Remington Portable early model

First new typewriter in a while! Although early Remington Portable typewriters are not particularly rare, they're not too common in Europe. So when the opportunity came along to get one, for a reasonable sum too, sprang for it.

Not sure if these are very 'collectable', but I'd say it's a notable 'milestone' typewriter design. It represents an impressive feat of engineering that -accelerated by well-funded and good marketing- arguably defined the portable typewriter category for decades. (So deemed it worth finding that little bit of extra shelf-space for.)

This is not the very first model of the Portable, this machine NV10943 dates from July 1921 and the outer housing had just switched to flat-bottom with rubber feet instead of the dimples with cotter-pins. This specimen also has the second style of 2-hole type-guide, this update being phased in on-off over the July production (i.e. there are later July 1921 machines that have the early style).

One sign of an early Portable still there: no exposed shift-stop screws, plain side-wall of the outer frame.

On these early Portable machines, the serial number is stamped in the frame part of the machine, instead of in the outer shell - sensible. Also visible is another feature of all #1 Portables, the rear carriage rail is short - maybe even will allow for the bearing-cage to be slid off without completely loosening the rear rail.

Some of the #1 machines seen online are missing one of the 3-hole half-spools; they may actually only be missing the spool flange. This has come unstuck from its core and it's only luck that it is still with the machine.

Even though it already has some of the later features, this machine does still have the curved paper-table and doesn't have any supports.

Unfortunately, the line-spacing sprung roller is missing. Only the base of the spring is still there; broken off. The line-release lever had been replaced with a much later, #2 Portable lever (removed in above picture). This may be the cause of the line-spacing roller breaking, perhaps there are subtle differences in design beyond the length of the lever.

The early lifting-tray slides very smoothly in its guides, no play at all. The mounting to the lifting arms is different from later #1 models. The early mounting has a hex-nut.

For comparison, the #1 from 1924 in below picture has the lever fixed much the same way as the #2 Portable:

This above view of a late #1 also shows how the outer frame now gives access to single screws of the shift-stops. The #2 model also exposes the adjusting screw, so two scres per shift-stop. (Well, one is the baseline stop and the other is the shifted-stop, but let's call them both stop-blocks.) Just visible too is the sloped face of the ribbon-reverse knob -the early Portable has no automatic ribbon reverse (hence 3-hole spools are handy to show the user when it's time to reverse).

The shift-lock key has its own key-lever, entirely separate from the shift-key's lever.

Another quirk is that this machine has a regular, international keyboard with accents. The accent keys are however not dead-keys - typing an accent grave will index the carriage. In practice this won't have been an issue; to type e.g. "é" first press down the spacebar, then type e and then the accent and then let go of the spacebar.

The typewriter was briefly taken of its base to remove some dust.

Surprisingly, whilst the carriage rails are brightly nickeled, the internal mechanism of this specimen is mostly blackened. The bell, spring-drum and most of the rods and spacers are black.

As is to be expected, it shows signs of having been serviced such as that wrong long-lever line-release, and also has several spots where thick black paint was used to re-touch.

This Portable has, of course, a rock-hard platen and no functional line-feed, but other than that it all seems to work. Robust machines :)

Maybe to scout-round for a replacement line-feed roller and a correct pattern release lever,  but first it goes on the storage shelf. Wrapped in plastic to await a later full cleaning and touching-up (and perhaps full repair, new rubber?).

So finally got one! An early Remington Portable, the start of a very long line of robust personal writing machines.

:-)

Snagged one!

 Arrived last weekend - need to take more pictures, but already sneak peek.

More pictures to come -and discovering the state it's in :-D

Fixing-up a Shore hardness tester (Type "T")

When hobbying-around with typewriter platens, it's about rubber and the hardness of that rubber. To give that a number, usually the Shore hardness or Durometer hardness gets mentioned. To be able to measure that myself, tried to get a Durometer - and instead of one of the common, widely available items I tried to get a period-correct specimen to match the pre-war typewriters.

So already a few years ago, I bought a relatively cheap, used Shore Durometer on the local classifieds site. That proved to be a a bad purchase. The listing pictures hadn't shown it, but it was a wreck; missing window, broken pointer and somehow jammed halfway the scale. The dial was so heavily pitted, that it was hard to read anyways. The item was put away on a shelf, written off as a 'fail'.

