Groma Kolibri - platen removal

June 04, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

This machine is loved by many due to its beautiful design and near cult status after playing in movie The Lives of Others.

My machine had a problem with line advance mechanism: it was not engaging reliably, resulting in squeezed lines or no line advance at all. Serious problem if one wants to use the machine for fast, frantic typing like I do.

I suspected that the dog which catches the ratchet is misplaced or dirty but to get there I needed to remove the platen. Like many others I could not find, at first, screws which lock platen axle. On almost all machines they sit somewhere near ends of the platen cylinder but not on Kolibri. Engineers building this machine tried to make it as compact as possible - any unnecessary width extension was avoided, resulting in very compact “Macbook Air” of that era.

It turned out that two plunger screws sitting just behind the platen ratchet are these “droids which we are looking for”.

Removing them makes the platen turn freely on its axis. Thin, knurled knob at left platen’s end is, as expected, ratchet release for turning the platen in step-less mode. It acts as a simple, friction clutch, pressing the ratchet tight against the platen assembly.

After removing left platen knob and this friction knob the left end of platen axis is free. I removed also chromed masking plates on both ends of the carriage, to better see what I’m doing. Carriage back panel followed.

Before attempting to lift the platen it is necessary to unscrew line guide plate, otherwise it is too narrow for the platen to pass.

Leaving the right platen knob in place I lightly tapped (wooden or plastic mallet, to protect thin threads on platen’s axle) the axle towards the right. Once it started to move I pulled it out.

To avoid ratchet mechanism falling into parts it is a good idea to directly follow the axle with something of similar diameter, pushed into opening hole when the axle is being pulled out. I used threaded rod which I had at hand. It keeps the mechanism in place well enough to test its function while troubleshooting.

Before lifting the platen it helps to lock paper rollers assembly in back position. Since the arm operating this mechanism is being removed together with pulled out axle I used a screwdriver tip to lock the spring-loaded mechanism in position. It removes tension from the platen and makes life easier.

Once the axle is removed it is now straightforward to lift the platen out of the carriage. Line advance ratchet will fall apart so be prepared for that.

It turned out that on my machine it was just dried and gummy grease which hindered the dog to engage the ratchet. After degreasing and cleaning it started to function again.

Putting things back together. I started with ratchet wheel. It is being kept in tension by spring-loaded roller so one needs to pull back the roller with one hand, place the ratchet wheel with the other hand and the third hand can then push in a rod which will hold it in place for coming platen. Pay attention which side you mount the wheel - as this is a friction mechanism the side facing the platen is the one with extruded rim.

While all your three hands are occupied you use your fourth hand to make sure that dog’s steering hand (red arrow) is placed on top of the small metal tab (green arrow) - it will steer the single/double line spacing. It is easy to miss it at this point and it falls naturally below this tab or is pressed by the ratchet wheel in locked position.

It should look like this:

With all this in proper orientation we mount the platen. Paper table (or a miniature of it, really) has a metal tab beneath which holds the table steady in place. Most other machines use springs for that but on this Groma they simplified this - and it works very well.

When mounting the platen first drop its right side into the cavity and then place its left side ABOVE this tab, like this:

And Bob’s yer uncle!
Just squeeze in the platen into position. Pressing in the platen’s axle secures all parts in place.

Now there are just a few details which need to be taken care of.

The axle has flat spots which should land in proper position for plunger screws to hold firmly.

Observing through the screw hole will tell you if you are in proper orientation to secure the axle. It should look like that:

If misaligned it will look like that:

On the right side there is a spring-loaded (green arrow) arm which activates/deactivates paper rollers assembly. There also sits loose spacer cylinder (red arrow) - don’t lose it!

When the platen axle sits in position the spring needs to be hooked onto its notches. State “before” usually looks like that:

We want to mount the spring as shown with yellow arrows below. For better access I unhook the carriage release spring and move it back.

Hooking the carriage release spring back into position the final assembly should look like below:

And that completes the job. Last step is to screw back side and back panels and mounting the guide plate.

To hold these tiny screws on screwdriver tip I use a small trick: when I form my screwdrivers (grinding to remove wedge-shaped tip and make it parallel instead) I also slightly bend the tip (sideways) so it holds the slot screw by tension in place. There are very fine screwdrivers out there which accomplish it more elegantly by spring load but I cannot afford them so I use this dirty trick instead.

Photo session of this beauty follows.

Ribbon reverse lever discretely hidden on the bottom-right.

Bottom plate - evolution after Groma Gromina - keeps the mechanism enclosed, protecting it from dirt and keeping your clothes safe if you decide to type with the machine on your lap. Which is very convenient with Kolibri!

Referred as MacBook Air of these times the machine is indeed very low profile.

Flatbed - Royal no.5

May 31, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I drove to Knivsta to pick this machine. A few hundreds kilometers trip on early winter Saturday, misty and foggy. The owner had the machine after his grandfather and, himself getting old, was getting rid of junk accumulated over the years. He was not willing to send the machine and I was not asking for it - it would probably got damaged during shipment.

It is a heavy beast, cast iron body, old style but with 4-bank keyboard and all features one would expect from a proper, no-nonsense machine. After all - it is a standard typewriter, not portable so no compromises were made.

No-nonsense means no “magic margins” or TAB stops steered from the keyboard. No such things - instead plain, robust solutions which ALWAYS work and are dead simple to understand, fix & adjust. A machine for those who put on their trousers one leg at a time.

