Another email in the box this morning from Peter Short of JJ Short, with positive news about their rubber formulation:
Yay! Looks like JJ Short has a good rubber formulation. I’ve forwarded Mr. Diltz’s contact info to Mr. Short, so let’s keep our fingers crossed that they come to a mutually beneficial meeting of the minds!
Since my lament a few weeks ago about the loss of Ames, I’ve learned a bit about what’s required to recover typewriter platens. It seems the needed things are:
- a grinder
- the proper rubber stock
- a skilled workman
- specification manual for various manufacturer/makes/models OD measurements
From my read of the situation, JJ Short has all except #4, and West Coast Platen has all except #2, so if their two businesses came to an agreement to exchange what each lacks, then we could have as many as *TWO* companies prepared to pick up the slack that Ames Supply left when they closed down.
From a business perspective, this is the point where someone might want to start taking a measure of what the market might look like. West Coast Platen probably has a rough idea what sort of volume to expect, but JJ Short is just toe-deep into the market so far. To assist in gauging the market, I would refer these companies to Richard Polt’s very up-to-date list of Typewriter Repair Shops for a list of contacts.
Encouraging. I hope there will be synergy between the two companies.
That is very good news. It’ll be even better if the 2 companies can combine resources.
Ohhhhhhh.
I’m itching to get a couple of platens done. Excellent news!