The Travelling Typewriter

Leoben Sez “Hey, stop typing and pet me!”

Weapon of Choice: 1972 Royal Mercury.

New traveling typewriter case on the shelf, ready to go!

Cleaning out the “e” slug with a Spyderco Endura. Franklin-Covey typewriter satchel $2, Canon A-710 IS camera and holster $6. Not a bad thrifting day at all. Add in the $10 Royal Mercury and the Grab-N-Go kit takes shape. CHDK for the Canon A710is. First test was a few days ago when the power went out across the central city for a couple of hours. Grabbed the Go Kit and started typing… Just finished the Hermes 3000 Repair Bible, with the translation help of Lee Creighton. That should be ready within a few weeks. You might know Lee from the Facebook ATC – he just reprinted a bunch of US Navy typewriter repair texts as “Nine Chapters on Typewriter Repair”. Just got mine in the mail! (:Also in the mail, and now available: The Royal Sabre Portable Typewriter Repair Bible!

Updated: August 13, 2019 — 7:27 pm

13 Comments

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  1. I gotta get those books!
    My Canon A710is Died before I left FL. I think I paid a whopping $5 for it. At least I had a lot of fun dong IR photography with it.
    Great idea on the padded bags. I have an Army satchel and small day pack I’ve been using for some typewriters. Generally I keep some paper in a Skyriter or in the Charger-11 and take them as they are.

    1. yeah, I had an A610 and A620 back when they were new and always enjoyed their featureset and what you could do with them, so I often will look for them when I want a potentially disposable but very versatile digicam. I think I have 3-4 of them now from different points in the Canon A-series, all CHDK-loaded and AA-powered. Practically giving them away in Cracker-Jack boxes these days, so while it stung to have my first two stolen, I don’t worry too much about that now. :D

  2. Those Silver Seikos are under appreciated by many, but always seem to work well.

    I’m sold on laptop bags for grab-&-go typing. Just last night I met Kevin at the ABQ Press Club, Hermès Rocket in its bag.

    We’re lucky to have not experienced any lengthy power outages, but then it stays a bit cooler here.

    1. oh good gravy, you fallen for the “spelling Hermes with an acute ‘e'” fadlet. I feel a disturbance in the Force, as if a million voices cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced…

      1. Not me, I blame it on autocorrect on my phone. I’m not that snooty!

        1. betrayed by your hand-robot! :D

  3. Put that cat to work cleaning typeslugs :) Ha – AS IF!

    Your post makes me want to find a good, lightweight road warrior typewriter that I can take outdoors. Maybe a little 1960s Brother – or a Silver Seiko.

    1. He already polishes my carriage-ends by sleeping with his forehead pressed against them.

      https://munk.org/typecast/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/100_2856.jpg

      I would heartily recommend a Brother JP-1 or one of these Silver-Seiko 700’s. Sturdy as all heck and will almost never give you trouble. Also, any trouble they do give is pretty easily addressed, and they are good platforms for soundproofing projects, and easily to repaint if you’re into customizing.

  4. Nice bag. I need a new thrift-store bag for my Kolibri, the strap broke off the old one.
    Also, that’s a very manly way to clean your typeslugs. :)

    1. heh, that’s the sharp thing in my desk drawer, so it gets pressed into service often. (:

    2. Oh, and remember that the Kolibri is one of the very few typers that is short enough to fit in a standard briefcase…
      https://munk.org/typecast/2015/05/20/my-hummingbird-has-finally-landed/

  5. I love my A700 – I used it last year when I did the Tour de Mont Blanc and I carry it everywhere in my cargo pants pocket. I had no idea about the software however – must look into that one.

    1. Yeah, it’s pretty nice how they (Canon A-Series) show up at thrifts all the time. I’ve got a few of them from different versions of the series now. Yet another nicely affordable collectible. CHDK makes a lot of neat things available on the camera (and you can set it up so you only make changes to the SD card rather than the camera to install via hot button combo). You’ll dig it (:

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