It is by no means a rare machine. Plenty of them were made and for many years so it is rather easy to find one if you live in US. Not so often in Europe thou. Especially in so nice shape and with decals in pristine condition.

Signs of age and use are visible, of course. Honest patina which adds charm to artifacts of the past.

The machine had some usual problems but it was typing. A bit reluctantly but all was moving and key levers were not “sticky”. The biggest problem was dirt, dust and solidified oil but luckily no traces of WD40 or simillar “wonder” oil.

I started by finding the cause of carriage stopping at some points. It happened to be a lose line pointer which was getting in the way - a tiny, thin piece of metal which could be easily cut should someone tried force the carriage to move. Fixed that and moved on to general de-dusting.

Most of the mechanism is exposed and easily accessible so most dirt could be brushed out and blown with the compressor but there remained a lot of junk trapped below the keyboard which in this machine is covered with “steps”.

To get there one needs to remove all keys, to be able to lift steel plates forming “the steps”. Easy job if not a bit boring - unhooking all these links one by one.

Tabulator arm and shift keys are spring-loaded, I found it best to unhook the springs and remove them before chemical bath, otherwise they may get lost when the mechanism gets compressed-air blasts.

All of the holding links - these which hold vertical key levers - are of exactly same length and form so no need to keep track of them. I unhooked them all and placed in “typewriter soup” for cleaning.

Most keys can be just lifted out after detaching pulling links, some of them are crooked so they need to wait until covering plates are unscrewed.

Once free from keys the plates can be lifted, uncovering a bit more dirt. Intriguing off-center nut which hold TAB arm is, at the same time, an adjustment for CAPS LOCK lever.

Return coil-spring for space bar dirty but in perfect condition.

Stripped to bare minimum and ready for chemical bath.

At some point the carriage draw string got broken and someone replaced it with a piece of string. Of course that it works! Maybe not looking the best but for those who agonize on “what to use to replace a draw band/spring on my typewriter” - well, whatever will work as long as it is strong!

Judging from the width of the spring drum there was a proper, wide draw band originally. I don’t have one to replace it but the string looks awful so I fashioned a thinner but even stronger string instead.

All hooks unhook, nothing hangs loose so we move out for wet-cleaning.

Back on the bench I address padding under the space bar. Felt cushion is deformed and no longer stops the space bar from hitting the frame. I add rubber strip between layers of felt, to increase its thickness to original size.

Similar repair on the upper side - where the space bar hits the “steps” plate. Here pads were gone so I glue thin pieces of rubber as a padding.

Some key legends were turned, not causing any problems but making the keyboard look untidy. Fixed that.
Key tops are made of real glass, not celluloid like on many later machines.

All cleaned and waxed. Time to put it all back together.

Margin release pulling rod was bent - either by accident or by someone who tried to fix non-functional margin release. It was bent on the threaded part and when I tried to straighten it it snapped…

Well, that was unfortunate but I managed to remove rests of the thread from adjustment nut so I could mount it back.

Adjusting the length by this nut fixed problem with not working margin release.

Next in line was ribbon advance mechanism. It was working when the machine was standing on its back but was not working when back on feet. Gravity at work? Turns out there was too much play between the gear and small dog which should engage it - the very bottom of internal gear wheel is chamfered, causing the dog to skip

Adjusting position of the driving rod eliminated the play and ribbon advance became reliable again.

Last but not least: platen and paper feed rollers.

The platen is very hard, as on all these old machines. It was also dented due to years of use.

I sanded it smooth which does not help with hardened rubber but makes the imprint a bit better, especially when typed on double or triple paper sheets. Same procedure for paper feed rollers which, to my surprise, had no flat spots.

Assembly completed, oiled carriage rollers and the machine sings again!

Raw beauty of exposed mechanics, decals and step-like keyboard. And it is very comfortable and enjoyable to type, even at very fast pace!

Ribbon reverse lever. How classy is that?

Very good typer and a joy to work on.

Ivory Groma Modell N

April 18, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I drove 100km one-way to pick this machine. Lady who owned her did not want to send her so she turned down many potential buyers who could not come in person, even though they were offering very good money.

Well, that’s good for the machine - shipment is always tricky with these precision mechanisms. It is not guys with white gloves who handle packages these days - automated conveyor lines, packets dropping regularly from substantial heights… Nothing good for old, precision-made German mechanisms.

I already had Groma Modell T (with TAB) in black, most common color. I did not know that there were also ivory-white versions. This machine is model N so no TAB but otherwise it is exactly the same machine.

Nothing was wrong with the machine apart from it being very dirty and filled with dust. Traces of excessive oiling which accumulated layers of sticky dust inside the mechanism. Body shell keeping screws were sitting so hard that I had hard time to remove them but apart from destroying two screwdrivers the screws came out undamaged.

Similar to some Olympia machines Groma typewriters also use spacers on platen rod. Keep en eye on them when you remove the platen - they like to fall down into the mechanism.

Ribbon cover - the part that is so beautifully formed in curved line along sides of the machine - is made of Bakelite. Bakelite is in itself black so this machine has it painted ivory but the paint is delicate and in places where screw heads rub against the shell the paint easily chirps.

Machine naked and ready for cleaning and inspection.

Removing the ribbon cover shell required unscrewing space bar. Tiny screws, easy to drop and lose.
Removing the platen is a bit tricky: one needs to remove paper rest and correction table first, otherwise it is too little space to pull out the platen.

