Weapon of Choice: “Mothra”, 1972 IBM Selectric Composer #5016537 Remember, it’s “PRISM” not “PRISON”! :D
How to Remove the Left Platen Knob on a Smith-Corona 5-Series Floating Shift
How to Remove the Left Platen Knob on a Smith-Corona 5-Series Floating Shift A TCL friend asked if I had a left platen knob for an SCM 5-Series in my spare parts, and it happened I did, but it was not especially clear to me how to remove it from my parts machine – even […]
The Mojibake Waltz…
Weapon of Choice: “Thunderbird 3” 1966 Montgomery Ward Signature 440T #D6216161
An Unboxing That Became A Frankenstein Fix-It (Canon InnovaBook CD360 Hinge Repair)
Weapon of Choice: “Thunderbird 3”, 1966 Montgomery Ward Signature 440T #D6216161 Using the P-Touch that Joe sent me to Label my Laptop Collection, and also the power bricks belonging to each. When you have a dozen or so, they can get mixed up. *CRACK!* *SHATTER!* *SNAP!* Yuh, a stiff hinge + 25-Year-Old PVC = CRUMBLE. […]
Answers! :D
So we did the first of TCL’s “Ask” series, and it went pretty well, I think. Next week, it’s Joe Van Cleave, so git yer questions ready! Here’s my answers:
Ask Theodore Munk
Ask Theodore Munk
Monster Scouts Field Typewriter Mark 1 With Tripod
Weapon of Choice: “Nick Charles” 1956 Empire Aristocrat #S2/268670 Redubbed: “Monster Scouts Field Typewriter Mark 1 With Tripod” Previously known as the Empire Aristocrat Tripod Field Typewriter. Tripod Mount project Part 1 – Part 2 Be sure to tape off the buttons! (: Cleaning the machine with white gas (Coleman Fuel), then blow it out, […]
Let’s make an Alphasmart 3000 better and review it!
Weapon of Choice: 2007 Alphasmart 3000. She throbs with the anticipation of your touch! Sometimes you’ll find fun silk screening easter eggs on the internal circuit boards in a device – the Alphasmart 3000 has this one! There are few things as satisfying as being surprised by a machine that you’d previously dismissed, and I […]
This Typecast Brought to You by the Letters: P-8-M
Weapon of Choice: “Mothra” 1972 IBM Selectric Composer #5016537 I’m currently writing a reply to Thom Cholowski over at Rebel Typewriter in Saskatoon, in reply to this *handmade* Airmail Telegram. Museum-quality fabrication and aging, which is no surprise, as I believe that this one of the things Thom does professionally, other than fixing typewriters. I […]
This Typecast Brought to You by the Letters: J-8-M
Weapon of Choice: “Mothra” 1972 IBM Selectric Composer #5016537
What’s Happenin’ Now?
Weapon of Choice: “Thunderbird 3” 1966 Montgomery Ward Signature 440T #D6216161 Weapon of Choice: 2008 Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Netbook Diamondville Intel Atom N270 (1.6 GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache) 2gb DDR2 RAM, 8gb PATA SSD, 1200×600 8.9″ screen Intel US15W Express Running: AntiX Linux 19 I know, a tiny machine with a single-core processor is hardly […]
New Rubber for the Corona 4 Case Lid and Snapshots from a Letter-Writing Session
There are 3 little clippy brackets installed in the case lid of the Corona 4 that originally held little rubber bumpers that clamp onto the platen when the case is closed, and serve as part of securing the carriage while the machine is in the case. On El Diablo‘s case these bumpers were somewhat intact, […]
Paper 101 – Part 5: Let’s Talk About Wood!
Hookey with a Typewriter on International Typewriter Day!
Weapon of Choice: “Thunderbird 3” 1966 Montgomery Ward Signature 440T #D6216161 Installing the silencer spring (thanks Typewriter Minutes!) – this is the “twisty” spring, and it goes pointy end down into the bottom ratchet wheel groove, so its travel back and forth is limited in the cutout below the loose dog. This is the disengaged […]
UJTU: Three Typewriters Improved In One Evening!
Weapon of Choice: “Starbuck” 1964 Hermes Rocket #6027915 Mmmmmmm, the fresh-baked smell of new typewriter feets! Installation Instructions: Hermes HD2-64 Feets. The original feet? Hard as rocks, crumbly and downright crispy, and still had to be pried off with a screwdriver. Oh, glorious, fresh grippy feets! Weapon of Choice: “Thunderbird 2” 1968 Montgomery Ward Signature […]
A Silenced 747, New Boots for the Paymaster & Mr. Whittles’ typewriter.
