Happiness is a new ribbon…

Number Six and Indy, the Tower Chieftain. Random Cat & Typewriter pr0n.

The red goo in the Remington

The Remington cleaned out a bit

NOS Remington ribbon with the original ring spool that so aften gets lost on Remmies.

That red goop was everywhere..

A Lettera 22 reputedly owned by the screenwriter of several well-known Spaghetti Westerns. Good lord, this machine has a sweet, soft typing action, better than any L22 I've ever typed on by MILES..

A Facit TP-1 in for some issue that I couldn't find. Seemed to work perfectly. Nice action, and *script type* to boot!

Updated: February 20, 2012 — 9:04 pm

8 Comments

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  1. Oooh, is that Mr. Adney’s fine Facit? He has one with script type too, and what are the odds of finding two of those in Arizona?

    Nice Quiet-Riter. I hadn’t realized they used proprietary Remington ribbons, like my Noiseless (although I was able to wind on regular ribbon without too much trouble).

    1. I’m pretty sure the Facit isn’t Ryan’s, so there *must* be two script-type Facits in Arizona. :D

  2. Two observations: speaking of greasy – does your Remi QR have a sort of oiliness to the platen? Mine does, and oddly so does my other Remi – the Ten Forty. Maybe the rubber they used. The L22 – you say it’s smoother than others you’ve tried – I have one that looks identical and I’d be taking it to the desert island (in theory)- it is that smooth. Perhaps they changed something in the manufacturing along the way. Mine was made in Glascow.Same colour, same case. 12 CPI too. Imperial Elite I think.

    1. The Quiet-Riter has a dry but fairly pliable platen, as I generally treat the platens with a rubber rejuvinator solution as soon as I get them to clean off the glazing and flaky rubber. I’ve never seen a greasy platen in a machine, but I imagine that yours might have been once treated with something that left it greasy (I’ve heard of people using brake fluid to treat platens).

      As far as Lettera 22’s go, most that I’ve tried out have had a much stiffer action than I’m used to Lettera 32’s having, and for the most part I’ve assumed they were all that way, but this tan one in Bill’s shop is a rare exception – as light as the earliest Lettera 32’s and very smooth. I very much enjoyed typing on it. (:

      1. I’ve tried the brake fluid too but it doesn’t soften rubber in my experience. What is the rejuvenator that you use? I have some machines with platens that are shiny and hard as rock!

        1. I use Rogersol 184, a rubber rejuvinator that we use to deep-clean blankets and rollers on offset printing presses. You can probably get it at the sort of paper stores that cater to job printers.

  3. That Lettera really caught my eye… I’ve searching for like that for a long time now. No luck yet :(

  4. Reading these posts over a decade later, I’m wondering why Remington created those unique spools. Was there any mechanical advantage, or was it just for sales? My wife noticed yesterday that the Remington factory in Ilion, NY, has now closed for good–not that they made typewriters there for years.

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