the images to make them bigger.

Typecast #7

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.