Paper feed rollers, apart from being dirty, are in good shape. No flat spots, rubber is still gripy and elastic. I clean it with isopropanol.

The platen is in very good shape - still elastic and grippy. It was a bit deformed due to heavy use for many years so I sand it smooth, to remove unevenness and external layer of oxidized rubber. Good as new.

Line advance mechanism is a bit tricky on these Groma machines. My other Modell T was missing coupling link between the arm and the ratchet. With help of FB group I manufactured a replacement link but I remember it to be a chore. On his machine all is working as it should so keep the mechanism in one piece even after removing the platen. Just keep the left platen knob in place - it holds all parts in place. Otherwise they will drop and just hang on their springs.

Platen clutch pops out of the tube. A smudge of oil dispensed on rollers will bring it back to smooth operation.

The machine got proper de-dusting and chemical flush, to remove all dirt and dried oil. Lots of compressed air. Body panels cleaned and waxed - avoiding areas with stickers! They are very susceptible to damage.

I started putting all parts back together. All pretty standard, just spacer rings require a bit of fumbling to hold them in place before platen rod slides in place.

Limiting screw for platen clutch decoupling is the last step in reinstalling the platen. It is a tiny screw and easy to miss!

Threading the ribbon and the machine is back in operation. Nice and clean!

Groma machines from just after the War are among most beautiful typewriters. Name just Kollibri or Gromina! Models N and T are in the same range - just look at these lines, these curves! It is not only Italians who take care of such details - East Germans where equally sensitive!

These machines type like a charm. I have no complaints about anything. Even glass-ringed keys, later substituted by plastic, ergonomically formed key-tops, are not causing any strain when one types extensively on Groma N or Groma T typewriter. Pure joy, very light action, very responsive!

Original watermarks are preserved in good condition.

And these curves… eye candy for anyone who can appreciate industrial design at its best.

Ribbon cover lines are more visible on this ivory machine. Just to compare I took out my other Groma T to have them side by side.

I’m considering switching covers between them, to have both of them double-colored. That would make the curvature even more pronounced, especially on the black machine. But for now I enjoy them as they were originally assembled.

Beauty in the bucket - Olivetti Valentine

April 16, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Olivetti machines have reputation of great typers and design icons. Like Apple of those times.
I don’t like them.
I had my hands on famous Lettera 22, played a while with Studio and Dora. They are fine but somehow I cannot appreciate their lines. They are too…. boring! Like Facit machines - excellent typers but boring to look at!
It probably means that I have no taste as uneducated redneck who prefers Groma, Erika or old Remingtons.

There is one exception thou: Olivetti Valentine!
Now this fellow is right over the edge, even today. Uncommon form, juicy red color (there were also white which cost astronomical prices today) and it comes with its own bucket!

They tend to cost a bit more than usual but I got mine very cheap. It was working “out of the bucket” but had some problems. After test typing I decided that this machine is worth restoring to full splendor - typing felt well, although not as good as on Erika or Groma T but better than Brother for sure.

The machine had a few problems:

it was sprayed with WD40ish oil which accumulated dirt and dust, making it sticky and awful
bell was not ringing!
carriage locking mechanism was dead
ABS-plastic body shell was scratched and dented awfully

I tend to avoid plastic-body machines for exactly that - plastic ages ugly and scratches make it look bad, unlike patina on metal machines, regardless how neglected they became.

For this Olivetti plastic body is “the thing” so I decided to start with it.

Removing back cover - part which forms lid of the bucket - requires accessing 4 screws hidden behind plastic cups. Small hook and gentle prying around the plug releases them.

Removing main shell requires pressing down the top row of keys, all at once. No photo here - I needed all my 3 hands to do that. For those with only 2 hands: you can use a thin sheet of plastic which will keep keys pressed when you slide the shell towards the keyboard.

Dents and scratches on the ribbon cover are typical for these early machines: it is the bucket which damages the finish. In later-made machines Olivetti addressed it by adding two small bumps on the cover, which deflect the bucket’s walls when the machine is slid into it.

I grabbed 2400 and 4000 grid paper and wet-sanded the shell using camellia oil as lubricant. Tedious job, lot’s of elbow grease.

A few hours later I arrived at plain mat finish, with almost all deep dents gone.

I hit it with polishing wheel - very gently and with hardly any preassure, there is risk that the plastic will melt, ruining the whole enterprise in an instant.

Effect was promising but a few deep scratches revealed themselves. Back to sanding and oil slur.
Finally all were gone and final polish revealed as-new surface.

To finish this part I washed all plastic parts in mild detergent.

While they were drying I turned to the mechanism. First came thorough chemical bath to remove all dried oil and sticky dirt.

After half an hour and lots of compressed air the machine was de-greased and clean. Back to the bench.

The bell has to ring!
It turned out that all parts were in place but the actuator arm and bell-arm were bent. I formed them back into place, admiring how Olivetti made the construction - it uses two springs instead of one, to make sure that once the bell is hit the arm moves away thus allowing the sound to be clear and not dulled.
To accomplish that the actuator arm needs first to be compressed (first spring) and only then bent back for the strike (second spring).

So it’s not only me who is a typewriter-bell freak. They made a custom mechanism to make sure the sound is nice and clear!

Platen on this machine is in good shape, the rubber is still springy and nice. I sanded it lightly to remove deformations from years of use and to remove external, oxidized layer. Good as new now.

The last problem was carriage lock mechanism. It was not moving.

It turned out that some brain-dead person forced the carriage out of the lock, causing the part to bend and stalling the mechanism.

