We stumbled upon this beauty yesterday (along with a Smith Premier 2 - another post, for sure), and it is darned near pristine. The innards glisten as if just lofted from its shipping container from the factory. The typeslugs are pretty much SPOTLESS. The paint, immaculate! However, as you can see in the picture above, its type bars are "sprung."
To quote the man from whence this machine was purchased, "Hmmm. It wasn't like that when it came here." Yeah, great, sparky!
I have fixed this issue with a Hermes Rocket, by adjusting bent linkages, but I poured over this machine for hours last night and could not for the life of me figure out what ails it.
In the following two photos, you can see the "sprung" bars. One of the main clues, is if you press back on one - they all go back. I looked and pressed, and pressed and looked, and flipped and turned, and peered and poked, and guessed, and scratched, and hurrrumphed and exhorted, I almost cursed - but that wouldn't help! :-) I traced the stresses back and forth and looked for commonalities and adjustment points that might be the trick - but to no avail.
I could not (cannot) crack the code on this one. Please HELP if you know how to fix this - or to whom I should send this machine, because it's over my head, apparently!
I have absolutely NO clue! But I do know the model type, it's a 350. If you are ever in need of some parts, let me know, mine is so darn rusty I cannot do anything with it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the offer. You're in Holland, right? Right now everything seems to be in its place, except for the rubber grommet feet that disintegrated as I pulled the machine from the wooden case bottom. It even has the original Continental metal ribbon spools. Sorry to hear that your machine is what I'd call a "basket case." But even they have purpose... to look at the bright side. Thanks again, I'll let you know. Need any parts for a Remington Quiet-Riter or Royal HH?
DeleteYes, I am. But I don't have a need for parts at the moment. As far as I know. Don't own a Quiet-Riter or HH, my collection is mainly German pre-war machinery.
DeleteWOW! I've never seen that before! You're idea of checking the linkages is a good one. Could it be spring related?
ReplyDeleteBryan - good call, BUT ("Everyone has a big but!" -- Peewee Herman) the keys are all resting at the correct height. UGH! :-)
DeleteI actually. Have seen something like this before, but not as bad as this machine. In the other machine, the typewriter had lost a handful of screws supporting components. And the type rest and shifted. There's several components that when they have worked loose, can do this. Look over the type-bar rest, as well as the universal bar.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Scott. No joy. All the supporting screws are intact, and the U-bar and rest do not seem to be contributing.
Delete**UPDATE** After MUCH head bashing .......... I have made NO progress. :-( I am leaning toward some part of the machine being bent/warped.
ReplyDeleteThis is a puzzler!
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, the best thing to do at this point is set it aside, sleep on it (repeatedly), and then look at everything with fresh eyes and fresh logic. It may seem glaringly obvious.