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  1. That’s interesting news, i’ll be watching developments. Say could you make sure Georg gets the serial number off that Swissa? He asked me about it when I visited Adwoa and I completely forgot you had it there in Phoenix.

    1. #6102535 – I’m surprised he hadn’t got it from Adwoa or from one of my earlier posts. :D

      1. Ha – I don’t know, but I wanted to get it to him myself when I saw your post. Thanks

  2. I’m glad El Diablo will be doing his part to keep typewriters in the US going!

  3. Good to know there is still activity and interest in recovering platens.

  4. “…to get the process rolling as well”

    Pun intended? ;)

    1. possibly subconsciously, but not consciously intentional. :D

  5. very cool. anxiously awaiting updates!

    i also happened to email ruben flores of us office machine about jj short and robert debarth platen recovery services. As a backup i also gave him the contact info for Marc Pellacoeur out in france.

    looks like if there wont be any 1 entity to replace ames but many independents!

    long live the platen!

  6. I have actually had JJShort recover one of my platens for my KMM. The material is spot on, and the platen works well, but it is a little off center (the rubber swelled a little after being placed on the core). It’s not a huge deal, though…the print comes out flawlessly and the paper advances as well. Not bad at all for a first job, I would say. Experience certainly will make the process perfect and iron out this minor defect.

    One thing that might be addressed is how Ames went about recovering platens. JJShort recovered the entire roller, and after comparing this to an SCM platen I had recovered by Ames in April (probably one of their last jobs), I am wondering if that may be necessary. It looks as if Ames might have simply ground down the top 1/16ths inch of the platen rubber and simply re-sleeved it from there…leaving a core of original rubber in place. I have an Aristocrat which came to me 2 years ago with a pretty nice platen already…upon closer examination, it seems as if there is a line 1/16ths of an inch down from the surface of the platen. Perhaps a former Ames job?

    In any case, if this information might be helpful to JJShort, but I wonder if anybody else who has had an Ames platen might confirm this? If it’s true, this might help JJShort cut down on rubber expenses while keeping most of the original platen and core…save for the troublesome hardened surface…intact. I know they had some issues starting with this KMM platen because it has a wooden core…so maybe Ames’ solution to dealing with wood was to simply “re-sleeve” it onto the existing rubber. All the notes we typewriter hobbyists can provide JJShort would certainly be helpful to them, if indeed they plan to continue in this industry.

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