Luckily it is made of mild steel so I removed it for straightening in the vice. One needs to be careful when removing it because the same screws are holding ribbon-reverse mechanism on the other side of the frame. Better to secure it in place before it falls down in pieces.

After re-assembly the mechanism works as it should.
Time to put all things back together.

Same trick with plastic sheet to slide back the mechanism into the shell.

To prevent my hard labor going to hell upon stowing the machine in its bucket I added 2 silicone pins in places where Olivetti had its deflector pins in later machines.

And that’s it!

I installed a new ribbon - especially for this machine I got pink ribbon - and started typing. Very light and snappy indeed, quite pleasant. The only remark I would have is that the shell, having no sound-dampening material, is acting as resonance box and makes the sound clunky. But the action is fine and type alignment is perfect. Segment-shift makes typing very light and effortless.

To fully appreciate the design icon photo session followed.

And inside the famous bucket:

Many these machines have deteriorated rubber straps which hold the bucket/cover in place. Mine are still holding well but start to show their age. Luckily they only hold the cover - which is very light - so even in case of failure nothing really bad happens.

Yep! It is a must-have in any reputable typewriter collection for sure!

Remington Remette - minimalist machine

March 06, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

This machine was produced in the midst of Great Depression era. Only ca 192 000 were made, between 1938 - 1942, after Richard Polt’s information.

It is a very minimalistic yet very functional machine. This particular machine has a family history spanning three generations so I’m not sure it should stay in my arsenal…

Anyway - I took her on my bench to take a closer look on the mechanism and to restore it back to operational state. Removing the body panels (ribbon cover and main body panel) required unscrewing 6 screws. There should be total 8 screws but 2 are missing.

The mechanism was working, with a few keys getting stuck at times. Machine was spared receiving dreaded WD40 treatment, thanks god for that.

Removing the platen is very easy: Remette has only right platen knob, held in place by wide screw. Removing the knob enables sliding out the platen rod through left side. To ease the whole process of lifting the platen one can unscrew card holder.
The usual tumbleweed landscape appeared after the platen was lifted.

Inspecting the basket I noticed missing one type lever - happens to be letter Q. So this machine, right now, is not QWERTY but WERTY! Oh well, another sign of eventful life.
One can also see that neighbor type-slug bears signs of repairs.

While playing with the mechanism and testing all functions I managed to lock the carriage… Something was binding. Closer look revealed that it was ribbon-retaining arm which got its spring loose. Fixed that.

The machine got several blasts of compressed air and a long session with dust brush. No need for chemical cleaning.
I then turned to the platen. It must have been re-coated at some moment because the rubber is still elastic and not cracked or oxidized. It was certainly used heavily, judging from rows of indents on its surface.

I sanded down the rubber to regain smooth surface. This will make much better imprint on paper.
Looks like brand new again!

Paper-feed rollers must have been replaced too - they are in good shape, grippy and elastic. No flat spots.

Someone doing this maintenance thought that no one will notice… I did. And I’m sure it was not Remington Factory who installed this feed roller. It works fine, thou, so I leave it as is. A funny quirk in machine’s history.

To remove paper-bale one needs to find and release two small hinges under the carriage. It seems that someone got too nervous while trying to remove it - it was bent. I straightened it and cleaned before installation.

To remove paper-bale one needs to open two hinges under the carriage. Shifting all the way to the left for left part and to the right for the other.

Observant eye will notice how the end of these axles is formed: sharp and knurled, as if saying “here shall ya pull”.

Open position with paper-bale hinge inserted. View from below the carriage.

The pin re-inserted for paper-bale installation.

Feet were in worse condition although some springiness was still present. They were too stiff to do their job of holding the machine stable so I decided to mount new rubber.

Original feet consist of one-part rubber with steel washers as locking wedge, to retain them in frame openings.

I found matching substitutes from fresh rubber. Retaining part will also be rubber, pressed inside new feet.

Keys cleaning followed. There was quite a bit of residue and dirt indeed.

Last step was cleaning type slugs.

And so I could mount the ribbon onto original, tiny spools, and hit the keys for the first time. Not bad indeed!

Some key-levers needed some adjustments to not bind in type guide but that was an easy and quick fix.

I used the ribbon which sat on the machine. There is still quite a lot of ink left and it is a cotton ribbon - much better than polyester.

I waxed body panels with Fulgentine, taking care to avoid areas with decals. They show “honest patina” anyway and I don’t want to turn them silver with careless smudge of the wax.

It is a very handsome machine and it types very well. Missing “Q” does not disturb me much right now, for most of the time I could avoid using it by choosing different words. A bit more disturbing is letter “A” which lands too high. It was soldered by someone - type slug and type arm bear signs of filing and too high temperature soldering.
I will fix that once I find a replacement for lost “Q” type-arm. For now I will treat it as patina and a sign of machine’s history.

Remette has no bell, no margin release (although there exists mechanism which enables doing it, one sign at a time) and only monochromatic ribbon color. Hard-core minimalistic but by no means disturbing during typing.

Arm for paper release visible close to right-side platen knob.

All other levers are gathered, as usual, on the left side of the platen. Line space lever and knob (single and double-spaced lines), platen ratchet release (for typing on forms or making typewriter-art) and margin release tiny lever on the back.

Streamline shape is pleasant to the eye.

A little eye-candy decal is hidden under the paper-table!

My naked typewriter - Hermes Baby with script typeface

February 27, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I avoid these machines.
I mean - typewriters with plastic body shell.