However, having gained some more confidence and because of the platen-testing with the Blickensderfer, it was taken down again and opened up. Normally wouldn't dare take apart such an instrument, but it was broken anyways so nothing to lose.

Very quickly a new window was cut from some plastic-sheet (packaging) and a thin strip of card added to the curved, shiny distance bracket. This is needed to compensate for the difference in thickness of the plastic sheet with the original glass. With a fine camelhair brush, the black pitting of the dial was retouched with gold watercolour paint.

The spring-assembly was taken out and the small bearing in the lower-left corner that holds the axle of the pointer was screwed-out. That allowed the pinion to slip a tooth with the rack-segment on the horizontal 'weighing-bar' that holds the pin. (No idea how that got out of sync, it must've had quite some mistreatment!)

Re-assembly is -as they say- the reverse of disassembly.

This leaves however the adjustment - this specimen will not ever be a reliable tester again, but wanted to make an attempt to at least get it 'reasonable'. Still more reading-up to do on Durometers (a lot more!), but it boils down to setting/checking pin-exposure, adjusting spring-constant and setting/shifting the force-level.

First-off, the pin should be exposed 0.1" from the base (abutment). This is unlikely to be out of adjustment, but astonishingly this one was. The pin can be screwed in or out and is fixed with a tiny set-screw (orange). Vernier-calipers should be fine for now. Then the spring constant should be adjusted to be about 74 gf per 10 on the scale (that is for medium-spring Durometers - there's a world out there!).

To be able to measure, read the scale and adjust at the same time, a testing stand was made from Meccano. Fortunately the Meccano standard BSW 5/32 thread is a beautiful fit for the threaded hole in the knob of the Durometer - made for it!

To adjust the ratio of pointer-movement per force applied, the link can be moved over the beam. To reduce movement per force, move to right and vice-versa. Fix in place with its screw (green).

Then the absolute level of force for the values has to be set. That can be done by changing the pre-load with the distance-bush. Use small pliers or a tiny wrench to rotate the bush until right (purple).

All this having been done (a couple of times), the Shore Durometer again reads close to 60 when pressed against the check-block that was in the box. There may well be a better way, but so far this seemed the logical order of things. (Maybe the factory adjusting instructions for these instruments will shortly show up online!)

After reading more about Durometers, it's become clear that this set is a hodgepodge - it is wrong. The check-block has serial nuimber 6622 and the instrument is 13764 - the check-block should be with instrument 6622 and 13764 lost its own check-block. The black leather box likewise is wrong for the 1940s crinkle-black instrument, probably it's the box of the 6622 instrument.

Originally I had assumed that the "T" on the dial was some confusing 'freak' corrosion, making it look like Type "T". But this is actually correct! This is really is a Shore Durometer Type "T". It has a spherical presser-pin, the '2-pound' spring and a concave abutment plate - i.e. a Type "T" tester. 

The Type "T" Durometer is probably pretty rare, as it was made for a very specific use-case in one specific industry. (Lucky find.) It is also not at all suitable for assessing the rubber of typewriter platens. (Less lucky.)

Shore Durometers are a whole subject in and of themselves, as I'm discovering - more Durometers to come I'm sure and perhaps an agelist to be compiled too!

(rabbit-hole :-)

Comptometer Model B - restored

Finishing touch now added to the restored Comptometer Model B from about 1908.

The fixed-up machine still had two replacement keys from the 1920s (amongst many other issues that it had when found). These keys were noticeably different in design appearance from the original composite keys. They are also a slightly different shape and size. The '3' keys in columns 3 and 4 in image below are these later, celluloid replacements:

After some hesitation, these two old replacements were taken off and replaced by new reproductions of the original key design. The celluloid keys were themselves already a century old and could/should be considered part of the machine's history, an acquired 'layer' of history in archeological terms. However, having already re-painted the case I decided to prioritise the overall appearance of the machine; to optimise for looking as when originally sold and first used in 1908.

(Taking off a key means taking out the complete keystem and then using the slotted wooden bar to 'hammer' the key off. Attempting to pull off a key when the stem is in the machine will almost certainly damage/destroy the mechanism.)