Weapon of Choice: 1978 Brother Charger 11 #K83712885 Weapon of Choice: 1970 Webster XL-747 #L0944386 Don’t forget to replace the bumper pads for the space bar and autospacer keys! 1963 Royal Century #RTP 5440198 The original feet were riveted in, so I drilled those out, then realized I had no fasteners suitable for the feet. […]
Paper 101 – Part 4: Formulas for Estimators
Paper 101 – Part 3: Paper Types
And to Joe VC: note rule #8 above – this is why cutting 11″x17″ paper in half results in 8.5″x11″ paper that goes around a typewriter platen real easy. Factory-cut, wrapped reams are *always* long grain for the given size, so cutting them in half results in short-grain paper. Thus, the same applies to cutting […]
Paper 101 – Part 2: Paper Arithmetic
Boy, I’ll say that paging through this old binder has awoken a lot of memories for me, and this section on Paper Arithmetic reminded me of the first paper guillotine we had at the print shop – a quarter-ton cast iron 32″ full-manually operated Challenge from the 1920’s. Wrestling that beast to cut down parent […]
Paper 101 – Part 1: Basic Sizes and Weights of Printing and Writing Papers
Hey, I found my old binder of printers tips and articles from when I was a working offset press operator in the 1990’s. I was delighted to dig this up, as it contains loads of knowledge about paper, inks, printing techniques and terminology that was invaluable back in the day when you could make a […]
Halberg Royalites, TWDB Updates and One Hell of a Coincidence!
Weapon of Choice: 1957 Tower Commander #5AT635929 Get your Coil-Bound Typewriter Repair Bibles While They’re Still Available! Royal page updated! Wed, 12 May 2021 The Royal (Diana) and Royal (Halberg) sections of the Royal serial number age list has been updated with information from the Parts manuals of these models, and dating information has been […]
Brothers, Books, Administrators and Feets!
Weapon of Choice: 1978 Brother Charger 11 #K83712885 Some other books I picked up cheap this month. I really like the looks of the Administrator – all sorts of beveled edges like a diamond. Fascinating mechanical design as well. Almost all of the important bits are built into the bottom of the carriage *in between […]
The most essential tool for typewriter repair…
Weapon of Choice: 1970 Royal (Silver-Seiko) Sprite #NM 1113791 Tiki mug (From the country’s second-oldest Tiki Bar – the Alibi in Portland) is a gift from Bill, typecaster and fellow TCL member – Thank you, Bill! Used in this week’s TCL meetup for a nice Mimosa, yum! Typewriter Club LIVE 2021-04-25 Here’s a thing I […]
The Mystery of the Hermes 3000 Reversed Backspace and Tab keys and New Stuff To Read!
Weapon of Choice: “Easy” 1964 Hermes 3000 #3246817 https://typewriterdatabase.com/Hermes.3000.82.bmys 1959–David_Scadden-Approved_Home_Study_Course_in_Typewriter_Repair_and_Service-V1 https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/homestudycourse.pdf 1971-Royal-Type_Character_Combination_Catalog https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ri4DXbE1U8lzdnXmiCraTen6-4iBfUX8/view?usp=sharing 1966-1975-NOMDA_Blue_Book https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BvD8_msG7TLvs8eBtua9Y0-KHLKrt3gg/view?usp=sharing 195x-Remington-Standard-User_Manual https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/RemingtonStandard19.pdf 1959-Remington-Standard-User_Manual https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/RemingtonStandardSuper-Riter.pdf 1952-Remington-Noiseless_Standard-User_Manual https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/RemingtonNoiseless10-1952.pdf 194x-Remington-Noiseless_Standard-User_Manual https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/RemingtonNoiseless10-1950.pdf 195x-Remington-Fleetwing-User_Manual https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/RemingtonFleetwing-manual.pdf 1953-Remington-Quiet_Riter-User_Manual https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/quietriter.pdf 1958-RC_Allen-Visomatic-UserManual https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/RCAllenVisOmatic.pdf 1976-Olivetti-Lexikon_83DL-User_Manual https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/OlivettiLexikon83DL.pdf 1970-Facit-1620-User_Manual https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/Facit1620.pdf 1920-Corona_3-User_Manual https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/Corona3-1920.pdf 196x-Olympia-Electric_50-Userman https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/OlympiaElectric50.pdf 196x-Olympia-SG3n-UserMan https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/OlympiaElectric50.pdf [Printed & Coil-Bound] [PDF] The Smith-Corona Series 6-7-88 Standard Typewriter Repair Bible is now available in […]