There is nothing wrong with them - don’t get me wrong. For most parts they are very good machines, even exceptional, like Tippa I once had. It is just that I don’t like how plastic ages, how brittle it becomes over time. It does not really develop patina, contrary to metal-bodied machines.

So how I happened to grab this one little fellow?

I got inspired by Joe Van Cleave who talks about connection (or interface) between human and machine. I think he has a point in describing this as a factor why typewriters are still with us and why they gain more and more popularity. Renaissance of a kind in our modern, digital era.

One of his short episodes can be found here.

I stumbled on Hermes Baby machine with plastic body shell. A newer incarnation of my favorite, old, all metal machines. Most importantly - it has a script typeface!

I cleaned and repaired it and decided to keep it out of the shell, naked.
Then I recalled Joe’s thoughts about typewriters as bio-mechanical extensions of our brains. He made a valid point - I agree with him. My small Hermes Baby is now even more in this tune.

Well, apart from that - it is a script typeface machine!

This overshadows whatever material the body is made of. I very much like this typeface and so far I only have one other machine with such font - happens to also have plastic body.

Besides - I had a plan!

The machine arrived in “typing condition”, with just three problems: very dirty (but no WD40!), rubber feet busted and right-hand platen knob was gone. Nothing serious really.

It took me a good half an hour to remove the mechanism from the shell. Unlike older Hermes Baby/Rocket with metal panels this reincarnation is sitting inside one-part shell. To remove the machine one needs to carefully slide it out, flexing the shell cautiously to pass by parts of the mechanism. Eventually, without breaking anything, I managed.

The shell consists of two parts: main body and carriage back cover. Plastic cover in style of Olympia Splendid closes the machine for transport.
Pistachio color holds nice, no discolorations or cracks.

I have an older Hermes Baby with standard typeface.
My diabolic plan was to swap bodies, thus getting metal-bodied machine with script typeface.

Guess what? It ain’t gonna work.

Even though both are Hermes Baby these are quite different machines.
Both share the same carriage-shift (or rather carriage-tilt) construction but many details differ. No wonder - the plastic-bodied machine, being newer, was made in Germany. Older Hermes is Swiss-made. Newer machine has color-selector which older one lacks.
Alternative could be swapping type bars between machines but nope! They differ in shape and length.
Re-soldering type slugs seemed too much effort as for now. Maybe some time in the future.

All right then, I dumped the idea and instead focused on fixing the new machine. First step, as always, was to remove the platen, to gain access for cleaning and inspection of paper rollers. All good here, no flat spots, just dirt.
The only platen knob left was the left one, with line ratchet decoupling mechanism.

Mechanism is maybe little exaggerated word: it is simply friction-based, no clutch or anything like that.

The right platen knob, also plastic, was gone. Only metal insert was still attached to platen axle. I turned a new one, from aluminum. I was considering plastic - or something as cool as Tufnol - but already at this moment I started considering leaving this machine bare-bone. Aluminum knob will match nicely, weight penalty being just a few more grams.

Pressed-in the original insert and voila!

The left knob was still functional but I figured it will brake apart anyhow soon. I detached it from the metal insert and moved ahead with fabricating a replacement.

And there we have both of them. Plunger screw acts as a stop for line ratchet release.

The platen had very hard rubber. As this is a fun project I decided to experiment with covering it with latex inner-tube. This is thinner than standard rubber inner-tube and offers options with the color.

Decided to go with greenish tube.

I sacrificed perfectly good inner tube from my sport bike. Mounted on the platen and tried fitting it to the machine. Zonk! It did not fit - it was too tight. Turning back to the lathe - to shave a bit of the original, hard rubber.

Initial diameter of the platen recorded.

Mounted back the inner-tube and tried fitting. All good!

Looks very good!

But the imprint was awful! As much as I like the color I had to strip the latex tube and substitute with good-old standard bicycle inner-tube. Latex, even though very thin, was too soft for this particular type face. Instead of crisp, sharp contours I got shaded letters which looked bad.

After all these back&forth actions I finally sat down and typed on still bare-bone machine. I noticed, to my surprise, how quiet it became! It seems that the plastic shell - which lacks any sound proofing - acted as a resonant box, rectifying sounds of the mechanism. Without it the machine sounds much quieter and almost like Remington Noiseless.

Well, that was a decisive factor: the shell will stay on the shelf, I will keep this machine naked. Fabricated new feet from modern, transparent polyurethane and there we have it!

Quite pleased how it looks without its shell, in fact!

My knobs match the overall feeling of “technical” machine.

Clean and adjusted!

Most importantly it types very well! Even though the keys are equally close as on original Hermes I find these newer. shaped, white keytops easier on fingers and more pleasant to type on.

Siemag Meisterin - heavy player

February 26, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Relatively unknown brand, the manufacturer came to typewriter scene quite late. According to Will Davis this is the last brand to enter the market with hole new, “out of the blue” design.
We are talking 50-ties here.

My machine is Siemag “Meisterin“ typewriter (championess), top of the line, which was produced between 1953-1957 in Germany.

At the first sight you would say it is just a standard, office-size machine. On the second sight you will start to see some features which will make you curious. At least if you are like me.

Apart from being unusual as a brand the main thing which locked me was paper injector on the right side of the carriage. So far I had no machine with this feature and I wanted to take a look how it is done. No other person was willing to buy her so I took her!

