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  1. Ah, nice idea, I may have to try that on my Webster.

  2. Did you felt the ribbon cover on the Citation as well? Or was the foam on the sides enough?

    1. I felted the inside of the ribbon cover on all of them, and added the foam rubber to the side panels of all of them. So, felt in the cover, foam in the sides. The foam rubber should be enough to compress nicely against the frame sides when the bits are re-attached, which nullifies the metallic vibrations of the side panels and the frame itself.

  3. I had a metal-shell Kmart 100 in college that was incredibly reliable and super cute (aqua). That thing made a racket – lots of jangly, tinny typing. If I ever pick up another, I now know what to do. I covet your Xyron 500.

    Animal pelt – yes.

    1. Yeah, they’re so cheap-sounding but such good machines.

      The Xyron machines are like a plague in the local thrifts – especially the LDS one, Deseret. More common than copies of Herb Alpert LPs. Oddly enough, the consumables are also common. Picked up the machine and 4 boxes of the sticker consumables for $4.

  4. Congratulations on the nice work.

  5. Go for the animal print!!

    Seriously, that foam treatment is brilliant.

    I think the typebar returner, or whatever it’s called — the wire that pushes the typebars back from the printing point — is also a main cause of ringing on these Brothers.

    1. Yeah, that bit and the hard-rubber pad that the typebars rest on. the bounceback noise is rather pronounced on a JP-1 and could be moderated by replacing the rubber pad with a felt pad.

      I couldn’t really see a way to quiet down the “typebar returner” without affecting the mechanical function, though, and the bounceback noise, I kind of like – it reminds me of the bounceback clicks on a Breadbox Quiet-Riter.. sort of a “Robbie The Robot thinking” sound in a pleasantly low register.

  6. By the way, you can get sheets of self-adhesive felt for $1 at craft stores. Very handy for sticking on noisy spacebars or sticking a strip down over your noisy typebar rest.

  7. Good idea Ted. I’ve got a few portables where the felt’s missing. Must get around to it and find a nice pair of shears like yours.

  8. I always admire your ingenuity and thriftiness Ted.

    1. Heh, you know well how fun these JP-1’s are to play with. There’s lots of opportunity to improve them easily, and next to no guilt about messing with the “originalness” of the machine, like there is with many others. Basically the perfect play machine! (well, maybe matched by the Silver-Seiko 700) :D

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