I got a box from Joe! :D
Always a fun thing to get, this box contained a brace of vintage writer’s slabtops, which Joe decided to downsize and send to me to add to my already varied collection of such machines. Constant readers of this blog will have noted my occasional article on my 1980’s Tandy laptops (TRS-80 Model 100 and 200s […]
Molding and Pouring new Typewriter Feet (Complete Video How-To Series)
Weapon of Choice: “Einstein”, 1956 Smith Corona Silent #5S 529594 Typewriter Club LIVE [Mar 7, 2021]: See below how much people like getting fresh-baked Typewriter feet in the mail! Typewriter Video Series – Episode 257: Replacement Feets! Fountain Pens & Typewriters got some too: Hermes 3000 Replacement Feets by Ted Munk TTSSASTT 0.6 – Making […]
Mo’ Feets & Mo’ Media – What I Typed During TCL
Weapon of Choice: “Doris Day”, 1966 Olympia SM9 #3098142 Perhaps the last set of Olympia SM-7 feet 3D printed in PLA by Steve Dade (RIP, friend). Raymond’s over in Colorado sent them over so I could replicate them in rubber, because PLA is stiff and not very grippy at all. First step: make a box […]
Excitement and Delight! Fresh Rubber! Musty Books!
Weapon of Choice: “Cadwallader”, 1963 Olympia SM7 #2335640 A Typer’s Dozen: Ted Munk @ The Typewritemosphere AUSTIN TYPEWRITER, INK. Casting Urethane Typewriter Feet: Joe shows off his Goody Package from Bill M. in a recent Typewriter Club Live! Little library of Typewriter Care & Repair. Wait.. are those SM-7 feet in that little baggie??
One last update on soundproofing my JP-1, and a week’s worth of typing
Weapon of Choice: “Starbuck” 1964 Hermes Rocket #6027915 Typewriter Club LIVE 2020-12-27 Weapon of Choice: 1978 Brother Charger 11 #K83712885 One last update to the JP-1 Soundproofing Project – replacing the original foam bottom pad with a denser, colorful blue felt pad. I used a putty knife to gently pry the foam pad off the […]
Taming The Tinny Typing Sound of a Brother JP-1 Typewriter (Part 3 – the Finale?)
Weapon of Choice: 1978 Brother Charger 11 #K83712885 It was back in 2015 that I started pondering the problem of silencing the tinny sound of the Brother JP-1. In 2017, I shrinktubed the platen, along with a couple others. To adjust ring & cylinder on a JP-1 is done by loosening these two screws on […]
1956 – On Feet and Motion (Remington Super-Riter)
Need more help repairing a Remington Standard Manual Typewriter? Try out The Remington Standard Manual Typewriter Repair Bible!
Wizard Smoke feet for Ghost Chocolate and a Bible for the 6-7-88’s
Weapon of Choice “Ghost Chocolate”, 1957 Olympia SM3 #998587 Swappin’ out the mint-green test feet with a custom-mixed set of translucent silver feet that have a maroon sheen when lit up, to match the colors of the typewriter. Typewriter Club LIVE! (2020-11-29). There’s a little bit of <3 in every Smith-Corona Standard of the 1950’s […]
Typewriter Club (Show & Tell) and Virtual Herman’s Video Archive
Weapon of Choice: “Moneypenny”, 1948 Royal Quiet De Luxe #A-1551567 My typewriter collection, circa 2010. The quest for a new ribbon for Moneypenny led me to my first visit to MTE – the start of a long and beautiful friendship. VIRTUAL HERMAN’S VIDEO ARCHIVE Cuthbert H. Humphrey, Governor of our territory, is a cull. Do […]
Virtual Hermans – How to use The Typewriter Database, and random thoughts…
Weapon of Choice: “Richard The Deep Breather”, 1925 Corona 4 #H506286 Weapon of Choice: “Adwoa”, 1961 Swissa Junior #6102535 Yes, I’ve built web-based MMO’s before, even had a couple of SSWCons, and then there was a little something called “Huggles and Ponies”… 11/14/2020 Virtual Hermans – How to use The Typewriter Database Oh, and here […]
Oops, I missed my blog’s 10-Year Anniversary!
Weapon of Choice: “Ghost Chocolate”, 1957 Olympia SM3 Very First Post and Weapon of Choice: “Indiana Jones”, 1959 Tower Chieftain III (SCM Skyriter)