I picked the machine myself - it was relatively close and the beast is so heavy that she would most certainly get damaged if shipped.

Upon arrival I instantly noticed why someone not interested in typewriters would not want to keep her as decoration. She is very heavy and she bears original, ugly color of green.
I like green, no problem, but this shade reminds me very much Soviet-era office machines. As Janne noticed - this is an “institutional color”.

Apart from ugly color and lots of dust on the outside the mechanism worked like a clock. Very heavy and authoritarian clock I would say - the action is light and very pleasant but you can feel that there is heavy machinery being moved upon each key stroke. Big Ben of typewriters.

This machine was built for very heavy usage. You feel it while typing - nothing shaky, nothing out of sync. Very best quality materials used in heavy duty construction to withstand the strain of 10 keystrokes per second!

I’m not even close to this speed while typing!

As a proper office machine it has digital tabulator on the top row.

Upon deeper inspection I noticed that the mechanism inside is pristine clean, no traces of dust or dreaded WD40. Thanks to “full-body armor” it was protected from dirt in the cellar of lady who kept the machine after her husband.

Rubber on the platen is in very good condition, still springy. Paper rollers in perfect condition, paper injector takes a sheet of paper without hesitation. Perfect!

But this color… Would it be in perfect shape I would leave it but there were a few spots where it started to show its age, wear& tear.

Inside the ribbon cover were rests of now totally decomposed sound dampening foam with embedded two strips of metal, supposedly preventing resonant vibrations.

And guess what - these strips of metal are lead! What else, right? As if the machine is not heavy enough already…

I had since long this idea to follow Richard Polt’s approach of stripping a machine to bare metal. I would not do it on a rare machine or otherwise nice but wearing an “honest patina” but this one was an ideal candidate. I just detest this color on that form!

So I went ahead and started mechanically scraping the paint from ribbon cover, aluminum cast.

It went like blood from the nose. I can tell that these guys who put paint on the aluminum knew how to do it properly: it sat well as hell. To avoid destroying the decal I attempted to remove it from the cover. It looked as if it was just held by two plastic pins on the back. Well, it didn’t - it was also glued so it snapped instantly when I carefully pried underneath. Too bad…

I decided that if I want to finish the job before retirement I need to get some help with proper chemistry. I bought the most expensive and ugliest smelling goo from proffs paint shop and gave it a go.

Left it overnight and evacuated myself from the workshop - the smell was unbearable.

The day after, when the goo almost dried, I started scraping the paint. It went much easier but the black primer underneath was still sitting strong.

I repeated the procedure hoping that next round of heavy chemistry will soften also the primer.

It helped, to some extend, but still a good amount of elbow grease was needed to reach bare aluminum. Next step was to properly wash parts treated with the paint stripper.

Work on the main body, steel cast, was much easier although equally messy.

Front covering panel, steel, presented another challenge: how to remove without damaging plastic markings and knob for color selector? The paint stripper would melt them.

Color-dots could not be saved: they were glued from behind and cracked when I was removing the glue. No big deal. Worth noticing that this machine has 4 modes of using the ribbon, unlike most which just have 3: black, red and stencils. This one has also middle selection which uses the middle of the ribbon so if one uses monochromatic ribbon it will last even longer!

Removed mechanism for ribbon selection to proceed with paint stripping.

Stripped and cleaned parts went into next phase: polishing with fine-grit paper and polishing sponges. My desired look is brushed-steel, Airstream-like finish.

To proceed further I needed to remove the platen, to clean underneath it and to get access for paper table. This prove to be a challenge - I’ve never worked on such machine. Some screws were so well hidden that I could not find a way to dissect this assembly at first.

Finally I got access.

Paper rest was bent.

Fixed easily by forming the stop-tab.

Paper table is held in place by several stop-rings, holding it in proper alignment so it rests just above the platen.

The carriage assembly free for cleaning and inspection!

Paper injector mechanism visible after removing the carriage side panels. Scale was bent and not visible, I will form it back upon re-assembly.

Dusting off the mechanism followed. Bottom shows heavy-duty pulling slabs for decimal tabulator.

Serial number is placed on the bottom, under space bar position. I might run it against Typewriter Database one day.

Rubber feet were busted - no wonder, bearing so heavy machine for 70 years.

As this whole project is an experiment I decided to make new feet from synthetic cork. It is really more rubber than cork so why not?

Nice thing with this material is that one can use wood-working tools to form it.

Cavities for rectangular washers chiseled at the bottom.

Original rubber feet were probably 1 cm lower but I decided to make mine a tad higher. The machine will be used on a table I made, we stand in front of it to type so little heightened machine makes typing more comfortable.
I can always cut them shorter if needed.

After polishing all metal panels, cleaning and re-assembling the machine came the last part - cleaning key tops.

Exposed bare metal might start oxidizing so I waxed the whole machine with Fulgentin.

Lastly I needed to do something with the broken Siemag-logo on the ribbon cover.

I decided to substitue it with wooden inlay, with aim to slightly warm-up otherwise very industrial look of the object.

I could have used veneers and just cut them with scissors but I wanted to add bulbous logo to match 50-ties esthetics of the machine.
Trying the shape fit in the cavity before round the edges.

And there we are - done!

Mounted monochromatic blue ribbon, to fully take advantage of triple-position ribbon selector.

Ready for service!

Triumph Perfekt - green/chocolade eye-candy

February 23, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

This is my second Triumph, if not counting Triumph Tippa which found its new home with Marek.
The other machine is Triumph Monica which is a lovely typer but shell is made of plastic. Nothing wrong with that regarding functionality but I just don’t like plastic shells on typewriters, that’s just me.