The earlier composite-keys are slightly different in shape from the later celluloid keys, a bit taller and a different lower section - from a different molding process and factory. The lettering is also slightly different, thinner and taller. The lettering on Comptometer keys however also varies a bit over time, per different mold or die that was made. From measurements of the genuine specimen on the machine, a 3D model was made of the composite-key design.

The new replacements then 3D printed from PLA plastic and finished with paints to mimic the appearance of the composite keys - blending in well enough to not be noticable.

The mechanism of this model B still functions flawlessly. In above picture the machine is showing the result of dividing 355 by 113; answer 3.14159 with remainder of 033.

The Comptometer Model B now fully restored - calculating like it's 1908 :-)

An Olympia in a Broadway shop window

During a saunter round Leiden, spotted a grey Olympia SM typewriter in the shop window of a second-hand store.

Rather an up-market thrift store - such a thing exists, surprisingly. It seemed to sit somewhere on the scale between junk-store/thrift and an antique-shop. Located in the city on the Breestraat (i.e. Broadway) with a mid-century modern flair in its display.

The photograph of Mr Rühmann probably also dates from the 1950s. It was after closing time, so no safari of the insides of an up-market thrift store - just the window display :)

Blickensderfer carriage escapement adjustment

The reason for this hole in the base casting of the Blcikensderfer is now clear.

It gives visibility of the meshing of the indexing-claw with the carriage rack. This moving claw in the rest-position is held against a stop-piece that can (must) be adjusted. The stop-piece is fixed with two screws, accessible only from above, so not when the carriage is mounted on the machine.

When this stop-piece is not quite right, there will be a bit of play in the carriage position. When at rest, it will then be possible to manually shift it about a bit.

Because the stop-piece cannot be adjusted with the carriage on the machine, it is a trial-and-error iterative process today. The peek-hole shows how the stop-piece still needs to be moved. The factory almost certainly will have had an empty carriage-strip with access-holes to tighten the screws with a rack in-position.
.

The second adjustment is the static claw. It is held on an eccentric screw that permits left-right adjusting. It should be placed so, that when the moving claw is pulled out of engagement, the carriage cannot be pushed to the right - the static-claw's function is to prevent any pulling-back by the moving claw when indexing the carriage.

With the two claws now adjusted, the Blickensderfer typewriter somehow feels a bit more ' solid'. When the escapement is out of adjustment it will still index and type just fine, but will have a bit more rattle and may have irregular kerning.

Increasingly, I'm amazed how well the little Blick can be made to work; and with increased curiosity for the long-lost factory documentation on manufacture and adjustment :)

Blickensderfer platen knob replica

The re-creating of a platen for the Blickensderfer typewriter slowed down, but a small improvement in the surface finish of the sleeve was tried. 

After filing away more thoroughly the z-seam bulge and a general roughening of the entire surface (fine sandpaper), the surface was painted with a water-based acrylic. The paint was simply brushed-on and left to dry for about 10 or 15 minutes. After the paint was dry (but not hard), rubbed with a cloth/rag to make a smooth surface.

The above image shows the newly manufactured reproduction (top) next to the original ~1905 platen. The repro surface still shows the seam of the printing process, but the surface is smooth and it's less noticeable visually than it was. The thin layer of acrylic should not have any real effect on the resilience of the platen and it does help to even-out the surface. Result of this method is that it looks good and types fine, but it will have to be seen how durable a surface this is. Trial and error :)

Also, an improved replica of the platen knob was made. Because the knob needs to be tightened quite hard on the rod, it really did need a threaded metal insert. In this case, just as in the original, a hex-nut.

For fitting the replica knob on an original platen-rod, a UNF 8-36 nut should be fitted. If making one for a new M4-based platen, there's a model for an M4 nut too. Both versions can be downloaded here.

The 3D model is ideally printed with a small layer-height. For nicest results, of course a small nozzle will create a crisper profile and enable smallest layering.

Enable supports (tree) and set the support threshold to e.g. 20 degrees to avoid annoying supports in the central hole.

To finish the knob, insert a nut and fixate with a small drop of e.g. cyanoacrylate glue on a corner. With a few applications of paint and then light sanding, the surface can be made to imitate the surface of an original. (Pedestal-stand helps with painting.)

A glut of knobs! Of course only one needed per Blick - here on the Blickensderfer 5.