Intriguing case, compact and in very nice not-rusty shape!

1929 Corona 4. Corona called this finish "Light Maroon" but it's quite dark.

BTW, I’m a total space case – the proper term for the DuPont finishes for these Coronas is “DUCO” not “Decco“, Hlur.

This is with the flash.

Craigslist ad for "Old Underwood"

1958 Lettera 22 with broken carriage return.

Ames Supply Company
Since 1902

Ames Supply Company

The buzz is that this is for real, and the place where everyone (including most typewriter repair guys) sent platens to be redone is now gone. The question is, where will we get it done now?

One resource has been mentioned in the Portable Typewriter Yahoo group: Robert E. De Barth, in Pennsylvania, offers platen recovering for $95 + $13 shipping, quite a bit steeper than Ames did it for, but at least he still does it. He may be the last guy in the US to offer this service.

Some questions to ponder:

1) If Ames shut its doors, what did they do with the platen and feed roller recovering equipment and supplies? Are they for sale anywhere?

2) What skillset does it take to re-cover a typewriter platen? Also, what knowledge does it require, IE: is there still documentation that specifies what sizes and compositions of rubber stock are required for given typewriter platens?

3) is there anyone who has the skillset and the investment capital to set up shop recovering platens and feed rollers, just so there isn’t just a single source for this badly needed service?

Heck, I’d learn to do it myself, if I had the capital, the access to raw stock and some decent instructions. It could be a pretty decent daily wage for a one-man operation in a garage. :D

I don’t think I’ve posted this info before, so here it is!

Perkk, 1949 Royal QDL, and a couple mystery anthologies

Royal Swinger

Radio built into the lid.

...and since we're on the subject of Royals, here's a big Royal from the film "Captain America, The First Avenger"

Al tries out some Rockets

Abby's Underwood 319. It does have a ribbon cover.

Al's Triumph Tippa

Al tries out Tori's 1964 Hermes Rocket. His is the 1962 model.

Your Humble Correspondent, From the LUX Coffeehouse in Phoenix

Magic Margin is correct – this was the best Phoenix Type-In yet! Loads of new faces and old friends graced the event, and the press came too. Megan Finnerty from AZ Central came and did stories for the AZ Central website, The Arizona Republic paper and the NBC affiliate Channel 12 News (link to video when I find one). Here’s the Republic Article:

Click for larger version

Tori, Al and I arrived early, and were the first to the LUX, and as soon as we started unloading typewriters from the car, a moped gang and their flagship Thunderbird mounted up and left, as if they knew we would be chasing them out of the Big Table. They were right to run. We had Big Iron, and we knew how to use it.

The Vespa gang with their flagship T-Bird that we scared off.

Having arrived early, I got the chance to inspect the typewriters that were a part of the decor of the Lux, I’m told the owner of the Lux is a bit of a collector himself. If so, I hope he’s only taken the expendible examples from his collection to live at the coffeehouse, because apparently coffeehouse life is not healthy for a typewriter. In most machines the ribbons were gone, the typebars hopelessly jammed and bent, and at least with the Olivetti Dora, keys had been broken off. All were inoperable for the purpose of a patron actually writing anything on one. It was a sad sight.

Olympia SM-9 and Olivetti Dora, after an attempt at unjamming the typebars

A nice late-50's Smith-Corona Silent Super, needs a little TLC is all...

An SCM Coronet electric. There were also a pair of 70's Olivetti Studio 45's, but they were even worse off.

Jim's Roxy/Rooy. Sweet machine!

Jim's Skyriter and Ryan's Navy Mill Royal

Bill Wahl's Continental

Jim's Royal Arrow

Brian Beach's Royal Mercury

Tex, 1957 Underwood Golden Touch and Little Jake, 1933 Remington-Rand Remmie Scout

Bill Wahl's Bennett and Claire's Folding Corona 3

Jia's Olympia SM-3

Ryan's Monster Olympia SG-1

Ryan's Facit TP-1

Marshall's Cyrillic language Groma Kolibri and Ryan's Facit TP-1

Ryan't ever-popular Facit and Tori's Olympia SM-9

A lonely Royal Sabre(?) on the floor. This machine was identical to a broken one I saw at a Goodwill not long ago.

Brian Beach typing on his excellent Hermes 2000. What he wrote is below:

Jim shows Bill Wahl a product sheet for a supplier he found for NOS Smith-Corona Change-A-Type sets.

Typewriter T-Shirt! :D

Marshall brought not only his Kolibri, but also some interesting Leica cameras and clones. He shoots 35mm B&W, so who knows when his pics will show up on the web (:

A Royal and a Delicious Mojito

Ryan is interviewed by Megan Finnerty of The Republic

Alan Van Types on "Indy" my Tower Skyriter

Me and my friendly Typewriter Repair Ninja, Bill Wahl

Oh, and here’s some random sheets that people typed at the Type-in and were left behind, so I grabbed ‘em to scan in:

We Came, We Saw, We Typed!