It's always difficult to try to help out a young chap - or young lady for that matter - with a typewriter problem when the typewriter is not within easy reach - and the person with the problem is probably thousands of kilometres away. I most certainly would never call it "easy-peasy". I don't know where Joji Furukawa lives, but I'm guessing it's not just around the corner.
What I do know, because he told me so, is that Joji is 14 and has just got himself a lovely little sky blue Patria portable. And the ribbon vibrator doesn't work. He doesn't have the money, he says, to pay for a typewriter technician to fix it for him, and he wants me to help.
The best I can do, in these circumstances, is to shoot a video of the ribbon vibrator mechanism in operation in these models, and take some photos of it. The typewriters I used were a Swissa Piccola and a Voss Learnette, both the same machines as Joji's Patria.
Joji, if I were you I'd be looking closely at the photos and comparing them with all the lever and spring connections on your Patria's vibrator, and watching the video to see how they all work together to lift the ribbon to the print point with each key stroke. Good luck with it!
And now for something completely different ...
Typewriter Anatomy Quiz
What brand of typewriter does this ribbon spools set-up come from?
Its from an Underwood #5 Standard.
ReplyDeleteLooks like the ribbon spool baskets and gearing of a Royal 10 to me
ReplyDeleteI'm with Jose - Underwood #5
ReplyDeleteBeautiful machine, and excellent service.
ReplyDeleteYes, definitely Underwood Five ! The earlier machine does not have an automatic ribbon reverse mechanism !
ReplyDeleteI'm with the Underwood guys.
ReplyDeleteRobert, you're a gem, and Joji, you have a beautiful Patria from Spain. Good luck.
Yes, it's an Underwood!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Georg and Richard for your comments on the Patria.
It's fixed! Thank you so much for these very helpful pictures and video. I followed all the connections and discovered that behind the ribbon vibration there is a small knob that connects to this thing that goes up and down whenever the key is pressed. The thing that goes up and down was not connected to the knob and therefore the ribbon carrier couldn't move. It took quite a bit of fiddling but I got it fixed! I'm actually in Canada. There are some very nice typewriters that turn up here sometimes, I bought a Voss bakelite typewriter in Montreal. Also, the Patria came with it's original instruction manual which I can scan if anybody wants it. It says Amaya Patria Meteor on the front.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Joji
Joji, I would like to see that user's manual!
ReplyDeleteCertainly an underwood 5. You can tell by the characteristic concentric gears on the end.
ReplyDelete