A New Desk!

My old desk.

Looks pretty sturdy, no?

Top comes off, only to show this mess

(Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the second half of the typecast- this paragraph is transcribed from the original typewritten copy)

With all this and more, it is

very reasonable for me to

have wanted a better desk for some

time now. Looks like I got what I

wished for!

-Sent from my Remington Monarch

Behold!

It harbors a secret inside...

Voila!

Note wear on the surface.

I got this sturdy desk via craigslist for $20 . As you can see, it is purposely built for typewriters. Although it is surprisingly small, it is rock solid and never wobbles in the least- even with a full sized office machine on top! It's got just the right amount of wear and tear to look right at home with my 1914 Remington Monarch that I recently managed to get working.

This desk will serve me well for years to come.

Master of the View- Viewmaster Model C

"Entrance to The Way of The Cross"

"Stations of The Cross"

Here's a great link for anyone interested in Viewmaster history and model designations.

Surprises....!

*tab stop (instead of margin stop)

Once you get used to it, the outlandish angles and colors start to grow on you (especially when they aren't discolored!)

The trademark "salute" of the 3K's return lever

Ack. So it seems I am an excessive user of commas. Sorry for making you read through that, hopefully I'll get better at monitoring that.

No hint today, but is anyone able to identify this obscure Remington portable I saw in an antique mall this summer? No model markings to be found (but I do believe it says "Remington" on the paper table, though I do not remember).

Spam prevention

Alright, so this is a bad time to post. I'm currently in my way to school but these changes are immediate and are in place now.

Due to spam I recently received, all comments need to be moderated before they are posted. I understand that this is frustrating, but I think it is a better option than captcha which many of you despise.

If anyone has better ideas for what to do, I'm open to ideas. Anyway, hopefully I'll be ready to make an actual post soon.

UPDATE

After a comment from Richard Polt, I have decided that I would try out Captcha for a week or two, and see how it works out. If I, or any of you, don't like it I will go back to moderating the comments.

Let me know if the Captcha gets annoying.

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

The parts machines

Although I only have three (as of December 26, 2014 far, these irreparable typewriters can be really useful to anyone who needs a part out there. Just leave a comment if you are interested in anything, and we can work something out. Parts are free, shipping isn't. This list will be continually updated as I get new machines and lose parts, so remember to check in!

40's Underwood Standard

This big brute was actually in decent shape when I got it. Unfortunately I thought I could repair it at a time when I hardly knew how to wield a screwdriver (aka summer 2014). While attempting to remove the carriage (can you see where this is heading?) I messed a whole lot of things up. I have since put everything back in place but I think I busted some important mechanism on the inside in the process. Did I mention I lost all the screws I took out?

Parts taken: 
-1 of 2 shift lock keys
-Drawband
-Several screws
-Entire carriage
-Shift key


40's Underwood Universal

Bought at an antique shop because I needed parts for my US Navy Universal. It's a real rust bucket, almost nothing works.

Parts taken:
-Shift lock key
-Front panel (under ribbon cover)
-All rubber feet
-Spring (for ribbon cover)
-Both platen knobs


40's Royal Quiet De Luxe

I bought this over shopgoodwill.com because it was the uncommon brown color. I thought I could fix it, but of course it has so many issues it is not fixable. The most obvious issue, as you can see, it the bent frame. However, that is not even the biggest or hardest to fix problem this typer has.

Parts Taken:
(nothing)

20's Royal 10

I don't have a picture of this one yet, unfortunately. It is in good shape, actually, and it makes me sad to part it out. However it has the fatal problem of a snapped "o" typebar. I have already taken a few parts from it, and now it is available to anyone else who needs it!

It was rebuilt in the 30's, so it doesn't have the original keys, knobs, or glass windows. The windows were replaced with plastic inserts.

Parts Taken:
-Platen
-Feet
-Feed rollers (but I still have the feed roller bar)

Apologies for the miserable photos, but I really didn't want to lug these outside for proper lighting.

(Last updated Mar 27 2015)

Better than nothing!

Although they were all drastically overpriced, I did see some interesting machines at the El Paso Antique Mall today. They were all in the same booth (explains the consistently over-the-top prices), and there were only four, but these are better results than I have ever had from El Paso. Take a look:

Corona 3

This poor Cor (hey look, I can rhyme!) was still in much better shape than my own 3, the only real issue being a disconnected draw band. Still, that doesn't justify $95.

Sitting right under the Corona, closed inside the case, was this Royal Aristocrat:

I have had plenty of these "Safari Style" machines. Good typers and good lookers, but this thing is a piece of junk. No wonder they hid it in the case. Price? $55, of course.

Another machine that was hidden away in a case was this Royal Deluxe:

Although it had quite a few marks on the paint, it would clean up well. Everything worked ok, and it was pretty clean aside from a mountain of eraser shavings under the carriage. $85 is still too much.

Now, this one is just a joke. The poor Smith-Corona Clipper shown here has half of its keys put on upside down.

It's a simple fix, but honestly... $55 is just way too much.

The last and only machine that had me tempted at all was this lovely Remington Portable:

Remingtons of this age are really fantastic machines, and this one has the much prettier early body style. It even predates the name "Quiet-Riter" that was soon put into use. (Here's my Quiet-Riter) It is in fantastic shape, and has a ton of extras not pictured. Still, I am not ready to drop $75 on it.

So, that was all I got for an hour of searching. Better than nothing, I guess!