Failure!

My blog post on Sandy

My goal

I got a few machines over break, so I hope to showcase them here soon. For now I leave you with one word: dropped

My Stairway to Heaven

The heavenly steps of the Royal 5

The Royal 5 is such an odd machine. Not quite a standard sized machine, it is still far from portable.

Here my 5 is, next to one of my Royal 10s.

The type action is equally weird... it feels as if the keys are tilting forward. It's really a fun machine, but this particular one isn't working so well.

 It's missing some important piece in the carriage that keeps the whole carriage from sliding off the rails. For the life of me I can't figure out what that is, but it is still safe to use as long as I don't wobble it forward and back at the extreme end of the margin.

This particular one is from 1912, making it my oldest machine by a good decade. 

I got it on eBay a week or so ago, the seller had made the mistake of making a single-day auction with a low starting bid. As is so often with eBay sellers, it was mentioned in the description that the seller would chop the keys to save on shipping. Looks like another rescue!

Strangely, the platen is has a blue-ish tone to it. I think this would have been from a resurfacing job on it a long while ago, but I have no idea. 

I would have loved to write this post on it but the carriage rails really gummed up, so it doesn't 

advance well... yet

Here's tomorrow's teaser

Thanks for reading!

Picking up speed

So far I have been posting only about once a week, and sometimes even then I don't post.

Well, I've made the decision to post every or every other day until 2015 starts. I really want my blog to pick up speed.

I guess I'll start tomorrow... but for now I leave you with a teaser image.

All will be revealed soon!