This machine has metal-all shell. Aluminum, to be precise. Cast-aluminum, to be pedantically precise.
That’s my kind of babe!

It came to me with no particular problems under the hood, just standard issues: dust, dirt, hanging keys. It was typing out-of-the-box and once I saw the typeface… men, I rushed to my workbench to clean it so I can start using it!

To remove the platen one needs to unscrew both knobs, in opposite directions. No central rod like in old machines.

One-part body panel is held by 6 screws on the bottom of the machine.

Care is advised when lifting the shell from the mechanism - chrome plated trim at the bottom edge of the machine is held with tabs to the frame, it is easy to disturb it with careless removal. I saw many such machines listed for sale, with this part bent beyond repair. It can be, of course, repaired but it will be visible.

With platen removed I inspected feed rollers, expecting standard flat spots on worn rubber.
Nope! This machine is equipped with cork rollers!

They held in perfect shape for all these 70 years! No need to do anything to them, just cleaning.

This is my first machine with such rollers. I love them!
Yes, they do not grip paper with such authority as rubber rollers but they do the job. Once they engage they feed paper nice and straight.

Platen was in good shape - no cracks or dents. I sanded it a bit to remove oxidation and gave it treatment with rubber rejuvenator liquid. It doesn’t do wonders but I like to believe that it makes hardened rubber a tiny-tawny softer.

Segment flush and type slugs cleaning followed, standard routine.

Nice and clean, smelling goooood!

Escapement right in front of me - no need to mess with that now but good to have it accessible should anything happened.

Paper table was missing one spring which should hold it firmly in position. It did not matter much but I went ahead and fitted replacement while on it. It feels better to have a complete machine, ain’t it?

Key-tops cleaning as a last step. Chocolate-coloured, match beautifully sea-foam green shell!

There!
With clean machine and new ribbon I finally sat down to type a few words.

This typeface!
What a nice typeface!

It is similar to famous Oliver Fontype but - oh men - typing on this Triumph is so much easier and enjoyable than on Oliver! It became instantly my go-to machine when typing letters. Let my friends enjoy reading text typed with so balanced and harmonic typeface!

Photo-session followed. I like esthetics of 50-ties, with these rounded forms, like Buick-cars of that era.

The only complaint I can think of is that carriage return handle, being very pronounced and otherwise comfortable for its function is at the same time a bit in the way when I type.
I’m being picky here. It is just a matter of adjusting how my hands fly above the keys to make this problem disappear but at first I was hitting the handle when mid-line, typing enthusiastically.

I like these small details which adds class to the whole form. Even Swedish dealer decal is a plate, not a sticker.

And - as if nobody new - this German-made machine was IMPORTED to Sweden!
Who might have thought…

Stylish finish for color selector and tabulator settings. Black knobs to contrast with chocolate-brown keys.

And lastly a bit more of mechanical porn!

Rheinmetall - serviceman friendly machine

February 21, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

This is Rheinmetall portable typewriter, very similar to Richard Polt’s machine - serial no. 299178 so very close. It was made in East Germany in 1951 or 1952.

And it is not my machine!
Ha!

I found an advertisement and I went to pick the machine. So far I had not any Rheinmetall in my hands and I wanted to try one. The person selling it was very nice so we had a rather long conversation (tea & biscuits included!). And so I found that the seller did not really want to sell her but was desperate because the machine was not functioning properly and no one could be found to look into these problems.

Perfect!
Here I am!

For me such situations are really win-win! I can get my hands on the machine, look into her mechanics and solutions, play with her and possibly fix while I don’t need to keep her! Or find her new home!
That comes with all other by-effects: my wife is happy that I don’t bring YET ANOTHER MACHINE home, I don’t need to find space for it but mostly, MOSTLY: I know that once I fix the problem I am returning the machine to someone who will really use her and enjoy it.
Ain’t that a win-win?

The machine landed on my bench and I started investigations. First things first: cleaning. There was dust & dirt inside but luckily no one approached it with WD 40. Thanks for that!

Brushed off and blown out most of the dirt.
Next thing was segment flush - many keys were sticking, not returning to rest position after typing. Many were slow and stubborn in movement. Flush with thinner, followed with “typewriter soup” and air blasts solved the issue within half an hour.

I got curious on the function of these two latches on the back panel. They looked like asking for undoing…

Of course I opened them but nothing happened. I then recalled reading about this Rheinmetall solution for easy carriage assembly removal. OK, so what else do I need to unscrew to get it out? Yep, these two wide-head screws, on both sides of the carriage rails. No need to remove them, just undo a few turns - the assembly is held in place by small metal tabs underneath.

And the whole thing just glides out in no time!

Why, oh why is it not a standard on all other machines? Oliver, Adler and Blickensderfer being the only other I know to have such easy carriage removal but this Rheinmetall beats them all - entire escapement is right in front of you!
How cool is that?

That gave me access to deeper layers of the mechanical wonder, to further clean it. It also gave me direct clue why the ribbon vibrator was hanging occasionally during typing.

That’s correct - the pin should be inside of the arm below, not above. Fixed that!

I then checked if the ribbon is lifted enough for proper alignment with type slugs. Nope! It was too low now.

I corrected lift height with adjustment screw on actuator arm, close to the ribbon vibrator.

