May 3, 2015 - A Typecast From the Olivetti Lexikon 80

A small sample of the influx of machines from the past couple of months...

Olivetti Lexikon 80 (thanks to a typeOsphere benefactor!)

A wonderful, 1 owner, *early* Smith-Corona Galaxie is glorious orange!

Another 1-owner machine, purchased new in the 1950s. I love the gray & maroon of this Olympia SM-3.

Traded for this 1940's Royal Aristocrat, and it is held in high esteem! These are great machines.

A pretty rare find in Ohio - a QWERTZ keyboard Torpedo desktop typer.

A Vari-Typer that a customer traded to me for service. I like those kinds of deals!

Another rare find in Ohio, a very French (they told us this 3 times on the body) AMC in lovely 2-tone.

A very early Underwood 3-bank typer that I have had ZERO time to work on. :-(

Sears & Roebuck 2-tone green Remington 2 (variant). One of 70,000.

The super-cool Underwood tripod case. I love this thing!

March 2, 2015 - Replica Knob Update #2

While not perfect, my pragmatic perfectionism(TM) says "this is good enough" - at least as a starting point. :-)

I am exceptionally pleased at how the knob texture is perfect!

March 2, 2015 - Replica Platen Knob Update # 1

Work calls, so I must make this update hastily.

Let me first note that this is a journey. It is a journey that I am not alone on, the TypeOsphere is riding shotgun with me, and I am sharing what I learn and accomplish, right along with my failures, so that some other enterprising soul might skip the mistakes and forge ahead.

Last night I made my first-ever replica knob casting, and this is what popped out when I was done:

I am pretty sure that I know what I did wrong (see that rough texture on the top of the knob on the right?), and I know what I need to do to correct it.

All things considered, I am super happy with the result, and a gentleman in the UK is going to be pretty happy too, once I get this  fully sorted.

More to come!

January 4, 2015 - Happy New Year & Casting New Knobs