Another issue was that the draw string was too long. Upon closer inspection I found that someone repaired apparently broken string by tying an extension. Good job but the extension was too long, resulting in too low spring tension thus causing the carriage to slow down when closer right margin. Fast enough typist would then overrun the machine, piling letters at the end of the line.

I fixed that by cutting excess string and burning/melting new string end. Easy on removed carriage assembly!

I attempted cleaning key tops but did not manage to whiten out key legends: thick paint in engraved letters got cracks which took dirt in between. These machines are known for peeling key legends, resulting in empty engravings. I didn’t want to risk damaging otherwise complete legends so I just cleaned the obvious dirt and decided to call the remaining dirt a patina.

What was left was to install fresh ribbon. This machine has colour selector so I installed black-red, hardcore traditional ribbon.
Knots at the spool ends instead of rivets - they work equally well in tripping ribbon riverse mechanism.

Last but not least - waxing with Fulgentin. I took care not to wipe decals - even mild solvent like in Fulgentin will turn gold into silver-gray colour.
The enamel on this machine has many cracks. Apparently she spent some part of her life in bad conditions. Wax fills a bit these cracks and masks them, hopefully preventing further development.

Happy with the result I sat down to test type a few words.

What a joy! The machine is fast and snappy, very responsive. I would compare her to Triumph Perfekt or Torpedo. It is not as light as on Erika, rather leaning towards Olympias. Very good typer!

Before returning to her owner I took her home for photo session.

Carriage lock for transporting - on the left side of the machine.

Capitals adjustment screws are right there, on the carriage. No need to dive into intestines with strange tools.

Touch selector, I suppose, is hidden under the machine. I set it on lightest touch - my preference. The owner can easily change that.

Nice and clean, smelling good!

It was a joy to work on so nicely done and well thought through machine!

Royal Arrow. Escapement problem.

February 18, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Design classic, Henry Dreyfuss-designed Royal portable.

They were produced for only 3 years, between 1947 and 1949, after which Royal diverted from Dreyfuss design towards more “flashy” form. Nice review of it is available here, from Tyoewriters Justice.

I didn’t realise until reading this article on oz.Typewriter page that it was also Dreyfuss who designed iconic Polaroid SX-70 camera!

My machine bears classic colours: black and grey. Tombstone-shaped keys and very ergonomic placement of all necessary controls makes this very compact machine a pleasure to use. And it has Swedish key layout!

It is one of few machines in my collection which came to me with no particular problems. Well, the bell was not ringing but it doesn’t count - it was easy to fix. I just cleaned the mechanism as a routine and the machine was ready to go.

At least I thought so.

Ribbon cover opens like a car hood - no need to place it on the side when changing ribbon or cleaning type-slugs. If Woody Allen had this machine he would probably not loose the cover!

My first impression when typing was puzzled: something was wrong.

Keys were sluggish and space bar was not always reacting properly. Definitely not something one expects from such famous machine.

I inspected closely all links in search for something bent or loose. Nope. All seemed to be normal.
Escapement then!

It was my first Royal portable so I was not sure what is “normal” and what is abnormal in the escapement mechanism. Upon closer inspection I found the source of binding upon key action: escapement trip.

This machine has the escapement buried deep inside. In despair I removed the carriage assembly, thinking that I’ll gain access from above. I did but could not figure out what causes the problem. There was no screw or link which I could adjust for this particular bind.

I put the machine on workshop shelf and it stayed there for months. Today I was looking through my collection and picking candidates for new homes - I decided to scale down a bit.
This unfortunate Royal was an obvious candidate: every time I looked on it it reminded me my failed attempt to fix it. It was typing so it was not broken but… it was not fully operational.

I took it down to try typing again. Still bad. Some letters were not printing and to get proper imprint I needed to bang on keys instead of lightly snapping them as on other machines.
No, I cannot give away such machine, not in that condition.

I browsed through repair manuals in search of information. No good. I then tried Youtube and finally I stumbled upon very recent videos from Duane, Phoenix Typewriter. What a timing! Just a few weeks ago Duane posted exactly this problem when working on Royal QDL! Which is exactly Royal Arrow with some additional features.
In his second video he shows extracted escapement mechanism. Excellent aid to understand what is going on there!

It is this thin and curved tab which got, most probably, bent during shipment! This happens when the machine is not properly secured against shocks. An energetick whack on the carriage end causes escapement failures - in case of this Royal luckily nothing broke but the shock was taken by this adjustement tab which is luckily made to be formed - the steel is not hardened.

So there we have it: this ball, marked with arrow below, was sitting on top of star on the star wheel, instead of being just slightly after it, like on the photo.

To adjust it back into position I needed to form the steel tab so that it will stop the pawl (which in turns stops the star wheel) in proper position for the ball-ended pawl to just miss the star.

To do that I needed to make a tool, to reach deep into the mechanism, grab a tab and bend it back to its proper position.

And there we go! With just that the machine came back to life! As Duane says: it looks we have a survivor!

Typing action became smooth and light, very pleasant indeed! What a difference!

It is again one of the machines which are a joy to look at and to use.

Colour combination together with no-nonsense design mark the hand of the great industrial designer.

It is a segment-shift machine so the shift to capitals is very light and smooth.

My machine has the original platen in still very good condition - the rubber is grippy and not hardened. Same with feed rollers - I didn’t have to do anything to them, they still grab paper with authority.

And most of all - this machine is very compact and lightweight, even though all panels and mechanisms are steel.

I’m not sure now that I want to part with this beauty!